GLOSSARY 1

Glossary

ACAS Advisory, Concilation and Arbitration Service

Area The subdivision of the National Coal Board. "For seven years the pits in Northumberland and Durham were grouped as three Area formations but in 1974 they were merged into the present single North East Area." (G.L.Atkinson: 19)

ASLEF Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen

bait An expression of the North East miners for the food they take underground. Dave Douglass: "I suppose the only equivalent in standard English is 'lunch', but workers don't eat lunch (a petty bourgeois concept), and bait is hardly the same as dinner." (D.Douglass, 1975: 304) It usually consists of sandwiches with jam, or just butter.

CEGB Central Electricity Generating Board

CND Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Cook, Arthur James (1885-1931) General Secretary of the Miners Federation of Great Britain during the miners' lock-out of 1926

DHSS Department of Health and Social Security

face or coal-face The place in the mine where the coal is hewn in a coal seam; the very extremity of a coal-mine

gasey In coal-mines methane often pours into the passages and seams and the mine is in danger of explosion

ISTC Iron and Steel Trades Confederation

Lodge The local branch of the NUM

MacGregor, Ian Kinloch (b.1912) After spending 40 years in the USA where he headed several companies and became infamous for his anti-union policy he became non-executive director of British Leyland in 1975, in 1980 he became chief executive of the British Steel Corporation and in 1983 chairman of the NCB

GLOSSARY 2MFGB Miners Federation of Great Britain

MMC Monopolies and Mergers Commission

MORI Market and Opinion Research Institute

NACODS National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies and Shotfirers

NCB National Coal Board. Renamed British Coal in 1985

NEEB North East Electricity Board

NUM National Union of Mineworkers

NUR National Union of Railwaymen

NWAPC  National Women Against Pit Closures, a national organisation "bringing together all the support groups.- In August 1985, about 1,000 women gathered in Sheffield for its first conference." (A.John, 1986: 93)

Pit-head The overground area of a colliery

Scargill, Arthur (b.1938) He was the son of a miner and became a miner himself at 15. In 1969 member of the Yorkshire NUM executive, since 1981 president of the NUM

SEAM Save Easington Area Mines

Spencer,George After the 1926 miners' lock-out Spencer, Labour MP, set up a breakaway union, the Nottinghamshire and District Miners' Industrial Union, which rejoined the MFGB in 1937

Surface The overground area of a colliery

TGWU Transport and General Workers Union

Thatcher, Margaret Hilda,MP At the time Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister since 1979 (re-elected in 1983 and in 1987)

TUC Trades Union Congress

GLOSSARY 3UDM Union of Democratic Mineworkers. The breakaway union formed in 1985

in Nottinghamshire

WAPC Women Against Pit Closures

Working Men's Club "The central leisure institution of the Durham mining community [...][,] a co-operative society for the sale and consumption of beer [...]. In some respects it resembles a pub [...]. Clubs are owned and controlled by their own members, and the facilities are exclusive to those who are members and their guests." (M.Bulmer, 1978 c: 31)

WSG Women's Support Group.

Introduction 4

1. Introduction

"'We've made independent women, much to the horror of the

independent man!'" (B.Campbell, 1986: 282) said Ann Suddick about the effect

the Miners' Strike 1984/85 had on the women in mining-communities. In the

socialist or in the feminist press many similar statements can be found about

the women1.

Did the women really change? If they did - how and why did they change

and were these changes lasting? The aim of this study is to examine the

extent and the quality of change in roles of women in mining-communities

during and after the strike and what effect this had on the way women see

themselves.

The term role is used here meaning people's observable behaviour in

certain functions (e.g. as mother or wife or member of a community) and in

certain situations (e.g. at home, on a picket line, in a soup kitchen or in a pub)

taking into account other people's expectations concerning this behaviour

(e.g. what do men or what does the state expect of the women?) as well as

their own demands and moral concepts (e.g. women's ideas of self-realization,

of a meaningful life or marriage) (c.f. H.Drechsler / et.al.:464-466).

People's reflections on their roles determine the way they see themselves

and there may be - as will be seen - considerable deviations between what is

visible on the outside and how the women see themselves.

It will be necessary to look at the factors which in the past shaped

women's roles and how both changed in the course of time, the factors mainly

being the collieries and the mining-communities. In order to evaluate women's

roles in the 1984/85 miners' strike their roles in former disputes need to be

looked at, also the strike itself - its background, the course it took - and

women's activities during as well as after the strike.

This study will mainly concentrate on the North-East of England2 or what

was Northumberland and Durham before local government reorganisation.

Most of the primary sources used for this study are from that area and a great

1 In this thesis 'women' or 'the women' means those women who in some way or other are connected with coal-mining, either as daughter, wife, mother or widow of a miner or simply as a member of a mining-community. NOT included are those women who supported the strike in support groups outside the mining-communities.2 Maps of the North East are printed in the appendix.

Introduction 5part of the secondary material is about the North East. Where material was not

available - often historical studies - material on other coalfields in Great Britain

have been consulted which is legitimate insofar as the coalfields developed

similarly in their essential characteristics.

As far as possible people from the coalfield(s) will be quoted to obtain a

vivid and authentic image of their situations and thoughts. In addition to this

there will be more primary material printed in the appendix, e.g. poems, a

letter, part of a diary and more3.

Many books and articles were written about the miners' strike. Those

books written or published by women from the coalfields are often available

only locally, usually through the authors, and are rarely to be found in libraries

and hardly ever in bookshops. This does not make it easy to obtain a complete

picture of what was written by these women during or after the strike. Most of

the other books or articles mention women's activities or women's roles in the

strike but only a small number - preferably those by feminist authors - deal

explicitly with this topic (e.g. Jean Stead: Never The Same Again). There are

also no long-term studies of women's roles for the time after the strike. Such a

study should be desirable for the established feminist movement which had

always tried to put up a working-class women's movement but never

succeeded. The feminist movement could learn for the future from the

experiences of the Miners' Strike 1984/85.

3 Spelling mistakes occur frequently in these primary sources and will therefore not be marked explicitly.

The evolution of women's roles 6

2. The Evolution of Women's Roles in the Coalfields

2.1 Introduction

This chapter will try to illustrate the evolution of the roles women in the

coalfields have played until the Miners' Strike 1984/85. It will try to find the

material and social basis for these roles. For a deeper understanding "it is

necessary to interpret how divisions between women and men in mining

communities exist materially at home, in the workplace and in the community.

For these divisions reproduce ideologies, which in turn reinforce the existing

divisions." (S.Miller: 357). The home (and family ), the workplace and the

community are the cornerstones of this chapter, the colliery, as will be shown,

determining their character completely. It also shaped women's roles, the

reasons will be explained.

2.2 Coal-mining and the pit-village

2.2.1. Mining - male or female ?"Today all Britain's coal-miners are men. The only women to be seen at a

colliery are the canteen staff, office cleaners and secretaries.[...] No woman

can be employed as a miner underground. The ban does not include work

done above ground but no women now work with coal on the surface [...]

either. This has not always been so." (A.John, 1984: 1). In the early drift mines

in Britain, mere holes dug into hills or river banks, as well as in the later shafts,

sunk from the fifteenth century onward, families worked together, men as well

as women and children. Almost from the beginning of coal-mining men and

women had different tasks in the mines with the men usually cutting the coal

and the women transporting it. Britain's demand for coal inreased from the

Elizabethan age when people began to burn coal in their home fires instead of

wood, until production reached its peak in 1913. Coal, or 'King Coal' as it is

often called, was Britain's largest and most important industry. New industries,

such as glassmaking, smelting of iron, etc. used coal. "The introduction of

steam machinery, the development of the railways and inventions such as gas

street-lighting all pointed towards coal-mining being one of the biggest growth

industries of the nineteenth century." (A.John, 1984: 4).In Victorian times

Britain supplied about 80% of the world's coal! In its peak year 1913 Britain's

coal industry produced a quarter of the world's coal supplies at more than

The evolution of women's roles 73,000 pits. One and a quarter million men formed the workforce of the

industry when there was a total working population of about 19 million. "In

mining areas the proportion was, of course, much higher. In Northumberland

in 1911 one in five of the working population was a miner, and in Durham

almost one in three." (Pollard: 18). These numbers give an impression of the

position coal-mining had in Britain and also illustrate the coal industry's

influence on the culture and on local and national politics.

It is a commonly held view today that coal-mining is, and always was, a

completely male industry. Only recently have historians and social scientists

illuminated women's roles in the industry (cf.: A.John, 1976, 1980, 1982,

1984). According to them the history of coal-mining in Britain is as much the

history of men as it is of women. Women were unlucky insofar as the image of

mining and miners was already distorted when historians began to examine

the history of coal-mining. It was distorted mainly because women had been

excluded from the industry early in the nineteenth century. This not only put

the women out of sight but it also was the basis for the roles women in the

coalfields played and still play.

It was mechanisation which started the process of excluding women from

the industry. "'Earlier English Commonwealth did actually embrace

men/women as a whole, because families were self-contained and necessary

to the state, but the mechanical state which replaced it, and where

development has accompanied the extension of capitalism, has regarded the

individual as the unit not the family'." (A.Clark: 14; quoted in: Holderness: 13).

This was bound "to exite struggle on two fronts - between capital and labour

and between men and women - for control over the new labour

process."(B.Campbell, 1986: 257). The men were aided in their struggle by the

capitalists whose long-term interest, apart from the short-term interest of

extracting as much surplus value from the individual as possible, was to

secure the labour capacity for the future. "Thus not only protective legislation

against the exhaustion of human body and mind at work, but public health

measures, national education, and various efforts to protect small children

from neglect were introduced." (S.Rowbotham: 59). In this situation criticism

of the female mineworkers developed: Women's work underground was

criticised on three major grounds:

The work the women did was dangerous and physically injurious:

Angela John points out (A.John, 1976: 2) that the middle class

The evolution of women's roles 8commentators probably knew little about the actual working and

living conditions of the women. It is interesting to note that the same

working conditions led to different conclusions: men were admired

and glorified because they resisted danger, fought against nature,

etc. but the women were to be banned from the mines.

Working underground was immoral:

Women's place was in the home, not working was respectable,

working would lead to a loss of self-respect "but also caused their

husband's downfall." (A.John, 1976: 3).

Women were cheap labour:

Men feared that the employers would prefer women as employees.

But instead of raising women's wages they were replaced by men, as

was to be expected in the view of the aim to exclude women from

the industry.

With the Children's Employment Commission which was appointed

in 1841 to investigate the working conditions for children in factories and

mines, this criticism came into public view. The Commissioners found the

working conditions underground appalling and therefore "they decided to

include adult women in their reports." (A.John, 1984: 9). Working conditions

were very bad indeed and the replacement of women and children, who

usually did haulage work, by pit ponies indicate this. Women actually did not

like to work in the mines but as they needed some kind of employment and

the mining village offered no other they usually had no alternative. The

Commission, and with them most middle- and upper-class people did not see

this. They blamed the women for neglecting their children and "for being bad

housekeepers, not asking how women could keep a house when they worked

sixteen hours and earned so little money they had nothing to keep it with."

(S.Rowbotham: 58). The result of the commission's work was the Mines and

Collieries Act, passed on 10 August 1842, which banned "all children under 10

and females of any age from working underground" (A.John,1984: 41). Women

continued, however, to work on the surface on coal preparation4 but colliery

closures, further mechanisation and replacement by men drove out pit

women. "The last two women screen workers were made redundant at

Whitehaven [Cumbria] in 1972, 130 years after females had been forbidden to

work below ground." (A.John, 1976: 14).

4 In the North-Eastern coalfield, which was comparatively prosperous, women were employed below ground only until the 1780s. "the tradition had died out completely by the 19th century." (S.Alexander / et.al.: 175)

The evolution of women's roles 92.2.2 The pit-village

In his study "Sociological Models of the Mining Community" (M.Bulmer,

1975) Martin Bulmer argues that mining communities all over the world

generally have several main characteristics. These characteristics are:

1.Physical isolation of the community

2.Economic predominance of mining in the community

3.The nature of work in the pit

4.A special kind of leisure activities

5.The family

All of these characteristics are more or less interrelated but the overall

factor which shaped the whole community is the colliery itself, as will become

clear in the following description of the ideal-type of a British mining

community of after 1842.

2.2.2.1 Physical IsolationCoal-mining necessitates the location of the pit "at the point of extraction

in the mineral field." (M.Bulmer, 1975: 85). The coalfields were often situated

in remote and underdeveloped parts of the country which led to a minimal

contact with the outside world. This meant almost complete physical and

social isolation, reinforced by the fact that the work itself was literally hidden

from view as it was carried out below ground. Despite the great importance of

coal and coal-mining for the nation's wealth and power, the miners and their

work was usually ignored. Their "exclusiveness and remoteness made colliers

a source of terror, though not wonder, to the 'respectable' population"

(M.Pollard: 15). The report of a government inspector about the north-east of

England is very revealing:

"'The erection of long rows of unpicturesque cottages, the arrival of

wagons piled with ill-assorted furniture, the immediate importation of

the very scum and offscouring of a peculiar, mischievous and

unlettered race, the novelties introduced with almost fabled rapidity

into the external features of the country, dense clouds of rolling

smoke, the endless clatter of endless strings of coal wagons, the

baleful colour imparted to the district, are surely sufficient to

untenant the seats of the wealthy, and untenanted do they speedily

become. The arrival of the pitmen is the sign for the departure of the

gentry, and henceforward few indeed visit that district but they who

traffic with the coals or the colliers.'" (M.Pollard: 19).

The evolution of women's roles 10Isolated communities "have their own codes , myths, heroes, and social

standards. There are few neutrals in them to mediate the conflicts and dilute

the mass." (C.Kerr / A.Siegel: 191). Martin Bulmer proposes to replace the term

'isolated mass', which is usually used in this context, by the term 'occupational

community'. In his opinion "the 'isolated mass' hypothesis [is] [...] an

oversimplified view of the social structure of mining communities." (M.Bulmer,

1975: 71). Unlike the term 'isolated mass' 'occupational community' includes a

certain degree of voluntarity. "The three defining characteristics of an

occupational community [in this view] are that its members see themselves in

terms of their occupational roles; members of occupational communities share

a reference group composed of the occupational community; and members

associate with, and make friends of, other members, and so carry work

activities and interests into their non-work lives. The development of an

occupational self-image is important because the value systems held by

members of an occupation are frequently relevant not only to the worlds of

work but to many other aspects of members' lives." (M.Bulmer, 1975: 80).

As has been shown half of the members of these communities is excluded

from the work that determined their lives for about 150 years. "Yet although

employment prospects for women in mining areas have never been good, they

are nevertheless better than in the past (although much work is part-time).

Since 1945, improved communications have helped to break down both the

isolation and community spirit for which mining areas have been so

renowned." (A.John, 1986: 93). This isolation of the mining-communities had

far-reaching consequences for their members: A strong feeling of being

connected with the community developed. "So there was this insularity and

isolation and one became terrible attached to one's village and there was little

marrying out - I've noticed that.[...] husbands and wives generally came from

the same village, if not, from not very far away. There was very little cross-

breeding." (S.Chaplin, 1972: 6). Mining-communities developed their own

customs, "'they have thus acquired habits and ideas peculiar to themselves;

even their amusements are hereditary and peculiar (J.R.Leifchild: 197; quoted

in L.Fish, Vol.I: 10). The isolation as well as close family ties confirmed and

strengthened the culture and the ideologies of the mining-communities.

2.2.2.2 Economic predominance of miningThe colliery determined life in the community: it was its economic basis.

"Mining jobs represented a community resource; they were the basis of

community life in the Easington District. The jobs were, in a sense,

The evolution of women's roles 11'everyone's' as were the pits; nationalised 'on behalf of the people'."

(H.Beynon, 1984: 108).

In County Durham were employed in coal-mining:

Year % of the male population

1911 46.9

1921 49.5

1931 45.1

1961 24.9

1971 10.6

(Numbers from M.Bulmer, 1978 c: 22)

These numbers, however, include all communities in County Durham

which were not mining-communities, for example the administrative and

University town of Durham City. Typically more than 2/3 of the male

population in mining areas were miners - even in 1984: "In the Easington

District fifty per cent of all male jobs are in the pits." (H.Beynon, 1984: 105).

The mine owners not only provided the jobs but also a conciderable number of

houses for the miners - in 1925 for example they provided 49,000 houses in

the Durham coalfield (with a total workforce of 147,000 miners there), the rent

was regarded as part of the miners' wages. Providing these colliery houses

was not just humanitarian - it offered considerable advantages to the

mine owners:

"Such settlements were a great inducement to recruitment and

represented a considerable improvement on previous housing e.g.

farm labourers cottages. Also colliery villages created a ready supply

of labour when extra people were needed - villages were isolated by

nature and occupation so people often had no other choice than try

to obtain work at the pit. Another advantage (for the colliery owners)

that such proximity enabled men to be worked longer hours and

ensured punctual attendance. The colliery company truly controlled

access to work housing and retail credit all of which depended on

having a job and working hard enough to keep it." (K.Armstrong /

D.F.Wilson: 3).

2.2.2.3 The nature of workCoal-mining and quarrying were, after deep-sea diving, the industries in

Great Britain with the highest accident rates and with most fatal accidents.

The evolution of women's roles 12The danger of the job is one of the outstanding characteristics of coal-mining

and despite numerous safety precautions this is true even today! The process

of extracting coal under most adverse conditions (in great depths, in low and

often wet seams, with the permanent danger of explosions or roof-falls, etc.)

was at the same time dangerous and physically as well as mentally

extraordinarily exerting, mechanisation only gradually setting in because of

the geological conditions underground.

Geological and ecomomic conditions determined the working conditions in

the mines, therefore regional differences existed: "In Yorkshire, the North-East,

Lancashire and South Wales a combination of adverse geological conditions

and rapid industrial expansion combined at different periods to increase the

number of major disasters far above the national average. There were the

'gasey' seams in Northumberland, Durham and Lancashire" (J.Benson: 41).

