August 6, 2025 • 26 mins
Double episode about the crucial role played by women in the great miners’ strike in Britain, 1984-5, in conversation with Heather Wood, chair of the Easington women’s strike support group.
Our podcast is brought to you by our Patreon supporters. Our supporters fund our work, and in return get exclusive early access to podcast episodes without ads, bonus episodes, two exclusive podcast series – Fireside Chats and Radical Reads – as well as free and discounted merchandise and other content. Join us or find out more at patreon.com/workingclasshistory
Part 1 is about the background, how women’s organising began, and what forms it took.
Acknowledgements
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-class-history--5711490/support.
Our podcast is brought to you by our Patreon supporters. Our supporters fund our work, and in return get exclusive early access to podcast episodes without ads, bonus episodes, two exclusive podcast series – Fireside Chats and Radical Reads – as well as free and discounted merchandise and other content. Join us or find out more at patreon.com/workingclasshistory
Part 1 is about the background, how women’s organising began, and what forms it took.
- Part 2 is about the formation of a national organisation and national protest, the media, the end of the strike, the effect on the women, and possibilities for the future – Currently available for early listening for our supporters here on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/e109-women-in-2-134227615
Acknowledgements
- Thanks to our Patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jazz Hands, Fernando López Ojeda, Nick Williams and Old Norm.
- Episode graphic: Courtesy Heather Wood
- Music courtesy of the Easington Colliery Brass Band
- Speech recording courtesy of Amber Films and Can’t Beat it Alone. The full film in multiple parts can be seen at www.amber-online.com
- This version edited by Tyler Hill. Original editing by Jesse French.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-class-history--5711490/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
In March nineteen eighty four, coal miners in Britain walked
out on strike against the pit closure plan of Margaret
Thatcher's Conservative government. Miners, wives and other women started support
groups up and down the country which were instrumental in
helping the workers hold out for nearly a year in
an iconic dispute which changed Britain forever. This is working
(00:21):
class history. Now, before we get into the main episode,
some eagle eared listeners may remember hearing our episode about
women in the minor strike before. Now, like all of
our original episodes, it was basically made up of raw
(00:44):
audio from our interview so there wasn't any narrative to
fill gaps or explain context and kind of draw the
story together into a whole. So, in addition to working
on new episodes for you, we're also going back over
our earliest episodes to re we edit and release them
in the new narrative format we use for all of
(01:04):
our later episodes. So the interview audio today is going
to be the same quality as before, but they'll be
added narrative with better quality audio to explain things and
hopefully tell the story in a more cohesive manner. So
we hope you enjoy it. As a reminder, our podcast
is brought to you by our Patreon supporters. Our supporters
fund our work and in return get exclusive early access
(01:26):
to podcast episodes without ads, bonus episodes every month, free
and discounted merchandise and other content. For example, our supporters
can listen to both parts of this double episode now.
So if you can, please join our community and help
keep our collective history of struggle alive. You can learn
more and sign up at patreon dot com slash working
(01:46):
class history link in the show notes. We're working on
a podcast mini series about the MINUS strike from the
perspective of MINUS themselves at the moment, So for today,
I'm just going to give a very brief bit of
the historical background. At the beginning of the nineteen eighties,
coal miners in the National Union of Mine Workers NUM
were the best organized and most militant section of the
(02:09):
working class in Britain. As detailed in our episode eighty one,
miners had held successful nationwide strikes in nineteen seventy two
and nineteen seventy four, when they won big pay increases
and brought down the Conservative government of Edward Heath. With
the election of Thatcher in nineteen seventy nine. Her Conservative
Party were determined to reshape the UK from a more
(02:32):
social democratic state with high levels of state ownership and
where working people were organized and had some economic power,
to a more neoliberal one where there was more widespread
private ownership and there was a more atomized working class
which wasn't able to exert its own power. Thatcher's strategy
was to isolate different groups of workers and defeat them
(02:53):
one by one. The most important group of workers they
would need to beat were the miners, who up until
that point had shown that they were willing and able
to confront the state and win. To do this, the
government planned to provoke a strike at a time which
would be favorable for them, so shortly after their election,
when winter was almost over, coalstocks were high and energy
(03:15):
use was low, because both the nineteen seventy two and
seventy four strikes took place at the height of winter,
when coalstocks were depleted and energy use was high, and
most electricity at the time was from coal fired power stations,
so they would announce a plan to close pits and
layoff miners, to which the nun would have to respond
(03:35):
with a strike. The government's hope was that they'd then
be able to sit out the strike until the miners
and their families, not earning any wages, were basically stafved
back to work. To this aim, the government stoppard enough
coal and coke to last six months and slashed state
benefits that would have been available to strikers and their families.
But if the government thought that the workers would be
(03:57):
forced back to work within six months, then they would
turn out to be deeply mistaken, perhaps because they didn't
factor in the support for miners which would come from
their wives and other women.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I was a member of the Labor Party, quite active
in politics, and I was working at the local council
offices in the housing department, and my husband was a
plumber who worked full time and we had two children.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
This is Heatherwood, who was living in Easington, County Durham
in the northeast of England and later became chair of
the Easington Women's Support Group.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
In the eighty three, I was chair of the constituency
Labor Party and we had heard rumors that pitts were
going to clause in our area and our district, so
we decided that we needed to inform people and we
set up the constituency had an open public meeting and
(04:52):
we established how many people were interested in having to
fight for the community and fight to say of jobs,
and we set up an organization called Save Easington Area Mains.
