NUM

Memories of the 1984-5 miners' strike from Jenny Dennis, who was married to a Kiveton Park miner. Covering a range of subjects including the links the strike made with autonomous movements across Europe.
Content note: this text mentions sexual abuse and state violence, and contains some language that would now be considered dated.

During the 1984-85 British Miners’ Strike, women’s groups emerged in various forms and for various purposes. Calling themselves ‘Women Against Pit Closures’, these groups across the country organised not only strike-oriented activities, support and community needs provision, but also came to act autonomously on gendered interests. In what follows I outline a brief history of the miners’ strike, the origins of womens’ activities within this strictly gendered strike and the ways in which womens’ roles were transformed through struggle, not only with the Thatcher government and the NCB, but also with men and the NUM.

A short account of the national coal miners’ dispute in the winter of 1973-4 which led to the three-day week, the collapse of the Conservative government and a 35% pay increase for the miners.

Slightly too late for the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the 1984-85 miners' strike... Here are all the Workers' Playtime articles about the strike and related issues, with PDF and Kindle versions.