Physical strength, courage and skill were necessary for mine-work,

qualities which evoked admiration for the mineworkers. In 1911

Winston Churchill told the British Parliament his opinion of the miners:

"A large modern colliery, with its intensive and carefully elaborated

equipment, including the various appliances for getting the coal and

bringing it to the surface of the ground, or transmitting power

through long distances underground, or causing great volumes of air

to flow through confined passages many miles in length, or draining

wide areas underground and raising water to the surface, or sorting

the coal into various sizes, separating it from the intermingled dirt;

that spectacle, as has been said, is one of the most remarkable

specimens of human activitiy in its struggle with and over

matter.'" (quoted in G.L.Atkinson: 19).

Beatrice Campbell gives this explanation for the admiration of miners:

"Miners are men's love object. They bring together all the necessary elements

of romance. Life itself is endangered, their enemy is the elements, their

tragedy derives from forces greater than they, forces of nature and vengeful

acts of God. That makes them victim and hero at the same time, which makes

them irresistable - they command both protection and admiration."

(B.Campbell, 1984(2): 97). The mineworker, meanwhile exclusively of the male

sex, was glorified, his life and work were equally idealized (cf. some of the

novels of D.H.Lawrence or George Orwell). Praise, admiration and glorification

were very effective means to appreciate the work of the miners on the one

The evolution of women's roles 13hand (after all Great Britain's power and wealth was based essentially on

coal!) and on the other hand to dissociate oneself from it because nobody else

really wanted to do this dirty and dangerous job or expected their children to

do it. The dangers of the pit and the admiration the miners experienced could

not remain without consequences on the miners themselves and their families.

In the narrow and often remote seams the miners worked in small groups,

usually responsible for themselves and little controlled by supervisors or

employers. Work, wages and even the survival of the individual depended very

much on a good cooperation with the work mates, more than in any other

industry. "The miner is always dependent on others, and the workers

underground must function as an efficient team. Cooperation is essential, not

only for productivity, but often also for survival.[...] This cooperation is also

found above ground; the mining community learned through a long series of

strikes and lockouts that it must be united to survive." (L.Fish, Vol.I: 19).

Solidarity, cooperation and group-orientation as well as occupational and

physical skills were therefore indispensible for the mining-communities.

Although these characteristics were seen as relating exclusively to the male

members of the mining-communities the women knew of the importance these

characteristics had on their own existence and future. Therefore they did not

openly oppose the obvious overrating of the men. The working conditions

having remained more or less the same until some decades ago hardly

anything changed in this field: "Despite great acceleration in production, the

opening of new pits and the deepening of existing shafts, the work of the man

on the coal-face remained very much the same as it had been for centuries,

and it is only in very recent years that machinery has replaced the pick and

shovel." (L.Fish, Vol.I: 16).

The evolution of women's roles 14

2.2.2.4 The leisure activitiesThe three characteristics talked about so far of the mining-communities

had a strong influence on the leisure activities of miners and their families.

Men's domination was reflected in the leisure: "Recreation has largely been

defined in terms of male expectations and opportunities which have meant

that women's use of their free time has been dismissed as frivolous or

unimportant." (A.John, 1982: 18). Frequently miners working together also

spent their free time together which again reinforced the influence pit-work

had on the miners' values. "Since the social relationships of work overlap with

those of residence and leisure, pit work carries over into leisure time."

(M.Bulmer, 1978 c: 26). Even the kind of leisure activities was determined by

the character of work: "The pattern of leisure in mining is dominated by

insecurity, which stems in part from the dangers of death, disablement or

injury in the work of a miner." (M.Bulmer, 1978 c: 31). Miners preferred sports

and other competitive activities (leek-growing for instance was very popular in

the North East of England and there were prizes given for the products). The

elements of strength, staying power and skill at work may have had an

influence on these kinds of leisure activities.

The most important leisure activity probably was to go to a pub or to a

Working Men's Club. Here the element of danger and insecurity may have had

a strong influence: Always to live in danger of injury or even death must have

fostered a leisure time organization which was oriented at "enjoying oneself in

the present". (M.Bulmer, 1978 c: 31). The importance drinking, sports or the

'Club' had shows that the offers the community made for the leisure time of its

members were exclusively oriented at the men.

In the North East of England the Working Men's Club often was the centre

of community life. It was a meeting place for workmates, neighbours, relatives

or friends. But: "The Club is primarily a male preserve - in some, women

cannot be members, only guests - and in most the attendance of wives would

be limited to the weekend concert." (M.Bulmer, 1978 c: 32). Mrs. Whitehall

said about the Club: "'My husband was a club man, you see, he liked to go to

the club, but most women didn't like that. I would never go, it wasn't nice.'"

(Whitehall: 11).

Most of the other facilities (such as pubs, institutes, reading rooms,

libraries, brass bands, the allotments, theatres, cinemas or playing fields

(cf. J.Benson: 142-163)) were almost exclusively used by men - if they were

The evolution of women's roles 15available at all! F.H.Smith from the Rhondda Valley said: "In our village we

have nothing for recreation, except a picture palace, the British Legion (men's

and women's sections), and unfinished playing fields." (F.H.Smith: 71).

Available and, which was very important, accessible to women were

facilities of Church and Chapel. "Our only relaxation was on Sunday where we

all turned out to Chapel and Sunday School. It was a pleasure to see the

miners and their families in their Sunday best." (E.Andrews: 3-4). The church

presented itself as a centre for women's activities and it was used as such.

Especially the social aspect meant much to the women: "Faith was

undoubtedly important to them, but so was the social side of the Chapel and

for many of them, their only sources of entertainment were penny readings,

Sunday school anniversaries or [...] singing festivals" (R.Crook: 40).

2.2.2.5 The familyIn hardly any other industry the character of work determined family life

as much as in coal-mining. It was not only the large number of accidents which

in single-industry communities (which the mining-communities in

Northumberland and Durham frequently were) left "'a company of aged men,

weak women, and helpless children'." (G.Parkinson: 42) but daily routine which

influenced families most. "The pit intruded everywhere. Even if he should be

lucky enough to avoid serious injury and crippling disease, the miner and

those around him had to learn to live with his tiredness, his aches and pains,

his ruptures and his rheumatism." (J.Benson: 113). Especially shift work had

very serious concequences for the families: Regardless of the shift the miner

worked on he always expected his breakfast and his bait prepared and a hot

meal at the end of his shift as well as a hot bath. In a mining family with not

just the father being a miner but also the sons and maybe even a lodger the

women of this family had to do these jobs at all times of the day. "The

economic and work organisation of the pit imposed a corresponding cycle of

cooking, washing and household demands." (A.John, 1982: 18).

Apart from caring for the miners, family had another function directly

connected with mine-work: In the long run it provided a sufficient number of

workers for the industry. On behalf of the risks and hardness of mine-work it

certainly was to the coal-industry's advantage if the children in

mining-communities were socialized in its way. "Relatively few men who are

strangers to mining want to endure its risks voluntarily. Only those who grow

up in the environment of mining, for whom the costs are an everyday feature,

The evolution of women's roles 16become immune to them. The mining family, therefore, serves to perpetuate

the mining industry. Anything then which destroys mining families is creating

problems for the future of the industry." (V.Allen, 1981: 84). It is not surprising

then, that women were kept as the centre of the families: Even if there had

been jobs for women in mining-communities, to work would have been morally

offensive: "The working-class wife was not supposed to work, at least outside

the home. To do so would offend her husband's manhood, for it would

demonstrate his inability to provide for her. It was firmly established in

working-class culture that only the sick or the depraved sent their wives out to

work, and indeed outside the textile towns only women whose husbands were

ill or injured or drunkards or otherwise unemployable normally worked."

(P.N.Stearns: 113).

The employers also tried to strengthen women's position in the family:

Single miners were not entitled to colliery houses. The status of marriage and

family was raised and for a long time miners married earlier than any other

occupational group!

The family was seen as the basic social and economic unit "and the

distinctive economic role of the wife was to service the existing work force and

produce the next generation of workers. In return for this 'vital work' husbands

had a moral and legal duty to provide their wives with the means of

subsistence." (H.Land: 109-110).

2.2.3 ConclusionsAs should be clear by now the mining-communities as well as the people

living in them were shaped by the collieries. Apart from the features of

mining-communities mentioned so far there are some more which shaped

women's roles. The communal sense in mining-communities, produced by

isolation and reinforced by the dangers of work led the miners to organise.

Therefore the mining unions (the MFGB and later the NUM) for many decades

were the strongest unions in Great Britain.

"Under these cicumstances, working people in the colliery villages

developed their own political and social institutions and relationships

to try to cushion the worst effects of living there and to counter the

power of the colliery owners. Politically, development centered

around the emergence of trade unions and the emerging Labour

Party.[...] Socially the villagers developed a system of mutual help

The evolution of women's roles 17since for working people in the colliery village there was no option

but to help themselves. In this sense, then, the necessary co-

operation of miners working underground and the close ties of

friendship and trust that this engendered spilled over into life outside

the pit." (K.Armstrong/ D.Wilson: 4).

Solidarity and mutual help not only existed among the miners but in the

entire community. A voice from South Hetton: "'People, if they didn't help each

other, it was a bad job, they had to help each other because they depended

upon help themselves sometime.'" (D.Wilson: 47). After all women were

isolated as well and an accident in the pit could always deprive them of their

husbands, their maintenance and even of their homes (for a long time widows

were not entitled to living in colliery-owned houses!). "Women live with the

drama and danger of the pits, they live their solidarity with the pitmen."

(B.Campbell, 1984: 102). "In that visceral fight for survival [against employers

and against geological forces] the miners had their community wrapped

around them. Throughout the nineteenth century the history of the industry

was also the history of the communities." (B.Campbell, 1986: 256).

This community spirit and solidarity are alive even today (despite

numerous opposite voices (cf. F.Atkinson: 96)) as the recent miners' stike has

shown very vividly.

2.3 Women's roles in mining - communities before 1984/85

2.3.1 IntroductionAs already indicated the collieries and the work therein influenced the

roles of the people in mining-communities, men as well as women. It is not

easy to separate the aspects to be dealt with in this chapter and overlaps can

hardly be avoided. The following statement by Sid Chaplin, a former

mineworker from the North East, touches on a number of these aspects: "For

some - amongst whom must be included the women - being born in a pit

village must have meant lifelong suffering and frustration. It must have

seemed a prison. For many it offered most of the things men seek - identity,

the recognition of their peers (what else is there to seek?), a place, carefully

defined boundaries, richness in work and leisure." (S.Chaplin, 1972: 27). The

prison character of the mining-community points at the isolation of the

community but also at the isolation from social and economic resources, at

missing possibilities for self-realization. (e.g.'frustration' and 'suffering'). The

The evolution of women's roles 18mining-community offered the men what it denied the women: Identity,

appreciation (e.g. in political organisations), taking part in community life

(women were bound to the home), fulfilment in work and in leisure. The

following chapters will try to verify these statements.

2.3.2 Excluding womenSince 1842 women were not allowed to work underground and by and by

they were banned form surface work as well5. Beatrice Campbell thinks that

"...the movement against the 'pit brow lasses' was about the regulation of

women, it was about the social definition of a feminine role." (B.Campbell,

1986: 256). The concequences of this exclusion were manyfold and lasting:

Women were bound to the home, they no longer took part in community life

which, as has been shown, was closely connected with pit-work. "Feminism

faded, women were domesticated" (B.Campbell, 1984 b: 101). They

disappeared from public life into a private sphere and became almost invisible

to the outside world. The community from then on took care only of the

miners, the men. "Mining communities have a very male character. The social

and cultural life is geared to those who toil beneath the soil. Between shifts

many communities appear like ghost towns, the men at work, the women at

home." (S.Taylor: 84).

2.3.3 Jobs for womenThere was hardly a way out of their situation for the women until only

recently because there were no jobs for them. Mrs.Hanlon described the

situation of the early twentieth century: "'We used to have to go down to the

council school to do cookery, we got cookery and housewifery down in the big

school in Fifth Street Horden. There were no jobs in Blackhall and the girls that

had left school before me all had to go to service in Hartlepool.'" (Hanlon: 14).

There were two more problems the women had to deal with: On the one hand

it was against Victorian values to work as a woman. On the other for a married

woman having a job meant twice the work: "In working-class families taking a

job did not mean the substitution of one form of menial labour for another. It

meant rather that the housewife would be expected to do her new job as well

as performing all her usual domestic duties." (J.Benson: 130). The situation has

not improved very much. In many mining-communities the colliery canteen

offered the only employment for women and payment for work the women

5 In the North East women no longer worked in coal-mines in 1842.

The evolution of women's roles 19had always done.

2.3.4 Women and leisureThe communities' leisure facilities were oriented at men's needs. Women

could seldomly use these facilities. They were tied to the home because of the

children and because men were not prepared to do part of the housework

which would have given women time for their own use. This had many

consequences: Women in mining-communities were traditionally housewives.

Unlike the men they did therefore not have a chance "of finding satisfaction in

gregarious patterns of communal socialability." (M.Bulmer, 1975: 86). Neither

could they organize and so break out of their isolation.

2.3.5 The union and the womenUnions played a very important role in mining-communities. This was also

true for "An area such as Northumberland and Durham, which by the 1890s

was the most strongly unionised in the whole of the country, with over 11 per

cent of the entire population belonging to some union or other," (M.Bulmer,

1978 b: 91). Because they did not work at the pit women were excluded from

this important element of the community6.

Another barrier was that "social activities and politics were so closely

related for miners" (A.John, 1982: 19) which kept women away from politics.

The union itself helped to keep women from their ranks7. Its solidarity

hardly ever applied to the women and to the women's interests. "The labour

movement has been used by and for men to the almost total exclusion of

women's interests; it is a movement effectively hijacked by the men's

movement." (B.Campbell, 1986: 251). In her book 'Wigan Pier Revisited' which

was written before the miners' strike of 1984/85 Beatrice Campbell reports the

following event: "A woman in the Northeast involved in a campaign to improve

colliery houses arrived at a lodge meeting with material on the houses of its

members 'They told me "we've never let a woman on before and we're not

going to now" and they didn't.'" (B.Campbell, 1984 b: 110).

6 Today women who work in the colliery's canteen or in the administration are NUM members.7 Here the question arises why women should have the right to a say in the union at all: Unlike any other industry coal-mining determines women's lives very drastically, which is the reason for their wish to have some influence on the industry.

The evolution of women's roles 202.3.6 Masculinity and muscularity

Coal-mining was essentially based on physical strength and after women's

exclusion from the industry men alone were praised: "The male culture, or the

cult of masculinity as some authors have called it, arises from and is

constantly reproduced and re-created by, the dangerous nature of work in the

pit" (S.Miller: 357). Their fight against nature, against powerful geological

forces, made them heroes not only in the eyes of outsiders but for the women

in mining-communities as well. This cult of masculinity brought some

advantages and admiration for the miners but it could only be kept up as long

as women remained excluded - not just from minework but from all the other

male-dominated areas of the community as well. "So it is that the fetish of

masculinity is fashioned in men-only milieus" (B.Campbell, 1984 b: 98).

Therefore men were not prepared to support attempts to improve women's

situation. On the contrary: miners often developed beliefs and customs which

counteracted these attempts. It is quite revealing that miners thought women

brought bad luck and were therefore not allowed to enter the mines. Some

miners even returned home if they met a woman on their way to work!

Sometimes they did not go at all: "Men generally won't go to work if their bait

isn't made for them. They very, very rarely prepare it themselves"

(D.Douglass, 1975: 304).

The miners took it for granted that women stayed at home and took care

of the house, children and of the men. They expected a clean home, a hot

bath and a meal when they returned from work. Men's work was finished at

the end of their shift - women's work was not. Some examples show men's

attitudes: "In between I'd say [there] was a sizeable majority who split the

responsibility, she the running of the home and the family, he the pit and his

own leisure, meeting all reasonable demands." (S.Chaplin, 1978: 30). The split

responsibility might have looked like this: "'The married men among us who

had small babies used to bring the babies there [to the cricket ground] while

the wives did the housework.'" (B.L.Coombes; quoted in J.Benson: 164). There

seems to have been a different understanding of equality in

mining-communities which becomes clear again in G.L.Atkinson's statement:

"Amazingly, women are now working underground - in the USA as a result of

"sex equality" legislation. So much for progress!" (G.L.Atkinson: 7-8). It is not

surprising that women approved of or shared men's attitudes. After all the

miners risked their lives for the women and families. Mrs.Whitehall about her

husband: "He was the type who liked me here in the home. If he'd been to the

club he liked me here waiting when he got back." (Whitehall: 12). She never

The evolution of women's roles 21questions her husband's attitude in the interview.

The miners' demands had become a tradition in the mining-communities

and like most traditions were difficult to be changed. "Precisely because

mining communities are close and supportive, several generations of families

live in close proximity and the traditions of family life are observed and

repeated. Because one's father did little around the house one does not

expect one's own husband to do much." (S.Taylor: 85).

2.3.7 FamilyThrough men's work the pit determined women's lives and families.

Women's work was almost exclusively for the miners: "'It was the job of the

girls of the family to ease the lives of the miners by having hot water ready to

fill the tin bath, and after the bath we had to wash out the flappers and socks

and put them to dry.'" (A.Hodges: 19; quoted in J.Benson: 129).

Kellogg Durland said it even more drastically: "'The men were looked upon as

the wage earners, and the lives of the women were given up to making them

comfortable.'" (K.Durland: 118; quoted in J.Benson: 128).