We call it Scene for Shot and it was that
same year eighty three when we had what were then
(05:14):
the biggest rally of MINUS banners outside of the Doha Big Meeting,
and it was in Easington.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
This big meeting is also known as the Durham Minus Gala,
a legendary gathering of miners and their supporters which has
taken place almost every July since eighteen seventy one.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
PATCHA that amazing and from there we just went on
giving our public informations to what the cost to our
villages would be if the mines.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Caused Around the country. Miners and their supporters stepped up
organizing campaigns against pit closures, and in October nineteen eighty
three NUM delegates voted to fight all pit closures other
than ones where coal at the pit had been exhausted.
In March nineteen eighty four, the government announced that collieries
in Yorkshire would be closed and work that immediately walked
(06:01):
out on wildcat strike. They were soon joined by a
majority of MINUS nationwide, and within a few days the
NUM called an official national strike. Right away, activists like
Heather began supporting the strike and raising funds to help
the workers.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Of course, along in early eighty four came the strike
and my own village, the pitch voter to come out
on strike. My husband and I said, well, two things.
We wanted somebody to fight the government. The second one
and the main one was we want our community to
remain as it is close in this community who help
(06:38):
each other. So we decided that we'd give five pounds
a week to the fund. But as with everything in
my life, it was like topsy. It grew and grew
and grew, and I decided a couple of weeks into
the strike, I mentioned at the scene meeting that we
needed to get at the women in the mining communities
(07:00):
because without the women, the men would not stay out
on strike because, contrary to public beliefs, MINUS wives are
not held down the rule and if their wives had
said you go back, with the how to go back.
So what I said was all the literature that was
coming out to the villages then to the houses as
(07:20):
minus was from the union, so it was more than
likely to be read by the men and not the
women of the house. So we got together three of us,
Dave Temple, Brian Blanchard himselves in our house would put
together a letter for every woman in Easington district. We
had to do that because there nobody had a list
(07:42):
of where each miner lived in the district, so we
just decided to live at every house. We had a
meeting of women in the council offices of Asent in village.
The council chamber was absolutely full with women. It was
wonderful to say that so many wanted to be part
of and wanted to support and stand beside the husbands
and or the brothers or the fathers. And from there
(08:06):
we formed the first Apartmentroup, which was in Easington Colliery.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
In mining communities up and down Britain, other women, particularly
miners wives, also started organizing groups to support the strike.
They were raising money, setting up soup kitchens and gathering
and distributing parcels of food for strikers and their families.
The same happened in Easington.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I went to the miner's lodge at Easington, just to
let them know what we were doing, and just as
in a side, the two of us women had to
sit outside of the meeting while the men decided whether
a woman could come into the lodge meeting. And after
about half an hour the debate had gone on and
(08:48):
came out and said we could enter. And I remember
saying too, while I'm coming into the secretary of the lodge.
Once I'm in, I'm not going back, you know, And
he last, and it was true, because we went from
strength to strength. But we set up from there. We
went to all the different communities in Easington District and
some beyond and had set up support groups there, and
(09:13):
I attended lodge meetings to let the managers know what
each of those groups were doing. We ended off. We
set up in Easington District fourteen support groups which either
provided food that by with a meal each day or
food parcels where they couldn't provide a meal, but the
would raise funds for food parcels. And I'm pleased to
(09:35):
say that I can now speak of my own community, Easington.
We had our free cast within Easington Collie Workman's Club
and for a year we fed people one mile a
day for five days a week, and during the school holidays,
I wrote to the county council to ask you for
good yuse yeah the school kitchens, and I'm police to
(09:57):
say they said yes. So that made life so much easier.
For instance, my mother was an ex cook for school meals,
so she knew the school kitchen as well. And for
the six weeks we were able to provide a really
good mail for those children, and the mom and dad
used to pay for and my mom would make a
dessert for the children, so the adults didn't go desert
(10:19):
for that six weeks, but the children got looked after.
We raised funds from all over the world and in fact,
in Babish Museum there is a section that's called the
head of Wood collection and that has every photograph for
every press cutting, every notice that we sent out to
(10:40):
people about the striking, giving them information on where you
could go to get this family other with regards especially
to school uniforms after some holidays, so it was a
busy year. Christmas we did all sorts of Christmas and
we kept going for a year, and I'm proud to
say I was part of it.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Women all over the country were involved in support groups,
organizing and also taking to the streets. In May nineteen
eighty four, up to twelve thousand women from support groups
marched through the streets of Barnsley against the pit closures.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Were out actively working in the groups. There were no
more than a dozen women in each of the fourteen groups.
But the important thing to remember is it wasn't just
the women who came out and did something in the
support groups that kept the strike going. It was the
women in the houses where they had to keep the
household going on very very little money, and that wasn't
(11:35):
an easy task. So you're I mean you talked about
every miner's wife was involved and was active in the
sense that they motivated their husbands to stay on strike.
