Just finished watching this, absolutley brilliant documentary on the miners strike. Very well put together and worth a watch. The footage of the Maerdy wokers returning to work is heartbreaking. Obviously I didn't live through it but can see the effects of it even now, what was it like back then? Anyone on here strike?
I was a black leg during the Seamans strike in Dover during the late 80's. Work was scarce and I had just left college. It was pretty hairy stuff and masively divided the town. One of my mates got a kicking 'cos he was friends with me and a girl I was with got roughed up one night. Suffice to say I had a few fights.
Regards the Miners strike I remember it vividly, kent has it's fair share of pits. But living in a staunch tory household I was always having the blue pro thatcher line shoved down my throat. I did not really understand it at the time.
Andrew Marrs excellent documentary series 'The making of Modern Britain' covers it well and puts Thatcher in a fairly positive light. I dont like her by the way.
My grasp of economics is tenous at best, I dont get the whys and wherefores. However the one thing I always think of is if management buyouts of pits were succesful then surely as a nationalised product they would have been succesful???
Makes me laugh when I go to watch forest and we get called scabs though...some cuts run deep eh...
^^^ I should make myself clearer. I'm from kent, the whole east Midlands thing passed me by. It was not until I was older that I had any knowledge of the history.
Zitat von RhysJust finished watching this, absolutley brilliant documentary on the miners strike. Very well put together and worth a watch. The footage of the Maerdy wokers returning to work is heartbreaking. Obviously I didn't live through it but can see the effects of it even now, what was it like back then? Anyone on here strike?
Very good programme that and you're right, very emotional. Imagine how they felt. What the police got away with at Orgreave was fucking criminal. They basically invited the miners to picket, boxed them in and then beat the shit out of them. Scandalous.
I was an apprentice fitter at the time of the miners strike and every Thursday when the wages were handed out, yes put in your hand none of this bank bollox, there were lads with buckets collecting for the miners. There were also tables set up in each workshop where tins of soup and other non-perishable goods could be put which were then sent to the miners.
Can remember it well as came from a home that was into politics. My dad's first job was a miner in the Donny area when he was 14, same as his brothers when they came over from Ireland. He could remember the General Strike of 1926, his older brother used to play the mouth organ. When the plod used to try and bring the strikebreakers in he'd stop playing and the strikers would charge and do what they had to do. My dad used to talk about Spencerism, the scabs etc, the sense of togetherness of the strikers etc The 84 strike was even more politicised. Maggie wanted to break the unions and Scargill wanted to break Maggie. Scargill didnt have the brains to take her on and her private army (plod), starting a coal strike in the spring wasnt good strategy. Can understand that loss making / exhausted collieries are uneconomical but taking whole working communities and putting them on benefits is economic lunacy. Let alone the social effect of doing that to whole areas. But then they weren't Tory areas so Maggie didnt give a flying fiddlers fuck about that.
Zitat von Anchor^^^ I should make myself clearer. I'm from kent, the whole east Midlands thing passed me by. It was not until I was older that I had any knowledge of the history.
What's your take on it Wadey?
there's a lot of bitterness still from folk/communities around South Yorkshire, villages that were once thrieving are now shitholes....they were basicaly crushed, and never recovered....my father in law worked down the pit....he doesnt talk about it much, but weve chatted about it when weve been pissed up.....it was hard times.....my take on it is where i live there shouldnt be any unemployed men, cos there are pits full of coal....but alas......the scab thing will never go away at notts v sheffield/barnsley/rotherham etc...... if im being honest i was young at the time, but remember it being on the news vividly.....and our old man worked in the steel works, but thats another story with a shite ending!
Scargill and Thatcher were both utter cunts. My family were miners. My greatgrandfather was on the jarrow march(this is how he ended up down here). Some new the writing was on the wall with the pits, but to just close down whole communities was scandolous and that old bitch should hang her head in shame for doing it. My old man still has'nt spoken to a number of men he classed as very close mates, who crossed the picket lines. He has a theory that as a consequence of the miners strike everyone lost respect for the police. He said there was some good banter with the local old bill at the time but as soon as the cunts from london(the met) turned up it all changed. My nans house was the collection point for the charity donations, food parcels etc. She says that scargills missus had more of a backbone than king arthur.
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Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:14 am
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