For a better understanding of women's roles some aspects of family life

shall be looked at here. On the one hand shift work at the pit prevented

women form pursuing their own interests and from organizing. They were tied

to the home because they had to look after the miners. "You'd get up and see

their tin bottles filled with water and put up their bait. Jam and bread or sugar

in those days, that's all they'd take." (Nichols: 9). Or:

"'Me father went to work at 4 o'clock. He'd probably get up at 3. The women

would get up and make the breakfast and have it ready for him. Now she

might have me brothers going down the pit at 4.00. She'd stay up for them get

their breakfasts. It would be quarter to four at the earliest when she got back

to bed again. Then she'd get back up at half past seven or eight to set us off to

school. The one that went out at 4, he would come back in at 11.00 in the

morning she'd have a meal on for him have a meal on for the lads comin in, a

meal on for us comin from school. Then in the meantime she'd have a big

metal pan on the fire filled with water, that plus the boiler that was attached to

the fire to get the bath water. A zinc bath stood on the floor. They took turns in

washing in that. The women were the 'heroes' they worked harder, and helped

each other too, I think all in all they worked longer, harder shifts than the

The evolution of women's roles 22men.'" (D.F.Wilson: 48).

Women not only had no time to organize they were also isolated by the

housework. "Housework is also very isolating - it is something carried out in

private and on an individual basis" (J.Coulter / et.al: 204).

Another aspect was that housework was not regarded as 'real work'. Only

work which was subject to the forces of the market was valued - in

mining-communities only men's work. But women had no choice. They had to

work at home and, hardly astonishing, they tried to raise their work's value:

"Cleanliness, constant scrubbing and diligence in household tasks was as

important to the wife (for many years the whitest doorstep was a very

important status symbol and source of pride) as hewing the coal was to her

husband." (M.Holderness: 27)8. This pride in housework reinforced the existing

conditions - the husband earned the money and the wife looked after the

home and the children - and it would have been difficult to break out of these

conditions. Difficult because it would have been against tradition AND against

one's socialisation: "Sons are destined to be miners, and daughters the wives

of miners. This is reinforced by occupational homogeneity, and social and

geographical isolation from the rest of society." (M.Bulmer, 1978 c: 33).

Therefore women remained economically and politically powerless.

2.3.8 Identity

The three aspects had to have an effect on women and on their identity. It

also had to influence the picture others had of them.

"In mining communities women rarely have an identity that can be

called their own, they are either miners' wives or miners' daughters.

You are always introduced to new people by reference to that

relationship and always have to live with the fact that it is assumed

that your opinions are identical to those of your menfolk. In my

experience this definition of women by your relationship to men

undermines your self-confidence and sense of identity. Always to

define yourself as relating to an industry which offers no role for

women, or recognition of your value outside of the home, means that

it is difficult to have an image of yourself or your future, except

8 Cleanliness was important because it was seen as a victory over the dirt and insecurity of the pit and its attendant circumstances: poverty, hard work and a cheerless environment. "'The women work very hard - too hard - trying to cheat the greyness that is outside by a clean and cheerful show within.'" (B.L.Coombes: 21; quoted in J.Benson: 129).

The evolution of women's roles 23through a man. At one level it means that you always view yourself

as of secondary importance." (S.Taylor: 85)

Without identity, without own opinions and in the end without self-

confidence women could not effectively and powerfully fight for their interests.

They usually accepted their fate: "Most miners' wives accept the fact that their

first responsibility is to make sure their husbands' food is ready when he

returns and that he comes into a comfortable home." (M.Pitt: 76). The

following statements by some miners' wives have the same tenor:

"I think that if a woman's got a home, she should stay in and look after the

children. There's some of them that are just left to run wild. I liked to know

where she was, my daughter, even when she was 19." (Dixon: 5)

Or: "You always had to have a hot meal ready for your husband. The girls were

brought up to it in a way. That's just the way it was." (Nichols: 9).

Or: "I had a nice, happy childhood. I went to school in Brandon and when I left

school I learned shorthand and typing. I got my first post at the Miners Hall,

Redhills, Durham and was there until the end of the 1918 war. I enjoyed it, but

of course we had to give up when the men came back" (Gee: 13).

'A woman should stay in', 'That's just the way it was', 'of course we had to

give up': Obviously women did not rebel against the existing role structure,

they more or less kept in the background. There are hardly any publications by

women from mining-communities from the time before the miners' strike

1984/85, miners' autobiographies rarely mention women and even historians

started only about twenty years ago to research their roles in the past "and so

half the population disappears off the historical map." (WCCPL: 25).

2.3.9 And today...Mining-communities hardly changed until the second world war. Like

mining, its work methods and working conditions, the communities remained

in their essential characteristics as they had been for centuries. Only with the

rapid development of mass media and of communications new ideas and

values entered the mining-communities and partly ended the isolation which

in turn had to influence men's and women's roles. "It was in the 1960s that

younger miners started to drink somewhere less rough and ready where they

weren't ashamed to take their wives or girlfriends." (M.Pollard: 25). A better

The evolution of women's roles 24economic and social situation also helped considerably to change the

mining-communities: "Part of all this can be explained simply by greater

affluence and by Britain's national surrender to the consumer philosophy. But

it would not have been possible if conditions underground had not altered the

colliers' perception of themselves. This change can be put down largely to

mechanisation. [...] It would be surprising if this change had not been reflected

in the collier's surface life." (M.Pollard: 25-26). Pollard describes this effect in

more detail:

"At Grimethorpe, near Barnsley, one of the centres of the British

macho-collier tradition, it was said in 1982 that about half the

married men were owner occupiers. With owner-occupation went a

different way of life: landscaped gardens, fitted kitchens, pedigree

dogs, holidays in the States or Hawaii, even dreams of private

education for the children. Face-workers whose fathers wouldn't even

bring the coal in from the shed were to be found hoovering, changing

nappies, seeing the children off to school. One in six of Grimethorpe's

men played golf regularly, some shift workers turning up for a round

at dawn. There were still twelve-pint-a-night men to be found, but

many others opted for a video in the lounge and a drop of homebrew

or even a glass of wine made up from a Boots' kit." (M.Pollard: 25)

Despite all the changes of the last two decades traditional values and

beliefs stayed alive even in those mining-communities whose colliery had long

been closed: "'...the social patterns and attitudes of a single-occupation

community have outlasted the extinction of coal mining (in the town) since the

war; this is evidenced in the more localised kinship and friendship network, the

communication of local information relatively more through conversation than

through newspapers, and in the continuing importance and popularity of the

Working Men's Clubs.'"9 (C.C.Taylor / A.R.Townsend: 141; quoted in M.Bulmer,

1978 c: 41).

Women's roles had hardly changed until 1984/85. Many women worked

then but most of them only part-time, their wages were usually lower than

men's. In the collieries the highest paid women earned less than the lowest

paid man! And there were other kinds of discrimination as well: "men and

women do not receive identical treatment under our present social security

system, for a woman's rights to benefit are determined by her marital status

to an extent to which a man's entitlement is not." (H.Land: 108). Women, not

9 The author talks about Spennymoor.

The evolution of women's roles 25only those in mining-communities, were still rather dependent on their

husbands and the supportive character of their roles hardly changed.

In her studies Margaret Holderness found out that "All the women

I interviewed agreed that support for the husband was important and

necessary." (M.Holderness: 35)10. The conservative government under prime

minister Margaret Thatcher helped to strengthen women's traditional roles:

"Thatcher and her all-male cabinet have pursued policies which are

designed to make life worse for most women. They do not hide their aims.

Back in 1983 the Tory Family Policy Group outlined its plans for women. It

aimed:'...to encourage families to resume responsibilities taken on by the

state, for example, responsibility for the disabled, the elderly and unemployed

16 years old'. In other words they were saying that a woman's place is in the

home doing free of charge, work previously done by the welfare state.[...] The

March 1985 budget confirmed this plan with proposals that a married man's

tax allowances should be raised to the same level as it would be if both

partners were working, to make it 'economically attractive' for the wife to stay

at home." (Workers Power, 1985: 2).

10 M.Holderness interviewed 18 women who as daughters or wives of miners were connected with coal-mining. Because of the small number of interviewees and even more because of her method of selecting them M.Holderness' study is not representative: She chose women who were very independent, self-confident and politically committed. This, however, makes the quotation even more interesting!

Women in industrial disputes before 1984/85 26

3. Women in industrial disputes of the coal industry before   1984/85

3.1 Introduction The image of the women in mining-communities given so far (the

oppressed, passive, and submissive housewife) could lead to the assumption

that women never took part in industrial disputes. Only in recent years

historians proved this widely spread assumption wrong: Women always took

part, either actively or in support of their husbands. "The actions of male

workers to get better pay or conditions, or just to keep their jobs, have always

been made possible by women taking care of everything else whilst the men

were out organising." (Lambeth Women's ...: 32). Publicly, however, their

activities were hardly noticed and only a small number of documents is

available. Angela V.John studied some of them. Here are some examples:

"In 1844, women resisted evictions and scabs in the north-east.

Disputes in the 1860s saw Lancashire women addressing public

meetings and collecting funds. Whilst in Wales they attacked

'blacklegs' with stones, saucepans and frying pans - many were

arrested. In 1904, during a stoppage at Maesteg, Glamorgan, over

the employment of non-unionists, women exerted pressure on

landladies, issuing eviction notices to all non-Federation lodgers."

(A.John, 1986: 89).

Women not only supported the miners, they also fought for

themselves - and with good reasons: "'Nearly every convenience which the

nature of the miners' occupation demanded had to be furnished and

maintained by the drudgery of the womenfolk.'" (R.Page Arnot; quoted in

B.Campbell, 1984 b: 103).

An example is the dispute in South Wales in 1909-10:

"A new eight-hour-day law had prompted mine owners to set up

multiple work shifts. One of the leading causes of the strike was that

housewives had to prepare meals at all hours of the day, because

sons and husbands rarely managed to work the same shift. Women

took an unusually prominent role in the strike, stoning shops and

policemen." (M.Vincinus: 107).

Women in industrial disputes before 1984/85 27Two out of many of womens's activities before 1984/85 will be described

below.

3.2 The Miners' Lock-Out of 1926 After the end of the 1926 General Strike the miners stayed out for

another seven months. Women in mining-communities became active on a

local as well as on a national and international scale.

"Women's sections, and a national Women's Committee, operated

throughout the strike, and their main efforts were devoted to fund-

raising and distribution of food and clothing. An account of their work

was published in 1927 called 'Women and the Miners' Lockout', which

summarises their role as that of 'an industrial Red Cross'. Fund-

raising appeals were published in the press, and money was raised

by demonstrations. Selling miners' lamps was a key-method of fund-

raising, and this was done on an international scale.[...] There were

specific arrangements for providing food for pregnant and nursing

mothers, and a number of miners' children were sent on 'pilgrimages'

to stay with sympathisers elsewhere during the strike."11 (Women

fight for pits: 30).

Bella Jolly was one of the women who were active in 1926 in Stanley,

County Durham. She reported of money and clothes collections, free meals for

the children, etc. "'To help all relief cases we used to have bands parading and

have collections [...]. We used to meet twice a week and dole out these little

bits of collection.'" (M.Callcott, 1985: 41).

Elizabeth Andrews remembers the activities of the women's organisation

in Wales: "During all these months our people never lost hope. They kept busy

with soup kitchens, concerts, jazz bands, competitive meetings, and many

other activities." (E.Andrews: 25-26). The women formed sewing committees

and altered old clothes, food was distributed to people in need. Parcels came

from all over the world. Women even organized public relations: "Mrs.Beatrice

Green, of Abertillery, [...] Mrs.Johnna James, Tonypandy, and Mrs.Herman,

Pentre, also addressed meetings in London. The three were miner's wives and

good speakers." (E.Andrews: 25). It was the aim of these activities to support

the miners in their fight or as Mrs Andrews put it: "the women stood loyally by

11 The account of women's work in 1926 is: Marion Phillips: Women and the Miners' Lock-out (M.Phillips).

Women in industrial disputes before 1984/85 28their menfolk in their struggle for higher pay, shorter hours and better

conditions." (E.Andrews: 4). Mrs Jolly saw herself and the women's support

movement as the heart of the entire labour movement: "'If the Labour

movement has to go down in history, one of its finest achievements is how the

women stood by their men in 1926, and I really believe that.'" (M.Callcott,

1985: 42).

3.3 Women's fight for pit-head baths One of coal-mining's main characteristics is the dirt it produces. At the

end of their shifts the miners are covered with coal dust, their clothes are dirty

and often wet. Daily the women had to prepare a hot bath for the miners

which could be rather difficult in times when there were no bathrooms in

people's houses. At the beginning of the twentieth century the demand for pit-

head baths came up and the Coal Mines Act from 1911 made the mine owners

build them - IF two third of the miners voted for them! This they rarely did

despite the great advantages pit-head baths would have brought them. The

miners' lack of commitment for the women's cause "can be treated as a classic

case of patriarchal priorities in class struggle." (B.Campbell, 1984 b: 106). The

miners wanted to keep their influence and power over the women, they

wanted to further control women's labour and time.

Although women were successful in the end it took a long time until pit-

head baths were built at every colliery: In the North East less than half of the

collieries had pit-head baths when the coal industry was nationalized in 1947.

Clubs and institutes however existed almost in every mining-community

(cf. G.L.Atkinson: 15 / B.Campbell, 1984 b: 104).

A Durham guildswoman explained the improvements by the pit-head

baths: "My home life has been greatly improved by the inception of the baths,

a cleanliness which is very noticeable as compared with the time prior to the

building of the baths." (Pit-Head Baths: 139). Less work and more spare time

were the consequences but women did not always use this time for

themselves: "More attention can be paid by the housewife in preparing the

table for meals for the workers after coming home from the baths." (Pit-Head

Baths: 139).

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 29

4. The 1984/85 Miners' Strike and women's roles

4.1 Introduction This chapter will attempt to show if and how the roles of women in

mining-communities changed in the Miners' Strike 1984/85. A short

introduction to the strike - its origins and the course it took - opens the

chapter, followed by a description of women's activities during the strike and

by a comparison of their activities with women's activities in former disputes.

In order to obtain a more complete picture of women's roles during and after

the strike and of the way they see themselves publications by the women will

be examined from this point of view. The chapter closes with an assessment of

women's roles during and after the strike.

4.2 The background to the Miners' Strike 1984/85

4.2.1 The run-down of the industry 1947-1984Having reached its peak of production in 1913 the British coal industry

continuously contracted, the two world wars brought only short-term recovery.

Collieries had always been closed when the seams were exhausted or when no

more coal could be mined because of adverse geological conditions. The

miners had known this for centuries. After 1913, however, more pits were

closed than sunk.

For the British coal industry the year 1947 was a very important year: The

Nationalisation Act of the year before nationalised the industry on

January 1, 1947. The miners thought a new era had begun with workers'

control of the industry and with an end to exploitation. Their hopes came only

partly true.

In 1947 the National Coal Board not only took over the coal industry but

also debts of about 358 million pounds which had been paid to the former

mine owners in compensation. At the same time the demand for coal

increased in the post-war years. Therefore the industry had to produce as

much coal as it could. There was no money for large-scale modernisation

which could have made the mines more efficient and would have delayed pit

closures.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 30Although the 'Plan For Coal' from 1950 predicted increases in production

the conservative governments of the 1950s pursued a different energy policy:

Nuclear energy and oil should replace coal as soon as possible. Some years

later, in 1957, the government tried to keep the coal price as low as possible

in the home market, the NCB bore the losses. Cheap oil from the Middle East

weakened coal's market position even further. The NUM about this: "'In our

opinion it is clear that imported oil is being given a priority over coal because

of the political and economic power wielded by the oil interests.'" (quoted in

T.Hall: 79).

Pit closures on a large scale followed in the 1960s. Between 1956

and 1974 the workforce was reduced by two-thirds, 3/4 of the collieres were

closed and production sank to about 1/2. Nuclear energy also added to the

coal industry's decline. The nuclear power station at Hartlepool alone cost

about 5,000 jobs in the Durham coalfield (cf.North East Trade Union Studies

Information Unit: 6).

Here are some numbers:12

1.   Great Britain:

Year Number Number of Outputof pits employed (million tons)

1860 - - 83.3

1900 - - 228.8

1913 >3000 ca.1,250,000 292.0

1947 980 ca.750,000 197.0

1957 - ca.711,000 224

1967/8 317 380,000 ca.170

1970/1 292 350,000 151.3

1982/3 ca.200 194,000 ca.120

1983/4 176 181,000 105.3

1985 - 172,363 -

1987 - 115,000 -

12 Numbers are taken from: V.Allen: 38-41; G.L.Atkinson: 10; A.Glyn: 15-17; G.Goodman: 35, 64-65; A.L.Morton: 496; The National Coal Board; North East Trade Union Studies Information Unit: 7; M.Pollard: 24-25; J.Stead: 1.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 312. North East Area

Year Number Number of Outputof pits employed (million tons)

1873 - ca.77,000 ca.29.5

1900 - 153,000 46.3

1911/3 - 227,000 56.4

1947 201 148,000 -

1967/8 - ca.62,000 -

1982/3 - - 15.7

1983/4 15 23,000 12

1985 13 20,000 -

1987 8 17,000 9

In the 46 years between 1926 and 1972 the National Union of

Mineworkers hardly fought against these pit closures. "The rundown of the

industry in the 1950s and 1960s was accepted with relative acquiescence by

the National Union of Mineworkers and their successive communist general

secretaries Horner and Paynter." (K.O.Morgan: 283). Full employment and a

policy of 'social consensus' probably were the reasons for the NUM's

passiveness.

Two national miners' strikes in 1972 and in 1974 made the importance of

coal aware to the public: The oil crisis of the early 1970s brought up the price

of oil enormously. Between 1970 and 1973 it rose by about 600%! This

strengthened the miners' position in their fight for pay rises.