The may have gone and stood to where the pigot
buses off on a morning, or to welcome them back
on a night. So they were active even though they
(11:57):
weren't out making meals being organized as far as fundraisings concerned.
But I have to say the women in the support groups,
a lot of them weren't politically motivated. When they started.
It was to save their communities and save their futures.
For their children and their grandchildren, so it was very
(12:18):
difficult to talk to them about the political side of
the strike. But as the weeks went on and there
was sort of drip said about what was happening, they
started to ask questions, and they started to want to
board a place where there was political discussion and to
want to be on the pickup lines. And some of
them actually spoke in public meetings which they had never
(12:40):
ever done before, gone on television and being interviewed. Helped
to put together a book, The Last quarterse of Spring,
which was poems and songs and short stories written by
the women of Easington. They were approached by Northern Arts
to have a right to be in residence. Margaret Heine
(13:00):
came and she wrote a play Not by Bread Alone
about the minor strike, and that was performed around the Northeast.
Then it went to London, then it went to the
Lamplish Theater in Germany and Oldenburg University. So they were
big things from women who came out to make a
(13:22):
mail for a few hundred people. They'd ended off organizing
all this themselves.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Fantastic involvement in the strike started to have a transformative
effect on the lives of many of the women.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Definitely. It is as I say, At the beginning, they
wanted to make males, which is very important. But as
time went on, they wanted to know more of what
was going on with the strike, the political side of
the strike, and they wanted to go and stand on
the picquet line and fight for the jobs in the community.
That way, they didn't necessarily want to go and speak
(13:57):
on television or in meetings. They did it in the
end because I was doing it all and I said,
it's just too much. You're going to have to have
your names and I have to manage your turn. You
do it, and thank god they did. One woman who
was one of the quietest people you wished to meet.
She ended off with one of the biggest rallies in Middlesbrough,
with Tony Ben on the platform with her and all
(14:20):
she said was I work for British call im a cleaner,
and I'm on strike. My husband's a miner, he's on strike.
We have two children. Can you help us now? The
crowd erupted. It was obvious that woman wasn't used to
being where she was. But after that that woman went
to Greenham Common. She came on rallies with US. I
(14:41):
was on the pickup line. She wasn't frightened to speak up.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Greenham Common was a women's peace camp set up in
protest at US cruise missiles being stationed at the Berkshire
Royal Air Force Base.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
That made all the difference there. So instead of coming
out and doing a job and then going home quietly,
you know, sort of it's a bit like they changed
the world but hadn't realized that had so they just
went back to what they were doing. Where in the
strike it continued on, it grew. Some of them went
on to be well. Julianna Heaven she was. I think
(15:16):
she's been made twice. She's from the South Heaton support
group when she hadn't really been involved in politics before
the strike, and she's still involved. You know, the people
like her who've continued on the fight. There's women who
went on to parish councils or who just became more
active in the community, to involuntary work, fundrais and for
(15:38):
whatever organizing. And I think that's that's important to know
that those women, although there were doing it before, they
did things very quietly. Now the shout more and said
look this is what we do and you better write
it all down. It needs to be written for history.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
In mining communities, women's activism contributed to a shift in
family and gender and ynamics. As a note here for
non UK English speakers, bends is another word for children.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
I think it was strange at first. Nobody ever really
said anything, but it was strange to something because it
was out of the ordinary for them to do. I mean,
the hour hours, it was just something that happened. I
was always out doing something politically, but it was something
that changed. Now. Got no doubt that it would have
been difficult because of the men. This is where it
(16:27):
comes in the masculinity to me, because it's not even
the masculinity, just the fact that they would normally be
at work, but now we they had time on the hands.
So they were taking the children to school, they were
staying at the school gates to pick the bends up.
You know, they were housekeeping because a lot of the
women went and got part time jobs factories and in shops,
(16:50):
so they were now looking after the household. So there's
boundary of being some because I mean, if it was
in our house, I'd be saying with John, couldn't do
it as well as our cou so there would be
a grow there part from having no money. So there's
boundary of being. And I know as we went into
the strike, as the months went by, the women in
(17:12):
our support group in Eavenson, that and fakeful. Now they
were getting quite despondent and the money was getting really
short and bills were coming in, so tempers were getting fraught.
And I remember there were a few barneys just within
the women, and I'd said, I'll tell you what when
(17:34):
we meet every Thursday, which we did to organize the
following week, just when you're at home, right down, how
are you feeling about something, or just come and speak
on it at our next meeting. And they did that,
and that's where and then there was some really humding arguments.
But what I said was, you do that in the
(17:55):
meeting and then you walk out. The cause is bigger
than you and your argument with whoever. We united when
we walk out that job, and do you know what worked?