A new Labour government13 drew up a new 'Plan For Coal'. "The Plan for

Coal, agreed in 1974, signalled the turn-around. The industry was to be

expanded through a huge investment programme. Deep-mined output would

be 120 million tonnes by 1985." (D.Thomas: 31-32). Production was to be

increased mainly by developing coal reserves which had been unmineable

before. "A new mood of optimism entered the industry with Plan for Coal. But,

in the event, the government and the NCB failed to keep their side of the

bargain. Less coal was mined last year [1983] than when Plan for Coal was

signed and coal's share of the energy market has fallen." (D.Thomas: 32). But

the Labour government concentrated on nuclear energy as well. In 1975/6

51.4% of the Department of Energy's budget went into research of nuclear

13 Edward Heath had called general elections in February 1974 to get a decision on who governed the country - he or the miners. The majority of the people, however, was tired of the disputes which meant short time work for many and Heath was defeated.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 32energy but only 7.4% went into the development of coal technology, even

less, 4.3%, into alternative energy sources (numbers from North East Trade

Union Studies Information Unit: 7).

The election of a conservative government in 1979 forwarded nuclear

energy even more. 'Plan For Coal' no longer was the guideline for the

government's energy policy. On the contrary: It powerfully pursued a policy

away from coal. There are several reason for this:

The government under prime minister Margaret Thatcher pursued a

monetarist policy: Private ownership and free market economy, as little state

intervention as possible. The coal industry was not privately owned and it was

heavily subsidised. Therefore the government took it in their hands to

privatise the coal industry. First steps towards this were the Coal Industry Act

from 1980 which replaced production targets (which the 'Plan For Coal' laid

down in 1974) by financial targets. These financial targets were set so high

that they could only be met by closing so-called uneconomic pits. This policy

was strengthened by the MMC's advice to reorganise the NCB into "area units

of accounting" (North East Trade Union Studies Information Unit: 8) which

made it impossible to compensate losses in some areas with gains in others.

All of these measures were to make the coal industry more attractive for

private investors. Another important step was to rename the NCB 'British Coal'

in 1985.

The conservative government showed a hostility to the labour movement

in general and to the miners in particular. The miners were still seen as the

archetypal proletarians (despite their comparatively small number) and

Edward Heath's defeat in 1974 was still ascribed to the miners.

Margaret Thatcher who had been member of the cabinet of Edward Heath

wanted to avoid such a defeat: She prepared very carefully for a dispute with

the miners. In 1981 she avoided a strike by yielding to the miners' demands.

"The truth is that the government was not ready to sit out a prolonged strike

with the miners." (G.Goodman: 23). The Coal Industry Act was taken back too.

4.2.2 The state preparesThe Ridley Report from 1978 became the government's guideline for its

energy policy. In the appendix to this report, which examined the future of the

national industries and their privatisation, a number of measures was

proposed for a preparation of the state for a dispute with the miners - as the

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 33most probable among the national industries:

* coal stocks were to be increased

* as soon as possible power stations should turn from

coal firing to oil firing

* coal imports were to be increased

* transport companies should employ non-union drivers

* welfare benefits were to be cut for strikers and

their families

* a special mobile squad of police should be set up

"to deal with any social disorder arising from

picketing and industrial violence." (G.Goodman: 29).

The government kept close to the recommendations of the Ridley Report.

At the end of 1981 NCB directors and CEGB regional chairmen were instructed

to begin stockpiling of coal. At the same time the Department of Energy was

ordered by the cabinet to increase the use of oil in power stations, a hard blow

to the coal industry which in 1983/84 sold approximately 70% of its produce to

the CEGB. Coal imports were encouraged. "In May 1980 the Social Security

(no 2) Bill was introduced giving the DHSS power to assume that workers on

strike are receiving strike pay and reduce benefits on this basis." (North East

Trade Union Studies Information Unit: 8).

Very far-reaching were the measures concerning the police:

"During 1982 Scotland Yard and the Home Office made plans to

change police training methods with industrial unrest very much in

mind. Mobile riot-squad police had already been introduced to some

of the major cities: they were very much in evidence in London,

especially in zones of racial tension. And under cover of special

training, ostensibly designed to deal with operative IRA cells, police

training was substantially changed between 1981 and 1984. Police

were also singled out for pay increases well beyond the general

industrial norm." (G.Goodman: 33).

On September 1, 1983 Ian MacGregor, who in the USA and later at the

BSC had proved his anti-union position, became chairman of the NCB. For

Margaret Thatcher he seemed to be "an ideal figure to take on Scargill and the

miners." (G.Goodman: 27).

At the end of winter, when preparations were almost finished and the

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 34trade union and labour movement seemed to be little inclined for a fight, the

National Coal Board announced the closure of Cortonwood colliery as well as

further cuts in production with a loss of 20,000 jobs.

Yorkshire miners came out on strike on March 6, a date generally

regarded as the beginning of the Miners' Strike 1984/85.

4.2.3 A short chronology of the strikeTo examine women's roles in the strike it is not necessary to know the

exact course of events which can be read about in the respective

publications14. Here only a short outline of the events will be given (mostly

following G.Goodman: 1-12):

March 1984

* Yorkshire miners went on strike (March 6), miners in Durham and Kent

followed (March 9). On March 12 the strike started nationally.

* Twenty-four year old David Jones was killed while on picket duty at Ollerton

colliery, Yorkshire (March 15).

* Power unions advised their members to cross NUM picket lines (March 22)

* NUR, ASLEF, Transport Salaried Staffs' Association, TGWU and ISTC agreed

upon a blockage of coal in support of the NUM (March 29)

April 1984

* Nottinghamshire miners voted against a strike and decided to work. (April 5)

* The NUM executive changed its rules: A simple majority was sufficient to call

a strike (before 55% had been necessary).

* A MORI poll showed a majority of 68% in favour of the strike.

May 1984

* Clashes with the police at Raivenscraig steelworks ended with three men

injured and 65 arrested when police broke up a picket line (May 8).

14 E.g.: M.Adeney/J.Lloyd; H.Beynon, 1985; A.Callinicos/ M.Simons; G.Goodman; J.Lloyd; I.MacGregor; R.Ottey; P.Scraton/P.Thomas; L.Sutcliffe/B.Hill; M.Walker; P.Wilsher/et.al.; D.Reed/O.Adamson; B.Fine/R.Millar; Blood Sweat & Tears; etc.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 35* Barnsley Women Against Pit Closures organised a women's march. Women

from all over Britain took part (May 12)

* Anne Scargill was arrested for 'wilful obstruction' at Silverhill colliery

(May 16).

* First meeting of NUM and NCB since the strike began lasted less than thirty

minutes (May 23).

* About 5,000 people picketed the Orgreave coking plant. 82 were arrested,

among them Arthur Scargill, and 62 people injured (May 29/30).

June 1984

* The Daily Mirror revealed how the government weakened the rail workers'

support for the miners by giving in to their demands (June 5).

* 12,000 people demonstrated in London on the occasion of a House of

Commons debate on the strike. 100 people were arrested (June 7).

* Talks of NCB and NUM taken up again in Edinburgh (June 8).

* The miner Joe Green was killed at Ferrybridge power station by a lorry

(June 15).

* About 3,000 police and 10,000 miners fought the heaviest battle of the

strike. 93 arrests. Arthur Scargill injured (June 18).

* In the Sunday Times Jean McCrindle proposed associate membership for

miners' wives in the NUM.

July 1984

* Home Secretary William Whitelaw allowed the application of the criminal law

instead of the civil law against the miners.

* NUM and NCB enter into new negotiations. There was a chance of bringing

their positions into line (July 5-9).

* A national dock strike was called because workers who were not members of

the TGWU unloaded coal.

* The government kept about £6.8 million tax repayments from the miners.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 36* The national dock strike was called off (July 21).

* The first conference of National Women Against Pit Closures was held at

Northern College, Barnsley (July 22).

* Chancellor Nigel Lawson announced the strike had cost already £300-

350 million. "'Even in narrow financial terms it represents a worthwhile

investment for the good of the nation'." (quoted in G.Goodman: 6) (July 31)

August 1984

* NWAPC organised a rally in London. The women handed over a petition to

the Queen (August 11).

* Miners slowly began to drift back to work.

* For the first time the TUC discussed the Miners' Strike (August 22).

* A second dock strike was called when British Steel- workers unloaded coal in

Hunterston (August 23).

* Striking miners visited the peace camp in Greenham.

September 1984

* After three weeks the second dock strike was called off.

* The Bishop of Durham, David Edward Jenkins, demanded MacGregor's

resignation.

October 1984

* Meanwhile the strike had cost £600 million.

* The unemployment rate climbed to 13.6% (3,284,000) (October 5).

* ACAS took up negotiations with NUM and NCB (October 6).

* Greenham Common women donated food to the support groups.

* Talks with ACAS ended without positive result (October 15).

* The pit deputies' union NACODS announced a national strike (October 16).

* NACODS called off the strike after the NCB had made concessions to them

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 37(October 23).

* NUM funds were seized by a court decision (the NUM had failed to pay a

£200,000 fine) (October 25).

* Talks with ACAS were stopped.

* The NCB tried to lure miners back to work with Christmas bonuses.

* The Christmas Appeal 1984 was launched.

November 1984

* A Mines Not Missiles rally was held in York (November 3).

* A national conference of the Women's Action Groups took place in

Chesterfield (November 10-11).

* About 1,900 miners had returned to work (November 12).

* Taxidriver David Wilkie was killed by a concrete block thrown from a bridge

through the roof of his taxi. Wilkie took a working miner to a colliery in

South Wales.

December 1984

* Toys for miners' children came from all over the world.

* The Christmas Appeal was published in the press.

* Nottinghamshire miners decided to make their area more independent

(December 11).

January 1985

* Return to work continued slowly

*  620 miners had been sacked since March 1984 and only 38 had been

reinstated.

February 1985

* South Wales and Durham wanted to end the strike (February 26).

* According to NCB figures 50% of the miners had returned to work.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 38March 1985

* The NCB announced the end of the strike without settlement (March 3).

* The miners march back to their collieries together with women and children

(March 5).

4.2.4 What was the Miners' Strike about?Unlike all former national miners' strikes the Miners' Strike 1984/85 was

not about pay rises, shorter work hours or improved working conditions. It was

about something far more basic: miners' jobs and consequently the mining-

communities.

4.2.4.1 JobsIt seems to be paradoxical that miners defended what they had, almost

traditionally, condemned: The jobs in the pits.

Almost every miner did NOT want his son to work in the pit. He knew the

dangers and risks of working there and he knew of the price many miners and

their families had to pay. But there were hardly ever any other jobs in

mining-communities and most men and youths ended working in the pit.

Another aspect was that the pit always offered a job in case someone was not

qualified for another.

Job prospect had steadily worsened until 1984: Unemployment rose

from 2% in 1955 to almost 20% in 1985 (c.f.North East Trade Union Studies

Information Unit: 14). And still the collieries often were the largest and only

employers in mining-communities:

"'Coalfield communities have a distinctive employment structure.

In 1981, the most recent date for which local statistics are available,

coal provided just under 30 per cent of the jobs for men - 214,000

out of three quarters of a million... The dependence on coal and

manufacturing poses tremendous problems for coalfield

communities. It is not merely that they lack diversity and are

vulnerable to job losses in their main industries: structural changes in

the national economy also disadvantage them.'" (S.Fothergill /

G.Gudgin; quoted in G.Goodman: 15).

So the jobs in the pits were as important to the community as they had

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 39been for centuries.

4.2.4.2 The community"When a works closes down, the community dies. I have experienced this,

as I come from Esh Winning, just outside Durham. It's a ghost town now, the

nearest pit is about 24 miles away." (P.Clarney: 27)15. This statement makes

clear what the existing mining-communities will undergo when their pits are

closed. In the past many communities had been spared this fate because

miners whose pit had been closed had been transferred to other pits or other

industries. In 1984 this possibility was no longer open because of a high

unemployment rate and the general contraction of the mining industry. The

concequences for the communities are higher unemployment, less spending

power, moving away of small businesses and of young people who try to find a

job elsewhere. The people in mining-communities did not want to face these

prospects and just stand by - they tried to save their communities in 1984.

"What the miners, like most of us, mean by their communities is the places

where they have lived and want to go on living, where generations not only of

economic but of social effort and human care have been invested, and which

new generations will inherit. Without that kind of strong whole attachment,

there can be no meaningful community." (R.Williams, 1985: 8). This the miners

and their families set out to defend. Raphael Samuel talked of the spirit of the

strike as a "radical conservatism [...][,] it was a defence of the known against

the unknown, the familiar against the alien, the local against the anonymous

and the gigantesque." (R.Samuel, 1986 b: 22). "Job security, personal dignity

were, on the miners' side, the issues at stake in the strike; family, hearth and

home the most potent of its mobilising appeals; 'old-fashioned' values its

continual point of reference." (R.Samuel, 1986 b: 23).

It were mainly these aspects which mobilised the women in the

mining-communities.

4.3 Women's activities in the Miners' Strike 1985/85 "The scale of the miners' wives organisation and participation is

unprecedented. 'In 1974 the strike was about money. It wasn't the

end of the world if we didn't win. This one is much more important.

We're fighting for ourselves, our children and our communities.' It is

15 Esh Winning closed in 1968

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 40in this that the women have subtly challenged the character, indeed

purpose, of the strike." (J.Head: 13).

What made women's participation so special? What did women actually

do in the strike? What motivated them? Which aims did they have and which

consequences did their participation have for themselves? These and other

questions will be looked into in this chapter.

4.3.1 The origins of women's participation"Das neue "Phänomen" [the women's activities during the strike] gehört

in die obersten Zeilen der Geschichte dieses Bergarbeiterstreiks. Ohne die

Frauen wäre er nicht so lange durchzuhalten gewesen." (H.Dirkes /

S.Engert: 19)16.

But why were women so committed to the miners' cause? The Miners'

Strike 1984/85 was a fight for a number of basic rights: The right of work, the

right to live in a community of one's choice, the right for a future for oneself

and one's children. "These issues are not 'owned' merely by miners, they

effect us all, and women in mining communities were quick to identify with

them." (S.Taylor: 81). Only in some cases women had been organised before

the strike and therefore it is amazing how quickly they took the initiative. Or

maybe it was just BECAUSE they were not organised: "...instead of wasting

time passing resolutions calling on the leadership to do the things that will

never materialise, people in the localities have, on the whole, just got on with

it. This has not only been on a local basis but also nationally." (D.Massey /

H.Wainwright, 1985 a: 167). This 'just got on with it' (another keyword here is

'necessity') seems to characterise the beginning of a women's support

movement especially well. As has already been said a strike of these

dimensions is only possible if the organisation of daily life is done for the

strikers who then can concentrate on the dispute. This is the starting point for

women's involvement: "Necessity, not choice, drove them" (H.Rose: 328), very

"direct and immediate needs" (L.Loach, 1985: 169) motivated them to become

active - but not only to provide for their families but also "to defend their

livelihoods and their communities" (L.Loach, 1985: 169).

It is certain that this women's movement did not originate in the

established feminist movement which still was urban and mostly middle-class

16 For a translation see Appendix

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 41oriented: Too many of the women dissociated themselves from it - before AND

after the strike. It must be taken for granted, however, that women in

mining-communities knew of the ideas and positions of the women's liberation

movement and were to some degree influenced by them - just as any other

person. There were of course other influences, for example the women at the

Greenham Common cruise missile base who had successfully and

independently organised as women. But what was true for the feminist

movement was true for Greenham as well: The women's attitude was sceptical

if not disapproving.

The phrase 'people just got on with it' could lead to the false impression

no further motivation had been necessary to activate the women. This was not

always the case. Usually women needed 'a little push' to become active which

often came from women who in some way or other had been active before the

strike. In Easington this was Heather Wood, County Durham's youngest County

Councillor. She organised the first Women's Support Group in the Easington

District:

"And when the strike started - I mean, I felt a bit frustrated because

my husband isn't a miner - then I thought: well, those people are

goin' out and fightin' a fight for me - really, because they were

fightin' the Tories - I should be able to do something and the only

thing I thought was: organise the women because the men were

already, partly, organised - very disorganised I think, but they had

somewhere to go, they had a group to meet with." (H.Wood).

Later, when the women had already taken up support work, they

sometimes needed to be pressed on as well:

"So I said 'Look! It's either you all take part or I'll just give up and

we'll not be successful.' And that was the point when they said 'Right,

we'll go. We'll take it in turns.'" (H.Wood). Or: "Sometimes it's

difficult, I mean, during the strike I can remember Tyne Tees asked

round me and said 'Would Easington Women Support Group go into a

television programme - Nightline - and would they speak about

women's activities in the strike?' And I said 'Ah yes. They'll come.'

And I didn't tell them. I just said 'We've been invited to sit in the

audience.'[...] So when they got on the bus I said 'By the way, you're

taking part in the programme. You have to speak, you know, and

answer questions.'[...] And they did it. And once they'd done it they

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 42went out and they did it again, you see" (H.Wood).

4.3.2 Women's activities and what they meant for them"In view of the rationalisation of industry and the extension of women

labour it is of particular importance to draw women workers into strikes. We

have learned by experience that women workers and working men's wives

play a very important role in strikes and lock-outs." (National Minority

Movement: 218). This statement is not from the 1980s but was published

in 1932 after the experiences of the 1926 General Strike and other strikes in

Europe. These were to be the consequences: "During the strike women

workers and working men's wives are to be drawn into active collaboration

and entrusted with various functions in regard to agitation, organization and

auxiliary service." (National Minority Movement: 218). Until 1984 these

experiences had hardly been utilised. On the contrary. Margaret Thatcher's

government trusted in women's restraint. "The gutter press heaped enormous

praise on a tiny number of 'petticoat' pickets at Ollerton. They hoped that

women's domestic isolation, lack of political experience and traditional

involvement in the Labour movement would set them against the NUM." (The

Red Miner, April 1985: 6).

The NUM did not try to draw women into the strike either. To support the

miners the women had to rely entirely on their own initiative. Usually they

began with the most obvious support work: The provision of the families with

food.

4.3.2.1 The soup kitchensHeather Wood described how The Women's Support Groups began to

work in the Easington District:

"I think it was in about the third week, the third week in the strike, we

decided we would do that. We wrote out and within the next fortnight

we had the main public meetin'. And the night after the public

meetin' there was a man came with some food, so I got a group of

women in Easington to say, 'Well, we'll start a kitchen tomorrow', and

we sat with little, with big bags of sugar and split them up into little

tiny bags, you know, and a box with cornflakes and split them up into

about six different bags and so we served six families. And then the

next week, when the man brought the food, we said, well, you know,

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 43it's no good just Easington not going hungry. We've gotta keep all the

mines out and keep the strike strong. And so we phoned somebody

in Murton that we'd made contact with and said 'Will you have the

food this week to start your support group?' and it went on like that

week after week until there were sixteen support groups in the same

organisation." (H.Wood).

The first but most important step had been done: Setting up the soup

kitchens (in Easington called 'The Cafe') had a number of very positive effects

for the women.

Soup kitchens were unsuspicious:

The soup kitchens' primary function was to provide the miners'

families with food. Women were not deterred by feminist ideologies,

political agitation or even by a male dominated organisation. At first

women's work in the kitchens was simply an extension of their role

as housewives.

Soup kitchens ended women's domestic isolation:

Organising the soup kitchens gave women the chance to meet other

people. How important this was in some cases is made clear by

Heather Wood: "We had one woman in our support group that would

actually never go out to the shops herself. Her husband had to do the

shopping because she was such a nervous person. She came to our

support group, helped out, she's never been the same since. She'll go

anywhere, talk to anybody" (H.Wood).

Women's isolation not only ended within the support group, they

suddenly became the centre of community life. Heather Wood: "...our

kitchen was the only meeting place that the mining families had."

(H.Wood). Running a kitchen also made it necessary to organise the

work. "It has meant going round local shops and businesses

appealing for food, finding the premises and the equipment and

collecting the finances to keep the canteens running."

(M.Douglas: 11).

Women learned to organise:

Setting-up and running the soup kitchens were organisational

masterpieces. With most primitive means, with little money and little

support from the union hundreds of meals (in Easington about 500!)

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 44had to be prepared and given out daily. Sometimes the women did

not believe themselves that they could do it. A woman from

Easington recorded her doubts in a diary. Heather Wood said:

"...she's got in her diary 'Our Heather', that's 'cause she's me cousin,

'Our Heather says we can start kitchens to provide meals for the

miners. I think she's crackers. We'll never do it.' That was how the

women felt, they never felt they could organise to do something, you

know: 'Weak, little creatures like us, we can't do something like

that'." (H.Wood). But they did it very successfully for the families and

for themselves. Once "they saw they could serve, provide meals,

three, four, five hundred people a day, they just said: 'Oh well, we

can do this as well. We can progress. We can go on the next step all

the way'. It was great to see, you know." (H.Wood).

Soup kitchens were predominantly female dominated:

In the Miners' Strike of 1984/85, quite unlike former national miners'

strikes, the soup kitchens were set up and run almost exclusively by

women. This "did not require the difficult process of being accepted

by and working within a ready-made male structure."

(J.Coulter / et.al.: 216). Suddenly the women had an organisation and

a forum of their own in the male dominated communities.

Housework was brought into public view:

Though the soup kitchens in the beginning were a mere extension of

women's role as housewives they led the women to think about just

this: "Bringing the servicing of individual men in the home out into

the public arena has made women understand more clearly their own

roles as housewives and how women's lives are privatized"

(J.Coulter / et.al.: 211).

The soup kitchens were women's first step out of insignificance. "Food

distribution may be a traditional feminine task, but where women have

organised it from the beginning it has given them the strength and aspiration

to become involved in other aspects of the strike." (S.Jackson: 9). Especially

younger women quickly turned to other activities, picketing for instance.

4.3.2.2 PicketingSoon after the strike began women also went picketing, again to give

practical support to the miners. Their interest had often been aroused in the

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 45soup kitchens: "Then they decided that, because of what was going on the

picket line - they were hearing all, you know, stories from the men of what was

was going on the picket line - and they wanted to see for themselves."

(H.Wood). What women saw and experienced there had consequences for

them:

Women met with violence:

One of the strike's main characteristics was the police violence. The

"government is far better prepared than ever in the past to face a

major confrontation with key industrial workers.[...] The will to

repress totally was there. What was absent, even in 1972 and 1974,

was the means to do so. The new coordination and power of the

police in confronting mass picketing and industrial disruption mark a

profound historical change.[...] Historically, every British

administration since that of Lloyd George has tried to operate on the

basis of some form of consensus, reformist legislation and social

peace. Even Neville Chamberlain was a wettish Tory at home. The

Thatcher government, by contrast, is openly committed to reversing

long-held bipartisan social and economic policies." (K.Morgan: 284).

At first the police was reluctant to treat women as they treated men

but they soon grew accustomed with women's presence on picket

lines and no longer restrained themselves. Sexually abusive

language, arrests, strip searches and physical force against women

became the women pickets' everyday experience. Patricia Heron in

the introduction to her diary: "I myself was a victim at the hands of

the police on a women's picket line. I was pulled out the picket line

and punched and thrown to the ground. I lost consciousness, when

I came round there was policeman on top of me, a friend of mine

tried to pull him of me she was thrown to the ground too."

(P.Heron: 3)17. This was a completely new experience for the women.

Unlike the men they had been brought up to be non-violent, to be

weak and depend on men's strength "and indeed this is an important

way of controlling women, both inside and outside the home: we

must keep off the streets at night; we mustn't go out alone and so

on. This threat is a way of confining women to the home and

preventing us from carrying out an independent existence"

(J.Coulter / et.al.: 207).

17 See appendix for the introduction to Mrs.Heron's diary.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 46Violence on the picket lines helped women to see these problems.

The mass media:

For weeks and months the mass media published reports and

pictures of violent miners and beaten police. They hardly showed

what really went on on the picket lines or what the women

experienced. After the women's rally in Barnsley, for instance, "all we

received from the media were shots of women kissing Arthur

[Scargill]: They didn't show the hall packed solid with women singing

and chanting, women in action. It was too threatening, working class

women getting organised, when we are brought up to be passive and

think we have one role in life." (K.Mackay; quoted in V.Seddon,

1986 a: 55). This made the women angry but it also showed them

how the media could distort reality. Women who had always believed

the media became more doubtful about reports of the strike but also

about other topics, e.g. CND, the inner city riots, Ireland, and so on.

They gradually developed a political awareness.

Women experienced sexism:

In some ways women on picket duty were treated like men. In other

respects, however, they felt that their sex had an influence on the

way they were treated. Sexually suggestive remarks from the police

became routine for the women: "All the women who picketed tell

graphic stories of abuse by the police. In Hucknall [Nottinghamshire]

women were told, 'If you need money for your kids, go on the streets,

you'd make good whores. You're all cows, all of you.'" (J.Witham: 64).

The women were also discriminated against by the miners: "Miners

going to work have exposed themselves in front of the women and

have not been arrested." (J.Witham: 64). Less spectacular but just as

sexist was the miners' opinion of women going on picket duty. They

often thought women should not do picket duty at all. Women were

helped sometimes by bail conditions which often forbade miners to

picket again. The sexism of the strike sharpened women's sensitivity

for sexism elsewhere in society and it made contact with the feminist

movement easier. It was only natural that women wanted to be

treated as equals.

4.3.2.3 Fund-raising and public speakingThe miners' bad financial situation during the strike - the state deducted

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 47£15 (later even £16) strike pay which the miners never got from their

allowance - made it necessary to financially and materially support them. The

support groups, especially the Women's Support Groups, made this their

task - a task for which sufficient funds were necessary. Women quickly learned

that a lot of public relations work had to be done. Usually they started

collecting money, food, clothes or other things in their own villages but soon

invitations came from sympathising groups from all over the country and from

radio and television stations which not just wanted to materially support the

miners but also wanted first-hand information about the situation in the

mining-communities. This put new tasks to the women.

Public speaking:

"Frauen, die bisher kaum über ihre Dörfer herausgekommen waren,

reisten im Land umher [...], sprachen vor Massenversammlungen -

auch im Ausland." (H.Dirkes / S.Engert: 24)18. It must have been the

necessity of this task which gave them enough courage to do so.

"I didn't know what I were doing. [...] I just stood up and said we were

dead hungry and wanted all the support we could get. I said we had a

Centre set up and that we needed money and food. [...] You know

when I was speaking I was ever so nervous but after I finished I felt

quite good, in fact I felt exhilarating. I was fair pleased with myself."

(L.Beaton: 97-98). After women had been quite afraid of speaking

publicly they soon became more confident: "You know, I remember

one woman, she - we asked her to speak at a big rally in

Middlesborough - and she's as quiet as a mouse, she was really

terrified, and she got up and she, she only said four words. That was

her speech. She said: 'I am a member of the NUM, me and my

husband have twelve pound a week to live on, we have two children.

Please help us.' That was all she said, but it was sincere what she

said and it was the truth and, I mean, she got a standing ovation.

People could tell she'd never spoken before. She was on radio, the

lot. Now, to her, she was a different person after that." (H.Wood).

Making contacts:

To raise funds women had to travel all over the country and even

abroad. They met other people and groups and ended their isolation

in the mining-communities. The women were supported and invited

by Labour Party groups, CND groups, unemployed people, lesbians,

18 For a translation see appendix.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 48gays, the peace movement, or other women's organisations. These

contacts brought new experiences - women learned about other

people's problems, their opinions, beliefs or lifestyles - and opened

new horizons for the women who began to see clearly how their own

situation was linked to the situation of the people they made contact

with. They also became interested in problems far more distant:

nuclear arms, Ireland, Chile, South Africa, pollution, or the

Third World. Shirley James from South Wales: "'Before the Strike

I never thought about CND or nuclear weapons. But now I have been

to Greenham Common and we've had people from France and Japan

staying with us. Before the strike I believed what the papers said

about the union and about the Greenham women. Things have

changed.'" (G.Goodman: 91).

4.3.2.4 Strength from GreenhamClose co-operation and connections developed from the contacts with

support groups outside the mining-communities. Women's Support

Groups organised twinnings with cities or universities and planned

joint activities like the 'Mines Not Missiles' marches from nuclear

power stations to collieries. They supported each other in their fight

against common enemies and for common aims.

Contacts with the women from Greenham Common were especially

important. Greenham women did not support the miners' strike from

the beginning: coal was seen as being unecological, working

underground as inhuman and only when the Greenham women saw

that the miners were being injured and arrested wrongfully by the

police and that the communities suffered they began to support

them. For the Greenham women contacts with the mining-

communities meant they could spread their ideas and beliefs, but it

meant that these - usually middle-class - women could extend their

range of experience.

For the women in mining-communities the contacts with Greenham

were even more important: On the one hand they gained practically

from them. The Greenham women could draw on a large amount of

experience as far as dealing with the police or the media, fund-

raising, keeping out of the cold or surviving the lack of food were

concerned.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 49Most important, however, was the confidence the Greenham women

gave the miners' wives: these women had already run their camp at

the Cruise Missile base for about three years and they still seemed to

be in good spirits despite constant reprisals against them.

On the other hand women underwent a learning process which

should prove invaluable to them: The nuclear threat became very

real for them, they met feminists and realised "that they were not

alone in their conflicts with men and they saw more clearly the

problems of other women in organising politically and the wider

aspects of women's oppression which link them together"

(S.Miller: 361).

Ann Suddick from Durham about the newly made contacts and

experiences: "'This is the emergence of a new socialism. We've been working

with lesbians and gays and black people. The Indians in the Midlands were

powerful! It's the only way forward, this.'" (B.Campbell, 1986: 282). Even if the

links should not prove lasting, "the memory of them will survive both in

individual and collective memory, to be used again in future struggles."

(H.Britten: 10).

4.3.2.5 WritingWomen did not want to leave it to the individual to remember the strike

and women's activities in the strike. They produced written records of their

impressions of the strike and also of their feelings, their worries, fears,

problems, and hopes. "The strike opened up a whole new theatre of self-

expression" (R.Samuel, 1986 b: 29): poetry and prose, bulletins and

newsletters, broadsheets and graffiti, comics and cartoons, stories, songs, and

diaries were produced during and after the strike.

Write to share the crisis:

Heather Wood once told the women of the Easington Women's

Support Group: "'When you're away from the meeting, if you feel bad

or you feel good, write down your feelings and bring them to the

meetings on the Thursday'."(H.Wood). Writing was meant to - and

did - relieve the enormous pressure which rested on the women and

thus helped to keep up the morale. It also reaffirmed the women in

their aims, encouraged them to go on with their work and gave them

hope for victory: "The public language of the strike was one of hope,

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 50encouragement and reassurance. People said what needed to be

said. They refused to give voice to doubt, or to admit to signs of

weakening." (R.Samuel, 1986 b: 31). Writing also was and is a means

of communication. Bulletins or newsletters, which were produced by

a number of Women's Support Groups, "keep people in the group

informed and can be used to present the arguments for the strike"

(Solidarity with the miners: 22). Like the meetings of the Women's

Support Groups they could also bring individual women's problems

into public view or even offer solutions for these problems, spread

ideas about sexism and feminism, and present arguments for

women's equality.

Publications:

By far not all which was written during and after the strike was

published or written to be published. Of those works which were

published usually only a small number of copies was produced and

often they were available only locally or even through the authors.

Yet the publication of their works gave the women self-confidence: it

confirmed the importance of their problems and feelings and gave

them permanence as well. It also was a kind of pioneering work:

women in mining-communities had hardly ever published anything

before!19. In the North East of England a wide range of different

publications was produced by the women: there have been

collections of poetry (e.g. R.Forbes / D.Smithson), broadsheets

(e.g. The Girls From S.E.A.M.), collections of stories and poems

(e.g. The Last Coals of Spring), records with some of the women's

songs (e.g. Heroes; Which Side Are You On), even a play (M.Pine).

Very important for the women themselves were those publications

which recorded the history of the strike and of the women's activities

(e.g. S.Graham; G.Newton)20. The women did not share Bella Jolly's

opinion that the women's movement would go down in history as the

labour movements' finest achievement, and rightly so: "...women on

picket lines, women defying authority, women saying no is not a new

phenomenon. It has always occured but - and this may be the most

significant 'but' known to the modern historical research - whilst

19 Lydia Fish set out to investigate the folklore of the mining-communities, but she does not mention a single song or narrative written by a woman! (L.Fish)20 History was also recorded in many of the poems, in diaries, etc. (cf. P.Heron; see Appendix)

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 51those who have been the source of the oppression that women

fought against also wrote the histories, formed political parties, ruled

nations of headed households, that fight could never be given

recognition, let alone status." (WCCPL: 25). The experiences of the

1984/85 miners' strike only confirmed this fact. The work of the

Women's Support Groups was almost completely ignored outside the

left press21. And "even socialist journals have described women's role

in terms of the 'community' response in mining areas - women as

part of the 'wives and family' category." (J.Grayson: 4). Therefore the

women took writing the history of the strike and of their own

activities in hand, mainly 'For the Children'. Pat Heron: "...you will be

reading about the 1984-85 N.U.M. Stike in your history books in

school. You will not however read all the facts, and what realy

happend.[...] It is for this reason I have kept a diary so you will be

able to show your children what realy did happen." (P.Heron: 1; see

appendix). For the women writing their own history appeared to be

the only chance of their work being recorded and documented and

not to be neglected in "the mighty volumes of formal miners'

histories." (D.Douglass, 1981: 67). And for this it was "an important

step in consolidating what has been learnt." (D.Massey /

H.Wainwright, 1985 b: 8-9).

4.3.2.6 Other activitiesPart of the support work of the Women's Support Groups was to meet

regularly. But apart from talking business, the meetings often were "a forum

for discussing each other's problems, for sharing fears and hopes"

(WCCPL: 47). They also served as a kind of outlet for the women: "We were at

the kitchens,[...] out fund-raising, attending meetings and rallies, so they more

or less lived together. So obviously tempers were strained and there used to

be arguments and that. I remember saying: 'We cannot argue! We've got a

fight here. So what we've gotta do is, at our meetings on a Thursday night, say

what you feel in the meeting. Argue like mad if you want but once you go out

of the meeting, we're friends, we're together.'" (H.Wood). Women learned to

discuss and to argue politically. "The women exchange stories about the men's

reaction to what they are doing." (L.Loach, 1984: 7). New topics like

chauvinism, sexism, or the equality of women were talked about.

21 A look at the bibliographies makes this very clear. E.g. A.Green; the bibliography issued by The Library, Bessacarr Site, Doncaster; or the bibliography to this thesis.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 52All in all the meetings of the Women's Support Groups like all the other

activities helped the women "to find their own place in the political struggle,

instead of hibernating, lonely and hungry at home." (B.Campbell, 1984 a: 10).

Very important for the women in mining-communities was the foundation

of Women Against Pit Closure -groups which are nationally organised as

National Women Against Pit Closures (NWAPC).

The aims of this organisation are

- to promote and develop education for working-class women- to become active on issues which effect the mining-communities  (unemployment, health service, education, peace, nuclear power, etc.)- to enhance the relationship between the organisation and the  National Union of Mineworkers- to support the miners in their struggle against pit closures.

National Women Against Pit Closures still exists and regularly produces

newsletters (Coalfield Woman)22.

4.3.2.7 Concluding remarksWomen who - up to the strike - saw themselves as nothing but

housewives and mothers organised activities which could potentially alter their

roles in their marriages, at home, in the community, and in society.

"For the women of the village action groups the strike was a huge

learning process, a chance to exercise new skills, an introduction to

public life. Wives and mothers stepped out of the kitchen to become

organisers and entrepreneurs, almoners and welfare officers,

clothiers and catering managers. The strike was a school of writing, a

training in administration, an apprenticeship in political skills. It

initiated them into the mysteries of committee work, it gave them

the confidence to speak on public platforms; it opened up a whole

range of male preserves." (R.Samuel, 1986 b: 29-30).