It actually worked. And from there they did write songs, stories,
poems and they were published. So out of all that,
(18:15):
Agro came something that was really good. But the women
were stronger, they worked better together and they put together
a book which they would never have done. Probably, So yes,
I think there's been arguments. I've got no doubt about that,
because it must be strange you're changing roles completely. They
were divorces bought in the may and everybody was united,
(18:37):
all stood.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Together despite the match. How the image many people have
of mining towns, women there have always played active roles
in their communities.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I think that's a fallacy because, as I say, the
women have always when you look back in the history
of mining communities, it's always been the women who've come
out to get things done. For instance, we needed when
I was a little girl, I can remember there were
no indoor toilets and bathroom so it was the women
who took to the streets and blockaded the men road
(19:07):
to the pit with their pushchairs and prams and whatever
to fight for the core board to fit bathrooms and
indoor toilets to the Polly properties and the one.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Women also played important roles in previous big industrial disputes,
particularly during the General Strike of nineteen twenty six.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I think because mine has come across as there were
very strong men and the women don't necessarily come out
and say, oh, we do this. We do that. It
doesn't mean the we'ren't doing it, that we're doing it.
In the home, they looked after the money, the husband
tipped the money up, They looked after all the bills
(19:48):
and there were very few who didn't do that.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
In addition to providing material support for the strike in
terms of money and food, many women joined picket lines
to help physically prevent scam replacement workers getting to work,
including in Easington. Often, mind bosses would make it difficult
for strikers to effectively pick it, so they would mark
mine property with yellow lines to allow space for scabs
to get in. Then if mine is trying to pick
(20:13):
it cross those lines, they could be fired. But the
women weren't employed by the mines, so they couldn't be
disciplined or sacked.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I used to go down every morning to my children
down and as for instance, for August twenty fourth, nineteen
eighty four, Easington was taken over by police and that
was because on the evening of August twenty third, Peace
Merchant Tory MP was on the news saying why is
(20:41):
it Dome Constabulary. It can't get one man in at
Easington pit because there had been bring them to the
village more or less in you know, you've tried and
allowed just go home. But the next morning after peace,
Merchant said that I went to take my children to
school and our village green, which is enormous, was with
black It was full of place. And we got further
(21:05):
down the road and then with a police called, and
so I had to stop and tell them where we
were going. And I said, I'm going to be mom
to drop the children off, and he said, okay, you
can go, and just as we were passing before I
got the window wound up. The younger son shouted, but
ma'm you didn't tell them we were going to the
picket lines first, and I could have killed him. But
(21:26):
that was me going to the picket lines. But there
were other women who went, and they went a lot
more than maybe because I was working. They went and
stood and gid. One of the things we always say
is they were arrest women because we were shouting scab.
So we put half the women at one side of
the road and half of the other, and one half
(21:47):
shouted scaf and the others shouted ab. So we've got
it in news eventually, and we couldn't be arrested. My
mum was on the picket line the day the first
man went back at Asington Colliery, who lived in Asington,
and she saw the women would tell her maybe because
(22:07):
I wasn't there. She said, I can't shout scab, so
she said she shouted, come on, bunny, lad, don't go
back in, and as it happened, he didn't go. And
my mamma always says it's because she just shouted, come on, body, lad,
don't go in. But yeah, it was life changing. I
think paper funother side of life, and started to want
(22:30):
to organize the pickets rather, you know, try to organize
the men and get as much activity as we could
along by the pit.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
There were reports of some male and UM members turning
women away from picket lines, believing that they were dangerous
and no place for women, but still women continued to
turn up. Some women organized themselves into groups of flying pickets,
traveling to working pits in places like Nottingham Sure where
a majority of miners were scabbing on. The strike responded
(23:00):
to women pickets with arrests, violence, and frequently verbal abuse,
which was often sexualized.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
It was name calling that was the biggest thing I
can't think. I mean, I know there were women in
different parts of the country, and there were a couple
of women from Heaven Lawrence Vnson being born who were arrested.
But in Easington, it was name calling. It was trying
(23:27):
to put you down as a woman. You know, it
was weighing ten pounds notes in your face or in
van windows as they were passing you. You made to
feel like, I'm very frightened. I was frightened. I'm no
shame in saying that. I was frightened because I'd seen
(23:47):
what they could do, and I'm still frightened because I'd
seen what the state can do. They were an armored
the state, and if the state can do that to
people who weren't at risk to the state, what else
can they do? So so frightening.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Police were also happy to arrest and frame pickets and
disguise their identities in order to brutalize strikers and their supporters.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
They used to stand at the pitchyard outside the pit
wall and there would be linked arm in arm and
every now and again they would open up and just
take one lad through and then they would arrest him
and he would be charged with God knows what need
be had caught, and then he'd be in prison and
never done anything in his life. You know, that keeps
(24:32):
the en people's keep saying that kind of happened. But
I saw with my own eyes, you know, there was
somebody last week said to me, all the reason the
police didn't have numbers on the jackets was because they
were torn off by the miners. Where August the twenty
four I watched them come into my village and they
came in with no numbers on their jackets. Also, there
(24:55):
was no fighting, no problems as such, you know, no
hand and fighting at that point in Easington. That was
not So it's a lie, it's a fallacy. It's a misinterprets.
And what went on to say that the k me
in with those numbers on the jackets they did.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Well, that's it for part one. We'll conclude the story
in part two. You can listen to that now by
joining us on Patreon and accessing loads of other great
exclusive content. It's only support from you, our listeners, which
allows us to make these podcasts. So if you appreciate
our work, please do think about joining us at Patreon
dot com. Slash Working Class History link in the show notes. Otherwise,
(25:44):
the episode will be out for everyone else next week.