Women entered areas from which they traditionally had been excluded,

but instead of working within men's organisations they founded their own,

which fitted to their aims and tasks. Women's activities were not long

restricted to "merely servicing those 'actively' involved" but they widened

their fields of activity and "developed a political style whereby active

involvement and positive education go hand-in-hand to develop and support

22 See appendix.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 53each other. This process has led to a positive evaluation by miner's wives of

their value as women." (S.Taylor: 80).

They often had to fight, however, against men's resistance: Suddenly the

women dominated the community, they organised pickets (up to then a male

domain in the mining-communities) or the men had to do the housework while

their wives were out organising. Thus women's activities represented a

"challenge to the dominance of men in working class culture." (J.Coulter: 205).

In the public of the support group, the community, and the wider support

movement the women realised how they were oppressed and exploited and so

this women's movement became a struggle for their equality, became a real

working-class women's movement and as it encouraged women outside the

mining-communities it could have an influence on or even include those

women who had not become active during the strike because "the women who

were collectively active in supporting the miners' strike have been a minority

of the women in the coalfields." (V.Seddon, 1986 b: 12).

4.3.3 A re-run of the past ?Much has been written about the similarities and the differences of this

miners' strike with former strikes, especially with the miners' lock-out of 1926:

Economic and political similarities, similarities in the course of the two

disputes, similarities between Arthur Scargill and Arthur J.Cook or in the

opposition from Nottinghamshire have been found. Differences in the position

of coal in Britain's economy, in the solidarity of the labour movement and in

other aspects were detected as well23. Differences and similarities of women's

involvement and activities are seldomly mentioned.

In 1984/85 it was not for the first time that women in mining-communities

organised support for their menfolk and their communities. There had been

soup kitchens before as well as conflicts between women and the police, but

that was about all: "Auch damals [1974] hatten wir Frauen unsere eigenen

Komitees. Die Suppenküchen sind traditionell üblich. Aber mehr wußten wir

damals nicht anzufangen. Deswegen gab es nach dem Streik für die Komitees

keine Perspektive, und wir lösten sie auf." (H.Dirkes / S.Engert: 27)24.

23 cf. e.g. M.Kettle: 24; G.Goodman: 13; K.O.Morgan: 283-284

24 For a translation see Appendix

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 54It was new, however, that women's involvement went far beyond the level

of practical support: they organised as women, they stood up and fought for

themselves. The women's support movement was the first real mass

movement of working-class women in Britain. The fact that the women

organised neither in a pre-existing structure, such as a trade union or a

political party, nor that they were dominated by middle-class people like

in 1926, was also a new feature of the Miners' Strike 1984/85. Also for the first

time the women challenged their oppression in the male dominated

mining-communities publicly and on a large scale. Whether or not women's

new position during the strike has had an effect on their role after the strike is

a different question: too often in the past women had to go back to what they

were before a revolution, a strike or a war.

4.4 Women's roles during and after the Miners' Strike 1984/85 In order to assess women's roles and the way women see themselves

during and after the strike it is necessary to find criteria which help to judge

whether there have been lasting changes at all and of what kind and extent

those changes are. Because of the short time since the strike it is not easy to

get enough objective data like statistical material or even primary documents.

Therefore mostly statements by people involved will be analysed. Statements

by other people will only additionally be considered.

Roles people play in their respective surroundings (here the miners'

families and the mining-communities) are not entirely observable and

describable - they are also manifest in people's attitudes, values, opinions, and

beliefs. These can be recorded only through long-term studies or in personal

documents. Personal documents' crucial advantage is "that it provides an

interpretation of life as lived in a setting very different from that of a

university (and indeed very different from that within the experience of {too}

many people within universities)." (M.Bulmer, 1972 ??: iii). Robert E.Park

described the value of personal documents even more vividly. He talked of a

"blindness each of us is likely to have for the meaning of other people's lives.

At any rate what sociologists most need to know is what goes on behind the

faces of men, what it is that makes life for each of us full or thrilling...

Otherwise we do not know the world in which we actually live." (R.E.Park: vi-

vii; quoted in M.Bulmer, 1972 ??: iii). Personal documents allow insight into

areas of human life which otherwise remain inaccessible to outsiders.

According to Martin Bulmer one has to obtain reliable data in order to meet

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 55scientific requirements. Bulmer: "...there is some evidence that people do

recall fairly clearly the main events in which they themselves were personally

involved, and which are part of their own biography." (M.Bulmer, 1972 ??: v).

Secondly the representativeness of the data has to be guaranteed. "This is

unlikely to be satisfied in any single personal document, and the best

safeguard is the comparison of several documents from different points of

view on the same problem." (M.Bulmer, 1972 ??: v).

Similar documents and additional statements from outsiders have to be

used as well in order to qualify the interpretations of individual people:

personal opinions, values, and beliefs can thus be assumed to be generally

valid for the mining-communities.

4.4.1 What the men thought...Looking at the mining-communities it should be clear that women's roles

are umbilically linked with men: their position in the home, in the community,

or in political organisations. Therefore it is not insignificant to know if and to

what extent men were able and willing to tolerate or even to make women's

changes possible and support them. After all men had to give up part of their

power - at home and in the community.

This chapter will look at how men saw women's activities and women's

roles in the strike. Their attitudes become visible in these areas: The union's

and the Labour Party's attitudes towards the women and at home.

The union and the women

With the emergence of the Women's Support Groups and the

extension of their activities to other areas than providing food, the

miners' union had to accept that the women were taking over

responsibilities and tasks previously handled by the union.

Ann Suddick remarked that "'it was initially difficult to get the men to

accept that we were part of the strike.'" (B.Campbell, 1986: 269). So

there was opposition against the women and therefore they had to

fight on two fronts: To fight for their communities they had to fight

the men as well. The NUM's25 resistance took various forms. On the

one hand it tried to hinder the women's work: The women often met

with opposition when they attempted to co-operate with the union.

25 If the NUM or the union is mentioned here it means the union officials and not necessarily its rank and file!

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 56Florence Anderson reported of such an attempt: "'You're not allowed

in the union meeting. Stand by the door; we're not ready for you

yet.'" (J.Stead: 115). Another woman: "'They told us we couldn't do

this and we couldn't do that [...]. And they'd say "How dare you

interfere in our area! We don't want you in our area; you're all right

in the kitchen".'" (J.Stead: 116). The women from Easington made

similar experiences: "I mean, the first union meetin' we went to to

say 'We're startin' a support group. This is what we're gonna do.',

they made us wait outside. The second one they allowed us in and I

remember standin' at the door and lookin' down the table at the

chairman of the committee and saying to him 'Have you had a vote?'

'No.' 'Because once you've taken this decision, mind, to let us in,

there's no goin' back. We're not going back after the strike's over.'

And they were just laughing." (H.Wood). Or: "There were times when

the unions came in and said 'You can't do this' or 'You can't do that.'

And we said 'Who says like?' you know, 'this is our committee, you're

in the union - we run what we're doing'." (H.Wood).

On the other hand there were attempts from the union to take

command of the Women's Support Groups and to take on certain of

the women's tasks. "During this strike, in the north east, the men

were careful to remain in charge. In Hetton during the strike, 'The

orders just came from above. There were no joint meetings. They

didn't say "We're doing this, we need your support." If they had

anything on they wanted organised it was like the tablets of stone

coming down. And that grieved us a wee bit, because we felt the men

weren't regarding us as equals.'" (J.Stead: 115). Heather Wood about

the Christmas Appeal: "on the morning we were cooking the

Christmas dinner and supposed to be giving the turkeys out the

union landed - we'd raised the money, we'd bought the turkeys - the

union came and said 'Our men are sitting and giving the turkeys out!

Not because we're concerned that everything was fair.' But the union

had to be seen to be doing its bit [...]. So we said, I remember I put

me pen down, I says 'Right! You wanna organise that? You organise

the rest! You can find the food, you ought to find the people to cook

it, and do the lot!'[...] Sure enough, after five minutes the union came

over and said 'We're going and we let you go on with it.'" (H.Wood).

As they did in this case women usually had their way against the

union, they had the upper hand: "they knew they had to keep us

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 57happy. They had to give us what we wanted. Otherwise, you know,

the strike would have failed.[...] And, I mean I know, in the back of

their minds, 'cause I'm knowin' them all, they've been saying 'When

the strike's over it'll just go back to normal', you know, 'we'll be

dominant again'." (H.Wood). This attitude could be traced all through

the union's hierarchy. On the International Women's Day rally at

Chesterfield Stadium on 9 March, 1985, only four days after the end

of the strike, Arthur Scargill announced in front of

about 25,000 women that the NUM would "commemorate their

contribution with a plaque in the lobby of the union's new

headquarters. But he did not endorse the women's movement as

such, or that dynamic sexual revolution." (B.Campbell, 1986: 250).

The women's efforts to gain associate membership in the NUM were

also turned down26 despite Scargill's approval.

There have, however, been signs of improvements in the relationship

with the union: In October 1984 the editor of the NUM paper 'The

Miner' agreed to putting a women's page in 'The Miner'. Freda Dean

from Philadelphia and Pat Curry from Murton, both canteen workers

and NUM members, were elected lodge committee members

in 1986 - the first in the country! (cf. The Durham Miner: 3). It

probably needs a lot of such tiny steps but it mostly needs a younger

generation of NUM leaders before women get associate membership

and before women NUM members are treated like their male

colleagues.

Women and the Labour Party

Before the strike 88% of the women who were active in support

groups in the Easington District voted at general elections. Out of

these almost 98% voted Labour! (cf.M.Metcalf: 26). After the strike,

however, the percentage of women who would vote for Labour fell

to 84%. Mark Metcalf quotes some of the reasons the women gave

for this phenomenon: "'The Labour Party hasn't helped us, both

locally and nationally, 'no interest', 'no help either locally or

nationally', 'not convinced of Labour Parties support'" (M.Metcalf: 27).

Women were supported by Labour Party groups outside the mining-

communities but to assess the attitudes of men in mining-

communities it is necessary to look at the Labour Party's attitudes

26 Except in Scotland.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 58there: In the coalfields the Labour Party was reluctant to support the

miners and the Women's Support Groups. The women saw this quite

clearly. Heather Wood: "I wasn't getting permission from the Labour

Party to do the things I was doing. But it goes back to what I said to

you before, I don't like red tape and I don't think we should have to

go and ask. You should be able to do things on the spur of the

moment. And I wasn't hurting the Party. In fact I did good for the

Party, we got more votes [...]. But [...] I used to get flak from Labour

Party members, especially the men" (H.Wood). In Hetton the

situation was hardly different. Florence Anderson: "'In fact, we got no

help from the Labour Party in Hetton at all. All we had from the

Hetton Labour Party, in a mining community, was half the proceeds

of a dance held in November, and we contributed to that because we

all went along there and sat at the back and were never even

mentioned. I think the Labour Party wasn't more involved because

the miners' wives got together and took the lead from the start.'"

(J.Stead: 29).

And Edith from Horden said that "'the strike has opened my eyes to

some of the local Labour Councillors. Even the one's on strike have

done nothing for us'." (M.Metcalf: 28).

Neither union nor the Labour Party - both male dominated - tried to

politically represent women and their problems and they thus missed the

chance to attract new members on a large scale from the ranks of the women.

It will now take a long time and a lot of commitment from the women to gain

some influence in the Labour Party or in the union.

Equality at home?

In many households the strike had severe consequences: While the

women were out organising the men had to do the housework. "They

learned about solitude and the self-discipline and domestic skills

needed for running a home, and they also, for the first time, learnt to

enjoy their children." (J.Stead: 31). Many men did not accept the role

changes and quite a number of marriages broke up. Others, however,

were strengthened. Although it seemed to be hard for him

Patricia Heron's husband had to get used to his wife becoming more

self-confident and independent. Patricia: "got to know about a

Women's Rally down London. I would love to go. It's in August, but

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 59I don't know if Alby will let me go, I don't think he realy likes the idea

of me realy getting involved. He can't get used to the idea of him

watching the bairns, while I go out to meetings and going to the

kitchen as well. He is just not used to sitting in while I am out. 2 yrs

ago I would not of dreamed of saying I'm of to London for a couple of

days, pet!!! I Like It For once he relises I am not just his little wife

who cooks and cleans up after him, I am Pat, who can hold a

conversation with other people." (P.Heron: 11).

Men were forced to assume new roles, they just had to accept it.

Many did and saw the positive effects for themselves and for their

marriages. A miner from Maerdy: "I should say about 90 per cent of

the women changed since the strike started. Before, you felt you

were just the person who went home on a Friday night with the pay

packet. There was just nothing to look forward to, nothing to talk

about.[...] Now we read the newspapers, think a lot about world

affairs we see on television, and think maybe we can change things."

(J.Stead: 39).

Many of the men treated the women with a new respect. For the first

time they saw more in them than just the housewives or mothers.

Others did not: "I was in Welfare Hall one night selling raffle tickets

and I went up to this table and a man was saying 'Bloody women!

They're all stupid!' And he turned round, he saw me, he says 'Except

you!' Now, that 'except me' is because I am doing something

different to his wife. His wife stays at home, looks after the family,

doesn't speak up for herself, takes notice of everything he says"

(H.Wood). Far less men thought of women's change of roles as

positively as they thought of their support work. Often the women

were only tolerated for the time of the strike which the much used

phrase 'going back to normal after the strike' proves. In the

Easington Support Group there were some women "whose husbands

quite regularly said 'Oh, we'll be going back to normal after the

strike, mind. She's only doing this now!' And that did happen in some

cases." (H.Wood). Heather felt men's disapproving attitude herself:

"I mean, sometimes when you meet some men they'll say 'Ah, here

she comes', you know, Women's Lib and all this and you'll know that

they dislike you because you're not just going out yourself, you're

pushing them, their wives and their girlfriends, to do exactly the

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 60same as you're doing. So they see you as the badie. Some men who

don't care but some see you, you know, to be the influence, the bad

influence, you know." (H.Wood).

As should be clear by now men's attitudes were very diverse. Equality has

not often been achieved until today but that is only natural: the miners have

been brought up to be dominant, to be the bread-winners and to see women

as being inferior. But the women are aware of this problem and they handle it

their way. Susan Petney: "'We are sort of re-educating them slowly. They are

not liking it a lot. [...] But slowly they are coming round to it. They don't call us

'ladies' any more. They call us women. That's a start.'" (J.Stead: 40). A lot

remains to be done to change men's attitudes.

4.4.2 Women's words and women's rolesIn the preceding chapter all the quotations but one were by women. This

is not a coincidence! It reflects quite well the proportion of men's accounts of

the strike. Women produced a lot more. In this chapter women's own accounts

of the strike and their roles before and during the strike as well as their plans

and outlooks for the future shall be analysed in order to find out more about

women's roles and about the way they see themselves. The importance of

using personal accounts has already been explained; the following quotation

only confirms this.

Jean Heaton27, a miner's wife, said: "Now I'm thirty-two I suppose I'm

just a housewife still to look at me from the outside. But inside I'm a

very angry person, and I shall stay angry until we've got rid of this

rotten Government and the rotten system it makes us live under."

(T.Parker: 128).

This quotation shows very vividly the importance of looking beneath the

surface.

Two main types of accounts are of importance here:

1. Accounts which have been exclusively made by the women themselves or

for which the idea came from them. These were mainly those accounts already

mentioned: poetry and prose, bulletins and newsletters, posters and graffiti,

27 This is not her real name. In his book Red Hill Tony Parker did not use people's or places' real names in order to obscure their identity. Red Hill probably stands for Horden, Co.Durham.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 61comics and cartoons, stories, songs, letters, diaries, and histories. They show

what the women consider most important for themselves or for others to know

or notice. It has to be kept in mind that these accounts have come almost

exclusively from that minority of women in the coalfields who were active

during the strike.

2. The second type of accounts are those the women produced in co-operation

with people from outside the mining-communities, the idea not coming from

the women. These were mostly interviews. Apart from being able to convey

the women's opinions, attitudes, etc. they offer the advantage that the

interviewer could direct the women's attention purposely to aspects the

women might not have thought of themselves. It was also possible to

interview those women who not actively supported the strike28. It must not be

forgotten, however, that, when published the interviews may not come out

quite the way they were intended by the interviewees!

4.4.2.1 Topics. or What they had to sayDuring and after the Miners' Strike 1984/85 women in

mining-communities have written about a wide range of topics. Some,

however, have been especially well covered.

In women's poems and stories these were:29

1. Margaret Thatcher and Tory policy2. The police3. The children's and the communities' future4. The legitimacy of the miners' cause and the miners' bravery

At first sight these topics do not reveal a new way of seeing oneself and

even less a change of roles. It should not be forgotten, however, that women

from mining-communities for the first time considered their opinions and

problems important enough to be written down and even to be published. This

has to be regarded as a new self-confidence and as an essential step towards

emancipation.

It has also to be kept in mind that poems were often read out in support

group meetings or at public rallies in order to confirm their aims and to make

them more determined in their daily work. Here the poems served as an outlet

28 However, although these women formed the majority of the women in mining-communities they were seldomly interviewed.29 Examples are printed in the Appendix.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 62for women's problems, their anger and their fears.

Other kinds of publications cover a different range of topics. Diaries for

instance deal more with personal problems, positive and negative experiences

in the support groups, with politics, the writers' future, and a lot more. All in all

diaries provide a picture of their writers which is quite authentic30.

For the assessment of women's roles and of the way they see themselves

it is most interesting to look at statements which directly comment on this.

Patricia Heron wrote in her diary: "I don't know if it is the strike but suddenly

I find myself thinking very militant also for once in my 15 yrs of mariage I am

not just 'our lass'. I am Pat" (P.Heron: 9). Or: "I am sure of one thing I will not

go back to them days again" (P.Heron: 11). Women's stronger self-confidence

becomes visible in 'Not By Bread Alone' as well. Scene five of the first act

shows that they knew quite well of their pioneering role: "JOAN [...] Mind you,

we've made history. Must be the first women to have actually got into the

union room." (M.Pine: 14). In scene ten of the first act it becomes clear that

the women will not give up what they had achieved:

"LIZ Never take a back seat again, will we! It's dead funny at

home. I come in and say where's my clean blouse and there it is.