In the meantime, if you want to learn more about
UK minus struggles, check out our episodes twenty seven to
twenty nine about queer support for the strike, and episode
eighty one about the strikes in nineteen seventy two and
seventy four. If you join us us on Patreon isn't
an option for you at the moment, Absolutely no worries,
but please do tell your friends about this podcast and
(26:06):
give us a five star review on your favorite podcast app.
Thanks to our Patroon supporters for making this podcast possible
special thanks to Jazz Hands, Fernando Lopez, a Haida, Nick Williams,
and Old Norm. Music in these episodes is courtesy of
the Easington Colliery Band. Learn more about them on the
links in the show notes. This updated episode was edited
(26:27):
by Tyler Hill with original editing by Jesse French. Thanks
for listening and catch you next time.
In March nineteen eighty four, coal miners in Britain walked
out on strike against the pit closure plan of Margaret
Thatcher's Conservative government. Miners, wives and other women started support
groups up and down the country which were instrumental in
helping the workers hold out for nearly a year in
an iconic dispute which changed Britain forever. This is working
(00:21):
class history. Now, before we get into the main episode,
some eagle eared listeners may remember hearing our episode about
women in the minor strike before. Now, like all of
our original episodes, it was basically made up of raw
(00:44):
audio from our interview so there wasn't any narrative to
fill gaps or explain context and kind of draw the
story together into a whole. So, in addition to working
on new episodes for you, we're also going back over
our earliest episodes to re we edit and release them
in the new narrative format we use for all of
(01:04):
our later episodes. So the interview audio today is going
to be the same quality as before, but they'll be
added narrative with better quality audio to explain things and
hopefully tell the story in a more cohesive manner. So
we hope you enjoy it. As a reminder, our podcast
is brought to you by our Patreon supporters. Our supporters
fund our work and in return get exclusive early access
(01:26):
to podcast episodes without ads, bonus episodes every month, free
and discounted merchandise and other content. For example, our supporters
can listen to both parts of this double episode now.
So if you can, please join our community and help
keep our collective history of struggle alive. You can learn
more and sign up at patreon dot com slash working
(01:46):
class history link in the show notes. We're working on
a podcast mini series about the MINUS strike from the
perspective of MINUS themselves at the moment, So for today,
I'm just going to give a very brief bit of
the historical background. At the beginning of the nineteen eighties,
coal miners in the National Union of Mine Workers NUM
were the best organized and most militant section of the
(02:09):
working class in Britain. As detailed in our episode eighty one,
miners had held successful nationwide strikes in nineteen seventy two
and nineteen seventy four, when they won big pay increases
and brought down the Conservative government of Edward Heath. With
the election of Thatcher in nineteen seventy nine. Her Conservative
Party were determined to reshape the UK from a more
(02:32):
social democratic state with high levels of state ownership and
where working people were organized and had some economic power,
to a more neoliberal one where there was more widespread
private ownership and there was a more atomized working class
which wasn't able to exert its own power. Thatcher's strategy
was to isolate different groups of workers and defeat them
(02:53):
one by one. The most important group of workers they
would need to beat were the miners, who up until
that point had shown that they were willing and able
to confront the state and win. To do this, the
government planned to provoke a strike at a time which
would be favorable for them, so shortly after their election,
when winter was almost over, coalstocks were high and energy
(03:15):
use was low, because both the nineteen seventy two and
seventy four strikes took place at the height of winter,
when coalstocks were depleted and energy use was high, and
most electricity at the time was from coal fired power stations,
so they would announce a plan to close pits and
layoff miners, to which the nun would have to respond
(03:35):
with a strike. The government's hope was that they'd then
be able to sit out the strike until the miners
and their families, not earning any wages, were basically stafved
back to work. To this aim, the government stoppard enough
coal and coke to last six months and slashed state
benefits that would have been available to strikers and their families.
But if the government thought that the workers would be
(03:57):
forced back to work within six months, then they would
turn out to be deeply mistaken, perhaps because they didn't
factor in the support for miners which would come from
their wives and other women.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I was a member of the Labor Party, quite active
in politics, and I was working at the local council
offices in the housing department, and my husband was a
plumber who worked full time and we had two children.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
This is Heatherwood, who was living in Easington, County Durham
in the northeast of England and later became chair of
the Easington Women's Support Group.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
In the eighty three, I was chair of the constituency
Labor Party and we had heard rumors that pitts were
going to clause in our area and our district, so
we decided that we needed to inform people and we
set up the constituency had an open public meeting and
(04:52):
we established how many people were interested in having to
fight for the community and fight to say of jobs,
and we set up an organization called Save Easington Area Mains.
We call it Scene for Shot and it was that
same year eighty three when we had what were then
(05:14):
the biggest rally of MINUS banners outside of the Doha Big Meeting,
and it was in Easington.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
This big meeting is also known as the Durham Minus Gala,
a legendary gathering of miners and their supporters which has
taken place almost every July since eighteen seventy one.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
PATCHA that amazing and from there we just went on
giving our public informations to what the cost to our
villages would be if the mines.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Caused Around the country. Miners and their supporters stepped up
organizing campaigns against pit closures, and in October nineteen eighty
three NUM delegates voted to fight all pit closures other
than ones where coal at the pit had been exhausted.