SANDRA I don't know where anything is now in my house.

LIZ My silly bugger didn't like it at first. Hasn't made him any less

of a man.

JOAN Done a lot for us though, hasn't it?" (M.Pine: 47)

Women's wish to keep the newly gained equality, the newly gained self-

confidence and the newly gained position in the community becomes obvious

in the following: Shortly after the strike was over the women in 'Not By Bread

Alone' planned several activities for the time after the strike.

"JOANDon't forget, lasses, there's the trip to Greenham at the

end of the month... Very important - shut down coal,

develop nuclear power, by-products for the military. It's

all linked.

30 This may have induced Margaret Pine to chose Lorna Ruddell's diary as the basis for 'Not By Bread Alone'.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 63LIZ I'm ashamed to admit it, I once thought they were the

lunatic fringe.

EDNA Was that before or after we became lunatics.

JOAN And there's our book. We've got two meetings next week

with the Arts people. Is there anyone who still hasn't

given in their work." (M.Pine: 79)31.

Sheila Graham, Secretary of Brenkley Miners' Support Group, said her

group also had plans for the future: "We have a busy summer programme

[1985] ahead of us. After speaking at a local meeting of the National Assembly

of Women we are hoping to affiliate our group to this organisation. We have

rallies against pit closures to attend, fund-raising to continue, speeches to

make. Our fight goes on and on." (S.Graham: 31). She concludes her booklet

as follows: "THE END (No, it isn't!)" (S.Graham: 31)32.

Looking at the number of publications by women from mining-

communities it is surprising how little the women said about themselves, all

the more as the left or feminist press emphasised just this aspect of women's

involvement - women's new roles, their new equality, their new voice, etc. In

interviews with women from mining-communities, however, probably after the

interviewer directed the interviewee's attention towards this topic, the women

often said they would live a different life after the strike: "Most of us are not

prepared to fit neatly back into domestic life and fade into the background."

(Women fight for pits: 26). Annie Brooks said: "The whole business made me

much more of a thinking person: I could never go back to being like I was

before." (T.Parker: 113). And another woman: "'One thing is sure: we will not

be the same women we were before the strike.'" (Lambeth Women's Miners

Support Group: 33). This attitude was widely spread in the support groups.

Betty Heathfield, one of the support movement's central figures, summarised

women's opinions like this: "'Wir werden nicht zu dem zurückkehren, was wir

vorher getan haben, und nur im Haus bleiben und für die Kinder sorgen [...].

Wir werden andere Dinge tun und andere Dinge lernen.'" (H.Dirkes /

S.Engert: 25)33.

There also were more concrete statements. The women knew quite well

31 The book is 'The Last Coals of Spring'.

32 The final chapter of 'For the Children' is printed in the appendix.33 For a translation see appendix.

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 64about their roles before and during the strike. Jean Heaton for instance judged

herself thus: "You wouldn't think it to hear me now but I was a very quiet

person before. I looked after the house and my husband and my children,

some days I went to the shops, then I came back and did the housework and

cooked for them and kept the house neat and tidy and clean. [...] Just a

housewife, that's all I ever was was a housewife, right from when I left school

when I was fifteen." (T.Parker: 127-128). Pauline Street had led a similar life:

"Oh nothing like the strike time had ever happened to me before in the whole

of my life. It changed me completely. I was very quiet before, I wouldn't say

boo to a goose. I'd scarcely talked to anybody, I certainly wouldn't have been

able to sit here like this and talk to you, but I'd let you do all the talking,

I wouldn't be saying anything. The strike changed it all. It made me stronger

and have a lot more confidence in myself and my own opinions."

(T.Parker: 117). She also had clear plans for her future: "It made me that from

now on I wasn't just going to go along behind Alf through life, leaving

everything to him. I've got a contribution to make to life too, my own opinions

and my strength to add in with his." (T.Parker: 124).

Annie Brooks planned to educate herself: "Before the strike I was just for

my husband and the kiddies and my home, I never read a book, I never went

in to the library, and all I ever watched on the television was all those silly quiz

games and what do they call them, chat shows. I mean imagine a woman

who's got to my age [she was forty-five then] and if you'd asked her what

books she'd read in the last few years, about the only one she'd have been

able to think of was a book of mostly pictures of the Royal Wedding. That was

as far as my interest went in what went on in the world. [...] Now I feel I'm

much better informed about these things it helps me enjoy life more."

(T.Parker: 108, 113).

The question why women from mining-communities obviously did not lay

the stress on the emancipatory aspect of their involvement in the strike

remains to be answered. It may have been that they did not like to theorise

about feminist topics and like supporting the strike they 'just got on with'

emancipation. It may also have been that, in order to be able to theorise or -

to name another example - to work in a political party, women would have had

to learn the respective jargons. This accounts for the following statements: "I

don't call myself a political person, I've never understood the ins and outs of it

all" (T.Parker: 133). Or: "I'm not political because I've got no ideas about it and

I don't understand it." (T.Parker: 124). In the interviews these quotations are

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 65taken from both women incessantly talk about politics. And when

Pauline Street said she had no ideas about it and did not understand it, all she

probably meant was that she did not know the political jargon!

Maybe the established feminist movement expected too much of the

women in mining-communities: a radical change of the women's attitudes.

Pauline Street changed quite moderately: "I'm not a women's libber or

anything though: I'd say I'm sort of in the middle. But I am reading about

women's rights and all things like that, and taking a big interest in the subject.

[...] before the strike I'd never have given it a thought." (T.Parker: 122-123).

For Pauline Street's next statement another explanation must be found.

Pauline: "I always got back here in time for the bairns coming home from

school, then I was ready to give them their teas and do the washing and get

Alf's meal for when he came in." (T.Parker: 117). At first sight this attitude - on

the one side emancipation and on the other the husband comes first - is

incomprehensible. A look at the past, however, shows that in mining-

communities not only the women were exploited and "In their bones they had

always known they were exploited but they knew that at least their

exploitation paralleled that of the men they shared their lives with. That is why

miners' wives don't, on the whole, take their resentment of the past out on the

miners of the present. They complain about their husbands' prejudices but

they are setting out to change them - in between looking after the kids and

getting the meals ready for the end of the shift." (J.Stead: 28), and thus the

special quality of mining and of mining-communities found its expression in

the special quality of the women's emancipation.

4.4.3 Was it all over - when it was over ?It may be a long way from the intention to permanently change one's

situation to its realisation, especially if there are various obstacles to be

overcome. In the case of the women in mining-communities those obstacles

were the men whose hopes the women would return to the kitchen sink once

the strike was over have already been mentioned. Another obstacle were the

women themselves! Mark Metcalf found out that

"Exactly half of the women when asked; 'When the dispute is over

will you be returning to the way you lived before?' gave answers

which indicated that continuing to be involved in Community

organisations and activities was not likely to be important in their

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 66lives once the dispute had ended. 48% of this group want to return to

the way they lived before the dispute began, 12% did not know what

would happen and for 40% the major change in their lives would be

concerned with how they handled and spent their income. These

answers indicate that half of the women involved in S.E.A.M.

remained basically the same people as they were prior to the

dispute." (M.Metcalf: 32).

Only an insignificantly small number of women who were active during

the strike wanted to remain active.

A third and equally important obstacle for permanent change of roles was

the families' material position: During the strike many families had run into

debt which after the strike was a heavy burden for them. For the miners it

meant more overtime work and for the women to be bound to the house even

more.

There seems to be little hope for positive and permanent changes of

women's roles. What remained after the strike was over? How much did the

women, at least the active ones, keep of their freedom, their equality, and of

their power and how much did they lose again? Documents and statements

concerning these questions are very thin on the ground. Heather Wood

reported about Easington: According to her some of the women returned to

the same kind of life they led before the strike. "The men forced the wives to

go back to what they were. [...] I would say the vast majority of the women are

still out. We've got women, more women members of the Labour Party. In my

village - you know, I can only speak for mine now - we've got more women

who are standin' for a councillor at the local elections in May, you know, who

were members of the support group. So it has, it's achieved a lot I think.

They've realised they can organise, you know, that they have got a voice,

what they're sayin' isn't rubbish, you know, they can speak sense. They're

keepin' it up, it's great." (H.Wood). Heather's cousin Lorna Ruddell joined the

Labour Party: "I joined the Labour Party when the strike ended, but we moved

house during the strike + as you can well imagine it's been an uphill struggle

starting from scratch, so I haven't been as involved as I should + could have

been, but as I said to my mam, I was there when they needed me, I rallied to

the call, I still want rid of Thatcher, so who knows what's next for me to do?"

(L.Ruddell).

Heather again: "We're on all sorts of committees now within the

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 67community. We've got women who are on school government bodies

now. The last one I nominated, I says 'I'm gonna nominate you for a

parent representative on the school governors.' 'Hee, no, I cannot do

that!' I says 'Look at all the things you did in the strike. And

everything you said "I cannot do it!" and you did it. So don't tell me

you cannot go and sit on a school governors. You know what you

want out of the school as much as I know what I want.'[...] And now

they're sitting there and making contributions." (H.Wood).

Apart from such local activities there have been and still are regional and

national activities organised by women who were active in the mining-

communities. Some examples: "In Northumberland, members of the Women's

Support Group are joining the campaign against the Druridge Bay Power

Station." (D.Massey / H.Wainwright, 1985 b: 9). The political learning process

and the experiences with Greenham have borne fruit: The women not only

understood the links between nuclear power and pit closures, they translated

their knowledge into action.

In Durham something similar happened. There an organisation called

LINKS was founded:

"LINKS is a mixed group of women and men originating in women's

initiative in the Miners Support Groups in Durham. [...] The purpose

of LINKS is to enhance existing campaigns rather than to undermine

or mould any other group into a rigid format. Involvement in LINKS is

not commitment to a new bureaucracy but empowerment to take co-

ordinated action. Divided we fall - United we'll win." (LINKS: 5).

LINKS tries to connect the nation's and the world's major problems:

Starvation, unemployment, lost communities, coal, energy politics, nuclear

power, waste, South Africa, apartheid, the law, nuclear weapons, war, health,

or education.

"The aims of the Anti-Apartheid movement are directly linked with

the aims of the Peace movement which in turn are linked with the

anti-nuclear movement and groups striving to protect their

communities from mass unemployment or the dangers of pollution

and radiation from the transporting and dumping of poisonous waste.

These issues are locally and internationally linked with the way in

which society is economically and militarily dominated by

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 68multinationals and the interests of capital." (LINKS: 4)

This organisation arose from the experience that together women can

achieve a lot but on their own have little chance in their struggles "which we

know to be part of the same iceberg of exploitation, male violence and

capitalism." (LINKS: 2). For the Women's International Day for Disarmament on

May 23/24, 1987 LINKS, or WOMEN'S LINKS as it is also called, prepared a

number of activities "to demonstrate our power to defend ourselves and our

families." (WOMEN'S LINKS). The LINKS campaign also published a leaflet

about the dangers of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 (LINKS Campaign), which

again shows their commitment in the field of nuclear power.

Women from mining-communities in the Northeast drew up a petition to

the European Parliament "over the EEC's withdrawal of subsidy. 'It's a

women's initiative, a women's coalfield petition. We took the initiative, we'll do

the lobbying, because we can mobilise. Don't underestimate these women.

The government did. The union did and they nearly got trampled on'", said

Ann Suddick. (B.Campbell, 1986: 287).

These were only some of the outstanding activities after the strike. Most

of the Women's Support Groups still meet regularly and "in many places [...]

they are just as busy with politics as they were during the strike." (B.Campbell,

1986: 297).

4.4.4 The future - Back into oblivion ?In both world wars women did - had to do - men's jobs in the families, in

the industry, in the administration, or in the arts. When at the end of the wars

most men returned home the women usually did the same. As has been shown

this did not in all cases happen after the 1984/85 Miners' Strike. Will the

changes the women underwent, however, be lasting? There are a number of

arguments for this assumption.

First of all, at the beginning of the strike the women were emotionally

ready to become active, to liberate themselves. All they needed was a push -

which the strike provided. Therefore the chances for them to remain active

long after the strike were and are good.

With the Women's Support Groups and with Women Against Pit Closures

the women created organisations which existed beyond the strike and offered

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 69the necessary backing for the support and extension of women's

achievements. Women furthermore made contacts with other women's

organisations which will "give confidence and solidarity to all women in

struggle" (Workers Power: 14) and secure this mass women's movements

existence beyond the struggles of individual groups.

"Hope for the future [also] lies in the sheer quantity and variety of forms

of expression used by, with and for the women, during and after the strike."

(A.John, 1986: 93). They also wrote their own history which can be judged as a

sign that women did not want their experiences and achievements to be

forgotten or distorted. "One may ask: 'aren't women's protests likely to be

submerged and forgotten once again? Much, of course, depends on who

provides the history and with what degree of sensitivity. There are some

encouraging signs. In 1984-85 women not only made speeches, they rejected

the principle of being spoken for" (A.John, 1986: 93).

The greatest hope for the future, however, lies in the children:

"It was the children under 12, particularly the girls, who threw

themselves into supporting the strike, eager to go on as many

marches as they could, collecting and exchanging badges and

stickers. One nine-year-old girl had at least 100 badges all over her

leather jacket. Small girls became extremely knowledgeable about

the NUM and about the pits. If you asked a girl's mother a question,

the odds were that the answer would come from the daughter before

the mother got a chance to say a word. Not only the miners' wives,

but also a whole generation of young women had been politicised."

(J.Stead: 87-88).

The daughters showed some pride in their mothers: "My daughter Jan felt

neglected. She was used to me looking after her, and with me being out all the

time some conflict was coming up. On the other hand I feel she was proud of

what I was doing for the Miners' cause." (M.Graveson: 2). P.Heron had a similar

impression: "...my daughter Louise, who is used to me being in the house

24hrs a day is very surprised but I think she is a tiny bit proud of her mam."

(P.Heron: 9). Suddenly the children saw their mothers organise, speak to large

audiences, travel all over the country and beyond, fight on picket lines, and so

on. They also saw their fathers, perhaps for the first time, do the housework34.

For once the traditional way of socialising the children has been interrupted

34 They may have beeen proud of them too, but nobody has written anything about that!

THE 1984/85 MINERS' STRIKE AND WOMEN'S ROLES 70and it may, at least in some families, never be taken up again.

CONCLUSIONS 71

5. Conclusions

Heather Wood summarised the strike's effect on the women in mining-

communities like this: "It was, I think the whole thing is, for women:

confidence. You know, you could sum it up in one word: confidence. It gave,

that's what it gave them. To me that was the most important thing." (H.Wood).

Women's activities and the roles they played in the Miners' Strike of 1984/85

gave confidence not only to those women who actively supported the strike

but also to those who were not active during the strike. Those who were active

- very very few indeed compared with the number of those who were not -

often changed considerably. They see themselves quite different than before

the strike, which became clear at a meeting at the Easington Miners' Welfare

where the Vice-President of the NUM, Mick McGahey, "addressed an audience

which contained a large number of women. He swept his arm across the front

row and referred to the 'housewives in the County who understand the

problems.' The first question was asked by one of these women. She made the

situation plain: `we no longer regard ourselves as "housewives"; we are

soldiers in the struggle.'" (H.Beynon, 1984: 109). Not only were the traditional

roles of women as housewives or mothers challenged on a large scale, the

strike also changed women's lives and consciousness. "It has shown them their

strengths and capabilities; it has extended their lives beyond the house where

traditionally women were confined" (J.Coulter / et.al.: 214), it has made them -

through struggle - political beings and has given them an identity which

previously had been denied them (women in mining-communities have always

been identified in relation to men and to the industry - as daughters, wives,

mothers, or widows of miners!).

New ideas and "insights into the world have been gained" (J.Coulter /

et.al.: 200), women built relationships with other women both within and

outside the mining-communities and they formed "the forefront of labour and

trade union struggles in a mass movement of women throughout Britain"

(S.Miller: 362) and, one may add, of a new kind of feminism - a feminism which

"was real enough [...], but it is not one which can be easily aligned to

metropolitan versions of it, and it took place within an exceptionally strong

system of family and kin solidarities." (R.Samuel, 1986 b: 28-29).

The Women's Support Groups not only influenced the women who were

active in the strike but also those who were not. To what extent this happened

is very difficult to say. It is not a question, however, that the Support Groups

CONCLUSIONS 72created a new atmosphere in the mining-communities - an atmosphere of

more equality and more respect for the women, of a higher sensitivity for

sexism and chauvinism. One can not expect male dominance to have

disappeared from the mining-communities altogether. The strike has,

however, "changed irrevocably women's consciousness of themselves,

challenged male working class culture and gender relations" (S.Miller: 363).

APPENDIX 73

6. Appendix

6.1 Diary of Mrs.Patricia Heron

My dear Christopher

by the time you read this diary, you will be old enough to have your own

opinions and principles and you will be reading about the 1984-85 N.U.M.Strike

in your history books in school. You will not however read all the facts, and

what realy happend. Louise my love you are 11yrs old now, and you may be

able to remember some things, but Christopher you are only 4yrs old, so you

will know nothing, it is for this reason I have kept a diary so you will be able to

show your children what realy did happen.

It started in March-84, the strike, but even before that we all knew in the

mining comunities that somthing would happen, when the Tory Government

led by MAGARET THATCHER (The iron lady) made Ian McGregger chairman of

the N.C.B. This man had already butchered the steel industry. Hence his

nickname by Mr Scargill (The Butcher).

Mr Scargill was President of the N.U.M. a powerful union, to be feared by

the Tory government. We got them out of power in 1974, led by Joe Gormley

and they always hated us for that. Magaret Thatcher was only a member of

that cabinet then, and she wanted Mr.Ted Heath, to fight us. I think it was

then, that she made her mind up to be prime minister one day, and to make

the miners suffer.