In March nineteen eighty four, the government announced that collieries
in Yorkshire would be closed and work that immediately walked
(06:01):
out on wildcat strike. They were soon joined by a
majority of MINUS nationwide, and within a few days the
NUM called an official national strike. Right away, activists like
Heather began supporting the strike and raising funds to help
the workers.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Of course, along in early eighty four came the strike
and my own village, the pitch voter to come out
on strike. My husband and I said, well, two things.
We wanted somebody to fight the government. The second one
and the main one was we want our community to
remain as it is close in this community who help
(06:38):
each other. So we decided that we'd give five pounds
a week to the fund. But as with everything in
my life, it was like topsy. It grew and grew
and grew, and I decided a couple of weeks into
the strike, I mentioned at the scene meeting that we
needed to get at the women in the mining communities
(07:00):
because without the women, the men would not stay out
on strike because, contrary to public beliefs, MINUS wives are
not held down the rule and if their wives had
said you go back, with the how to go back.
So what I said was all the literature that was
coming out to the villages then to the houses as
(07:20):
minus was from the union, so it was more than
likely to be read by the men and not the
women of the house. So we got together three of us,
Dave Temple, Brian Blanchard himselves in our house would put
together a letter for every woman in Easington district. We
had to do that because there nobody had a list
(07:42):
of where each miner lived in the district, so we
just decided to live at every house. We had a
meeting of women in the council offices of Asent in village.
The council chamber was absolutely full with women. It was
wonderful to say that so many wanted to be part
of and wanted to support and stand beside the husbands
and or the brothers or the fathers. And from there
(08:06):
we formed the first Apartmentroup, which was in Easington Colliery.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
In mining communities up and down Britain, other women, particularly
miners wives, also started organizing groups to support the strike.
They were raising money, setting up soup kitchens and gathering
and distributing parcels of food for strikers and their families.
The same happened in Easington.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
I went to the miner's lodge at Easington, just to
let them know what we were doing, and just as
in a side, the two of us women had to
sit outside of the meeting while the men decided whether
a woman could come into the lodge meeting. And after
about half an hour the debate had gone on and
(08:48):
came out and said we could enter. And I remember
saying too, while I'm coming into the secretary of the lodge.
Once I'm in, I'm not going back, you know, And
he last, and it was true, because we went from
strength to strength. But we set up from there. We
went to all the different communities in Easington District and
some beyond and had set up support groups there, and
(09:13):
I attended lodge meetings to let the managers know what
each of those groups were doing. We ended off. We
set up in Easington District fourteen support groups which either
provided food that by with a meal each day or
food parcels where they couldn't provide a meal, but the
would raise funds for food parcels. And I'm pleased to
(09:35):
say that I can now speak of my own community, Easington.
We had our free cast within Easington Collie Workman's Club
and for a year we fed people one mile a
day for five days a week, and during the school holidays,
I wrote to the county council to ask you for
good yuse yeah the school kitchens, and I'm police to
(09:57):
say they said yes. So that made life so much easier.
For instance, my mother was an ex cook for school meals,
so she knew the school kitchen as well. And for
the six weeks we were able to provide a really
good mail for those children, and the mom and dad
used to pay for and my mom would make a
dessert for the children, so the adults didn't go desert
(10:19):
for that six weeks, but the children got looked after.
We raised funds from all over the world and in fact,
in Babish Museum there is a section that's called the
head of Wood collection and that has every photograph for
every press cutting, every notice that we sent out to
(10:40):
people about the striking, giving them information on where you
could go to get this family other with regards especially
to school uniforms after some holidays, so it was a
busy year. Christmas we did all sorts of Christmas and
we kept going for a year, and I'm proud to
say I was part of it.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Women all over the country were involved in support groups,
organizing and also taking to the streets. In May nineteen
eighty four, up to twelve thousand women from support groups
marched through the streets of Barnsley against the pit closures.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
Were out actively working in the groups. There were no
more than a dozen women in each of the fourteen groups.
But the important thing to remember is it wasn't just
the women who came out and did something in the
support groups that kept the strike going. It was the
women in the houses where they had to keep the
household going on very very little money, and that wasn't
(11:35):
an easy task. So you're I mean you talked about
every miner's wife was involved and was active in the
sense that they motivated their husbands to stay on strike.
The may have gone and stood to where the pigot
buses off on a morning, or to welcome them back
on a night. So they were active even though they
(11:57):
weren't out making meals being organized as far as fundraisings concerned.
But I have to say the women in the support groups,
a lot of them weren't politically motivated. When they started.
It was to save their communities and save their futures.
For their children and their grandchildren, so it was very
(12:18):
difficult to talk to them about the political side of
the strike. But as the weeks went on and there
was sort of drip said about what was happening, they
started to ask questions, and they started to want to
board a place where there was political discussion and to
want to be on the pickup lines. And some of
them actually spoke in public meetings which they had never
(12:40):
ever done before, gone on television and being interviewed. Helped
to put together a book, The Last quarterse of Spring,
which was poems and songs and short stories written by
the women of Easington. They were approached by Northern Arts
to have a right to be in residence. Margaret Heine
(13:00):
came and she wrote a play Not by Bread Alone
about the minor strike, and that was performed around the Northeast.
Then it went to London, then it went to the
Lamplish Theater in Germany and Oldenburg University. So they were
big things from women who came out to make a
(13:22):
mail for a few hundred people. They'd ended off organizing
all this themselves.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Fantastic involvement in the strike started to have a transformative
effect on the lives of many of the women.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Definitely. It is as I say, At the beginning, they
wanted to make males, which is very important. But as
time went on, they wanted to know more of what
was going on with the strike, the political side of
the strike, and they wanted to go and stand on
the picquet line and fight for the jobs in the community.
That way, they didn't necessarily want to go and speak
(13:57):
on television or in meetings. They did it in the
end because I was doing it all and I said,
it's just too much. You're going to have to have
your names and I have to manage your turn. You
do it, and thank god they did. One woman who
was one of the quietest people you wished to meet.
She ended off with one of the biggest rallies in Middlesbrough,
with Tony Ben on the platform with her and all
(14:20):
she said was I work for British call im a cleaner,
and I'm on strike. My husband's a miner, he's on strike.
We have two children. Can you help us now? The
crowd erupted. It was obvious that woman wasn't used to
being where she was. But after that that woman went
to Greenham Common. She came on rallies with US. I
(14:41):
was on the pickup line. She wasn't frightened to speak up.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Greenham Common was a women's peace camp set up in
protest at US cruise missiles being stationed at the Berkshire
Royal Air Force Base.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
That made all the difference there. So instead of coming
out and doing a job and then going home quietly,
you know, sort of it's a bit like they changed
the world but hadn't realized that had so they just
went back to what they were doing. Where in the
strike it continued on, it grew. Some of them went
on to be well. Julianna Heaven she was. I think
(15:16):
she's been made twice. She's from the South Heaton support
group when she hadn't really been involved in politics before
the strike, and she's still involved. You know, the people
like her who've continued on the fight. There's women who
went on to parish councils or who just became more
active in the community, to involuntary work, fundrais and for
(15:38):
whatever organizing. And I think that's that's important to know
that those women, although there were doing it before, they
did things very quietly. Now the shout more and said
look this is what we do and you better write
it all down. It needs to be written for history.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
In mining communities, women's activism contributed to a shift in
family and gender and ynamics. As a note here for
non UK English speakers, bends is another word for children.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
I think it was strange at first. Nobody ever really
said anything, but it was strange to something because it
was out of the ordinary for them to do. I mean,
the hour hours, it was just something that happened. I
was always out doing something politically, but it was something
that changed. Now. Got no doubt that it would have
been difficult because of the men. This is where it
(16:27):
comes in the masculinity to me, because it's not even
the masculinity, just the fact that they would normally be
at work, but now we they had time on the hands.
So they were taking the children to school, they were
staying at the school gates to pick the bends up.
You know, they were housekeeping because a lot of the
women went and got part time jobs factories and in shops,
(16:50):
so they were now looking after the household. So there's
boundary of being some because I mean, if it was
in our house, I'd be saying with John, couldn't do
it as well as our cou so there would be
a grow there part from having no money. So there's
boundary of being. And I know as we went into
the strike, as the months went by, the women in
(17:12):
our support group in Eavenson, that and fakeful. Now they
were getting quite despondent and the money was getting really
short and bills were coming in, so tempers were getting fraught.
And I remember there were a few barneys just within
the women, and I'd said, I'll tell you what when
(17:34):
we meet every Thursday, which we did to organize the
following week, just when you're at home, right down, how
are you feeling about something, or just come and speak
on it at our next meeting. And they did that,
and that's where and then there was some really humding arguments.
But what I said was, you do that in the
(17:55):
meeting and then you walk out. The cause is bigger
than you and your argument with whoever. We united when
we walk out that job, and do you know what worked?
It actually worked. And from there they did write songs, stories,
poems and they were published. So out of all that,
(18:15):
Agro came something that was really good. But the women
were stronger, they worked better together and they put together
a book which they would never have done. Probably, So yes,
I think there's been arguments. I've got no doubt about that,
because it must be strange you're changing roles completely. They
were divorces bought in the may and everybody was united,
(18:37):
all stood.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Together despite the match. How the image many people have
of mining towns, women there have always played active roles
in their communities.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
I think that's a fallacy because, as I say, the
women have always when you look back in the history
of mining communities, it's always been the women who've come
out to get things done. For instance, we needed when
I was a little girl, I can remember there were
no indoor toilets and bathroom so it was the women
who took to the streets and blockaded the men road
(19:07):
to the pit with their pushchairs and prams and whatever
to fight for the core board to fit bathrooms and
indoor toilets to the Polly properties and the one.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Women also played important roles in previous big industrial disputes,
particularly during the General Strike of nineteen twenty six.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
I think because mine has come across as there were
very strong men and the women don't necessarily come out
and say, oh, we do this. We do that. It
doesn't mean the we'ren't doing it, that we're doing it.
In the home, they looked after the money, the husband
tipped the money up, They looked after all the bills
(19:48):
and there were very few who didn't do that.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
In addition to providing material support for the strike in
terms of money and food, many women joined picket lines
to help physically prevent scam replacement workers getting to work,
including in Easington. Often, mind bosses would make it difficult
for strikers to effectively pick it, so they would mark
mine property with yellow lines to allow space for scabs
to get in. Then if mine is trying to pick
(20:13):
it cross those lines, they could be fired. But the
women weren't employed by the mines, so they couldn't be
disciplined or sacked.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
I used to go down every morning to my children
down and as for instance, for August twenty fourth, nineteen
eighty four, Easington was taken over by police and that
was because on the evening of August twenty third, Peace
Merchant Tory MP was on the news saying why is
(20:41):
it Dome Constabulary. It can't get one man in at
Easington pit because there had been bring them to the
village more or less in you know, you've tried and
allowed just go home. But the next morning after peace,
Merchant said that I went to take my children to
school and our village green, which is enormous, was with
black It was full of place. And we got further
(21:05):
down the road and then with a police called, and
so I had to stop and tell them where we
were going. And I said, I'm going to be mom
to drop the children off, and he said, okay, you
can go, and just as we were passing before I
got the window wound up. The younger son shouted, but
ma'm you didn't tell them we were going to the
picket lines first, and I could have killed him. But
(21:26):
that was me going to the picket lines. But there
were other women who went, and they went a lot
more than maybe because I was working. They went and
stood and gid. One of the things we always say
is they were arrest women because we were shouting scab.
So we put half the women at one side of
the road and half of the other, and one half
(21:47):
shouted scaf and the others shouted ab. So we've got
it in news eventually, and we couldn't be arrested. My
mum was on the picket line the day the first
man went back at Asington Colliery, who lived in Asington,
and she saw the women would tell her maybe because
(22:07):
I wasn't there. She said, I can't shout scab, so
she said she shouted, come on, bunny, lad, don't go
back in, and as it happened, he didn't go. And
my mamma always says it's because she just shouted, come on, body, lad,
don't go in. But yeah, it was life changing. I
think paper funother side of life, and started to want
(22:30):
to organize the pickets rather, you know, try to organize
the men and get as much activity as we could
along by the pit.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
There were reports of some male and UM members turning
women away from picket lines, believing that they were dangerous
and no place for women, but still women continued to
turn up. Some women organized themselves into groups of flying pickets,
traveling to working pits in places like Nottingham Sure where
a majority of miners were scabbing on. The strike responded
(23:00):
to women pickets with arrests, violence, and frequently verbal abuse,
which was often sexualized.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
It was name calling that was the biggest thing I
can't think. I mean, I know there were women in
different parts of the country, and there were a couple
of women from Heaven Lawrence Vnson being born who were arrested.
But in Easington, it was name calling. It was trying
(23:27):
to put you down as a woman. You know, it
was weighing ten pounds notes in your face or in
van windows as they were passing you. You made to
feel like, I'm very frightened. I was frightened. I'm no
shame in saying that. I was frightened because I'd seen
(23:47):
what they could do, and I'm still frightened because I'd
seen what the state can do. They were an armored
the state, and if the state can do that to
people who weren't at risk to the state, what else
can they do? So so frightening.
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Police were also happy to arrest and frame pickets and
disguise their identities in order to brutalize strikers and their supporters.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
They used to stand at the pitchyard outside the pit
wall and there would be linked arm in arm and
every now and again they would open up and just
take one lad through and then they would arrest him
and he would be charged with God knows what need
be had caught, and then he'd be in prison and
never done anything in his life. You know, that keeps
(24:32):
the en people's keep saying that kind of happened. But
I saw with my own eyes, you know, there was
somebody last week said to me, all the reason the
police didn't have numbers on the jackets was because they
were torn off by the miners. Where August the twenty
four I watched them come into my village and they
came in with no numbers on their jackets. Also, there
(24:55):
was no fighting, no problems as such, you know, no
hand and fighting at that point in Easington. That was
not So it's a lie, it's a fallacy. It's a misinterprets.
And what went on to say that the k me
in with those numbers on the jackets they did.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Well, that's it for part one. We'll conclude the story
in part two. You can listen to that now by
joining us on Patreon and accessing loads of other great
exclusive content. It's only support from you, our listeners, which
allows us to make these podcasts. So if you appreciate
our work, please do think about joining us at Patreon
dot com. Slash Working Class History link in the show notes. Otherwise,
(25:44):
the episode will be out for everyone else next week.
In the meantime, if you want to learn more about
UK minus struggles, check out our episodes twenty seven to
twenty nine about queer support for the strike, and episode
eighty one about the strikes in nineteen seventy two and
seventy four. If you join us us on Patreon isn't
an option for you at the moment, Absolutely no worries,
but please do tell your friends about this podcast and
(26:06):
give us a five star review on your favorite podcast app.
Thanks to our Patroon supporters for making this podcast possible
special thanks to Jazz Hands, Fernando Lopez, a Haida, Nick Williams,
and Old Norm. Music in these episodes is courtesy of
the Easington Colliery Band. Learn more about them on the
links in the show notes. This updated episode was edited
(26:27):
by Tyler Hill with original editing by Jesse French. Thanks
for listening and catch you next time.
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