I have always tried to be honest with you and told you, to never be scared

of asking questions. I hope you will never forget that piece of advice. Your dad

was a `picket' he went on the picket lines, the day the strike started. I was left

at home, sitting worrying about how we we could get through this fight. We

had a `giro' for £16-30 pence from suplementy benifit and £13-70 pence

family allowence. This was all we had to live on £30 out of that I was putting

£1-50 per day into my electric meter, as I could not afford to pay my elevtric

bill of £83 and the N.E.E.B. were going to disconect our supply. So I had to

have a meter installed. So I usually spent about £9 per week on the meter.

That left about £21 out of that I had to buy food for the four of us, your clothes

and shoes, which you seemed to go through very quickly also I had to pay my

insurence, you must keep those up. I also had to give Louise money for school

APPENDIX 74every day, bus-fares and a few extra coppers in case she went over her

allotted 45p free meal ticket at school. I have told you your dad was on the

picket line, well you will have probably read about the vicious savage pickets,

and the damage they did and also about, the pickets intimidating the scabs.

But I wonder if you have read about the terrible beatens, and the intimidating

the pickets suffered at the hands of our great police force. I hope one day you

will read the true facts, about allgrove, where our brave young pickets were

kicked to the ground and ripped apart by the police dogs. The mounted police

charged in to the crowds of pickets and trampled our lads to the ground, the

police also used there trunchens they were beating our lads over the heads

and yet they were not stopped. These my dears are the true facts. I myself

was a victim at the hands of the police on a women's picket line. I was pulled

out the picket line and punched and thrown to the ground. I lost conciousness,

when I came round there was policeman on top of me, a friend of mine tried to

pull him of me she was thrown to the ground too. I tried to make a complaint

about his behaviour, but lucky for him he had no number on his jacket. So

I could not as you had to have a number. So after you have read the fairy-tales

in your books, spend a few minutes reading this diary and make your own

conclusions. I was also a chairperson of a miner's wives group Houghton-

Newbottle Fenchouses. I and a grand group of ladies, [here six names follow,

also a list of four women whose husbands were strikebreakers].

There were some other women, who worked with us, but I don't want to

say much about them as they went back to work. And they were

N.U.M.members, and I did feel a bitterness to-wards them. But there names

are wrote down as they were there when we started our kitchen up Newbottle-

Church hall. I suppose they had there own reasons for going back.It is them

who must live with there concious. Our next door neighbours were scabs, [...]

[they] had a lot of harrasment rom there youngest daughter D[...] but I told

L[...] it was her who could hold her head up high, and one day I  don't know

when that may be, D[...] will be made to remember her father was a scab. If

this diary sounds bitter to you I am sorry my son, but you must remember, we

were fighting a hard fight, and our union was split down the middle by the

Nottingham Scabs. They did not support us. From the very beginning thy

made it clear they would not help us. I must be fair also and say there were

some very brave Notts miners who did come out on strike with us. And they

suffered terrible and we coud only stand by and do nothing as we were

fighting our own battle up here. It is now January   1985 and we have been on

strike nearly 11 long cold months and I fear the end may be at hand. The

APPENDIX 75government has just sat back and watch the miners drift back to work and I

fear there waiting game has paid off, already there is half the workforce in

Herrington pit where your dad is a striking miner. I don't know how this strike

will end but I do know this if you believe in a principle, then you must always

stand by it, never be afraid to stand up and say what you think always be true

to yourself. If you turn out to be half the man your dad is I know you will be a

good and fine person. Louise my sweet one, you went through this strike while

you were a young girl of 11yrs, you went with-out a lot of things, new clothes,

money in your little purse, and yet you hardly complained, because you knew

how we were struggling. I can only say I thank you from the bottom of heart

for being so understanding. You have grew up a lot in those 11mths. I have

wrote about. I will close this letter to you now. I don't think I will be writing any

more in my diary as I think the strike is nearly at an end. I think we have been

beaten by this uncaring government.

I love you, my dear children, always remember that. And remember we

tried to make a better future for you.

From your everloving mother.

Patricia Heron. `Mrs'

APPENDIX 76

6.2 Letter from Mrs McG. to W.S.Howard

Dear Sir,

To me the miners are among the Bravest and toughest men in the

country. I am now nearing sixty years of age I am the daughter, wife, and

mother of miners. My first recolection of my father was a big jolival man with a

small stump sticking out from his right shoulder I used to say when small

`dad? where is your arm.'he used to laugh and say I dropped it down the sink,

his workmates who went to hospital with him after he had been trapped down

the pit said he carried his right arm in his left hand hanging on by soft flesh,

the bone had been severed right through he did'nt make any fuss. he lived

until he was sixty two. My husband and his brother left school at fourteen went

straight into Pit House right on a hill at the top of our village it is'nt there now,

it was a large Pit in those days miners travelled miles to work there. The pit

was privately owned by a firm called Straker and Love the work was

dangerous and frightning for young lads my husband was ordered to do a job

one day underground he did'nt want to do it so was sent to the managers

office, You do it he was told or we sack you father what could he do his father

was the breadwinner. When my husband was nearly eighteen war broke out

he left the pit with his brother who was a year older his brother went into the

R-A-F, he joined the army. his brother died of war wounds aged twenty three

his war grave is in our local cemetery. My husband fought abroad he was

wounded in the arm and hand, he was in a big assualt on an island which was

occupied by the Japs the war ended ten months later our lads still held the

island. He came home and went back to Pit house. We were married and lived

in a colliery house with one bedroom, he used to work a shift where he came

in from work two in the morning I would have the tin bath on the floor water

hot in the set-pot a Jam pudding ready for him, I always washed his back all

you could see was the whites of his eyes his whole body even his eyelids and

eyelashes was covered in thick black dust he used to nearly always fall asleep

in that little bath-tin he ached from top to toe some nights I used to help him

upstairs to bed he was that exhausted as he was on what they called Piece

Work he finished the Pits as a deputy he is now nearly sixty five. My son has

jaust been moved from Epleton to Murton as his pit has closed. He stayed out

all through the strike and marched back behind his banner. He went picketing

all through the strike (peacefully). Iwill tell you about an incident, my son and

his mates set off at day-light one morning in the Picket van my lad Mick is Six

foot two sixteen stone, Charlie is a six footer heavier still, the there was Mushy

APPENDIX 77Tucker - Ken - Ray. they were on decent terms with our local bobbies, they al

had a bit push and used to laugh about it police as well this particular

morning they were driving along on their way to an open-cast. two Police cars

waved them down out stepped Police no numbers on their shoulers they all

had southern accents, out they shouted, line up along this pavement and don't

even move your eye-balls. They then stripped the van, cushions thrown out

flasks thrown across to other side of road with there sawndwishes. Now then

this little copper said to his men any of you want a piss and pointed into the

van before I let these F------- back in they all walked back to their cars

laughing. My son and his mates could have had them for breakfast, but what

would the headlines have been, Miners attack Police; Police only doing their

duty. that to me was another kind of bravery by not letting these Metropolitan

Police Provoke them. When Thatcher and McGregor call the miners the enemy

within I fill with hate. I am proud to have known my three miners. God Bless All

Miners this country is a better place by having men like them in times of stress

and times of peace.

                     Yours Truly

       D.McG.

PS My men don't know I have written to you they would not approve.

APPENDIX 78

6.3 Final chapter of 'For the Children' We like rallies best. On March 23rd we marched in pouring rain through

the streets of Newcastle in protest at Margaret Thatcher's visit to Tyneside.

This day we will truly never forget; we have a beautiful little girl to remind us

always. Elaine Elliott was born, bringing with her so much love it makes us

almost, and I stress almost, envious.

We went along to Blyth recently to help fight the proposed closure of

Bates Colliery. Sadly it was discovered that morning that we wouldn't be able

to use our banner again. I'd had it standing upright in the garage beside the

door and until then hadn't known that the rain we'd been having had actually

soaked it. This had made the ink run and it was really shabby. So Bates really

was the last rally for our original banner.

With great determination we set about making a new banner; do we

sound like a group giving up or giving in? We had our photograph taken

making the banner and it was about to have its first proud airing at the

Northumberland Miners' Picnic in Bedlington on June 8th. We had our

photographs taken at this rally not only with our new banner, but alongside

the Brenkley N.U.M. banner.

We have a busy summer programme ahead of us. After speaking at a

local meeting of the National Assembly of Women we are hoping to affiliate

our group to this organisation. We have rallies against pit closures to attend,

fund-raising to continue, speeches to make. Our fight goes on and on.

It is 25th June, 1985 and it is ironic that I am concluding my story today

because today the N.C.B. have announced the proposed closure of Brenkley

Colliery in the summer of 1986 (at the rate the N.C.B. are closing pits we

cannot see it even lasting that long).

We are realistic; if there is no coal, and there isn't at Brenkley, our men

cannot dig it. One thing is certain. Whenever

APPENDIX 79Brenkley Colliery closes and the Brenkley N.U.M. banner is marched for

the last time to Burt Hall, our banners and our story of achievement will

proudly accompany it.

T H E E N D (No, it isn't!)

(S.Graham: 30-31)

APPENDIX 80

6.3 Poems The poems printed here will give an impression of the range of topics the

women wrote about. They wrote about the police, about Thatcher, the media,

nuclear arms, about men, children and about themselves.

Here is a selection of poems from the North East.

NUM strike 84/85

The fire's gone out and I'm feeling the coldI'll help saw the logs for I'm not that oldThe fire burns bright and I'm back full of fightBut we need some, coal, I'll go back down the hole.I fill the bag and sit with the riddleFor I've learned all the tricks of how to fiddleThe bitch in No. 10 will not getme downFor I've also learned how to play the clown.My heart is full of love and prideBut not when I heard Davy Jones had died.The hate simmered inside of meOh! why can't that bloody woman seeShe's tearing our hearts out by the rootsShe's even using the copper's bootsThe newsmen. the papers, and even the judgesWon't get our spirits down, wewon't let them budge us.

by Lily Ross (R.Forbes /D.Smithson)

APPENDIX 81

Atomic Reactors

It wasn't long since the big bombs had fallenWhen up popped our Maggie P.M.She'd come from her own little bunker,No room for the common men.

Well, Norman, she said, We've done it,Shame about the rest of the folkGo down and get my handbagWhilst you're there give the cabinet a poke.

To Reagan she said start rebuildingAnother great empire for me,Then we'll have to think about breedingBut you can get your hand off my knee.

I believe the month is SeptemberBy the end of the year I'll be QueenThere's no one left to remember,My enemy no more to be seen.

Come with me we'll get some workersThere'll be mutants left from the war,Make sure they know I'm their leader,I want them to bow to the floor.

I see some running towards us,Go welcome my subjects to court,I see they've got NCB coats onThis is better than I thought.

They seem to be singing my praisesLooks like my fame has spreadLike a Phoenix rose up from the ashes,They've come to put a crown on my head.

Can you see some chaps have slogans,They've raised them for me to see how high...Leon! That one on the left looks familiar,Oh no! Tell me it's a lie!

Why Maggie, tell me, said Ronnie,The reason you've gone so white,Are these rowdy lot your admirers,Not a welcome sight?

Then the crowd stood and faced Maggie,

APPENDIX 82Her last words were "Strike 84"The mutants marched over her body,Laughing as they sang "Here we go".35

Anonymous (R.Forbes / D.Smithson)

The Longest Strike

As weeks drag on we wonder whyThey are going to let our mines dieWe are only fighting for our rightsFight we say with all our mightDo we want to live in a finished communityNo we shout as we're all in unityDaughters and sons we all have nowFor a chance in life we fight and howWe must fight for them the chance to workFor you never meet a parent who's going to shirkFor why should children move and go awayThe choice should be theirs if they want to stay.

So the strike drags on for one and allWe'll go down in history they tell us allWe would rather be remembered for the way we foughtTo show our grandchildren we wouldn't be boughtFor we heard last night on TelevisionAll about the big incision!How many pits are going to be leftAlong our coastline to the right and leftOnly fifteen years and there will be only fiveIt's not very long so how can we surviveSo the strike goes on and on and onIt's what our livelihood depends uponHowever much it hurts we must keep goingTill everything's settled and we get what's owing.

Audrey Sillito(The Last Coals of Spring: 51)

35 "Here we go" was the women's hymn derived from a football song.

APPENDIX 83Women

We, as women, wanted to helpWe, as women, helped

We, as women, wanted to MarchWe, as women, marched

We, as women, wanted to tellWe, as women, told

We, as women, wanted equalityWe, as women, equalled

We, as women, wanted directionWe, as women, directed

Anne Suddick (R.Forbes / D.Smithson)

APPENDIX 84

6.4 Titlepage of 'Coalfield Woman'

APPENDIX 85

.v.6.5 Map of England with the North East coalfield

APPENDIX 86

.v.6.6 Map of the North East coalfield

APPENDIX 87

.v.6.7 Translations

H.Dirkes / S.Engert: 19

"The new 'phenomenon' has to be put down in the history of this

miners' strike in an oustanding position. Without the women it

couldn't have lasted so long."

H.Dirkes / S.Engert: 24

"Women who had hardly ever been beyond the boundaries of their

villages travelled all over the country [...] and spoke in front of mass

meetings - abroad as well."

H.Dirkes / S.Engert: 21

"We had our own committees then [1974] as well. Soup kitchens are

a tradition. But we didn't know what else to do. Therefore the

committees didn't have any prospects for the time after the strike

and so we broke up."

H.Dirkes / S.Engert: 25

"We will not return to what we did before and just stay at home and

look after the children [...]. We will do different things and learn

different things." (Betty Heathfield)

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LINKS Campaign (1986)After ChernobylHow Safe Is "Safe"?Originally written by Janice Owen of ALARM(Alert Londoners Against the Radiation Menace)

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Lloyd,John (1985)Understanding The Miners' StrikeFabian Society Tract No.504London: Fabian Society

Loach,Loretta (1984)We'll Be Here Right To The End. And After.in: Spare Rib

no.147, Oct.1984 pp.6-8,26

Loach,Loretta (1985)We'll Be Here Right To The End...And After

BIBLIOGRAPHY 96Women in the Miners' Strikein: Beynon,H. (ed.) (1985)

Digging DeeperLondon: Verso pp.169-179

MacGregor,Ian (with Rodney Tyler) (1987)The Enemies WithinThe Story of the Miners' Strike, 1984-5Glasgow: Fontana Paperbacks

Mackay,KathWomen Against Pit ClosuresFrom Local Group to National Organisation

Massey,Doreen / Wainwright,Hilary (1985 a)Beyond the CoalfieldsThe Work of the Miners' Support Groupsin: Beynon,H. (ed.) (1985)

Digging DeeperLondon: Verso pp.149-168

Massey,Doreen / Wainwright,Hilary (1985 b)Keep Moving On...in: New Socialist

no.26, April 1985 pp.8-9

McGarry,Doris Letter to W.S.Howard(in possession of W.S.Howard, Sunderland Polytechnic)

Metcalf,Mark `What happened to you in the strike, Mum?'The Women of the S.E.A.M. (Save Easington Area Mines)Relief Cafes (Script)

Miller,Susan (1985)"The best thing that ever happened to us":Women's Role in the Coal Disputein: Scraton,P. / Thomas,P. (eds.) (1985)

The State V. The PeopleOxford: Basil Blackwell pp.355-364

Morgan,Kenneth O. (1985)A Time For Miners To Forget Historyin: New Society

21 February 1985 pp.283-285

Morton,A.L. (1979)A People's History of EnglandLondon: Lawrence & Wishart

BIBLIOGRAPHY 97The National Coal Board

facts and figuresBritain's Coal IndustryLondon: NCB (probably 1984)

National Minority MovementStrike Strategy and Tactics(The Lessons of the Industrial Struggles)1932in: Frow,R. / et.al. (1971)

StrikesLondon: Charles Knight pp.195-222

Newton,Gwen (ed.)We Are Women, We Are StrongThe Stories of Northumberland Miner's WivesCollected by Gwen Newton

Nichols,Mrs. (1984)"Just the way it was"in: Armstrong,K. / Wilson,S. (eds.) (1984)

Miners' WivesPeterlee: EDCA p.9

North East Trade Union Studies Information Unit (N.E.T.U.S.I.U.) (1985)The Case For CoalThe Future of the Durham and Northumberland CoalfieldA pamphlet prepared by the North East Trade Union Studies Information Unit on behalf of Tyne and Wear County Council and Durham County Council

Orwell,George (1986)The Road to Wigan PierHarmondsworth: Penguin Books

Ottey,Roy (1985)The StrikeAn Insider's StoryLondon: Sidgwick & Jackson

Page Arnot,Robin (1950)The MinersYears of Struggle

Park,Robert E. (1950)Race and CultureGlencoe

Parker,Tony (1986)Red HillA Mining Community

BIBLIOGRAPHY 98London, Melbourne, Johannesburg, Auckland: William Heinemann

Parkinson,George (1912)True Stories of Durham Pit-LifeLondon

Phillips,Marion (1927)Women And The Miners' Lock-OutThe Story of the Women's Commitee for the Relief of the Miners' Wives and ChildrenLondon: The Labour Publishing Company

Pine,MargaretNot By Bread AlonePlay by the women of "Save Easington Area Mines"Sample Scenes, first draft

Pit Head Baths (1975)(from a Mid-Lancashire Guildswoman)in: Llewelyn Davies,M. (ed.) (1975)

Life As We Have Known ItNew York: Hogarth Press pp.136-140

Pitt,Malcolm (1979)The World On Our BacksThe Kent Miners and the 1972 Miners' StrikeLondon: Lawrence & Wishart

Pollard,Michael (1984)The Hardest Work Under HeavenThe life and death of the British coal minerLondon, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Johannesburg: Hutchinson

The Red Miner (1985 a)Bulletin for miners and their familiesNo.1, April 1985London: Workers Power

Reed,David / Adamson,Olivia (1985)Miners Strike 1984-1985: People   versus   State London: Larkin Publications

Rose,Hilary (1984)The Miners' Wives of Uptonin: New Society

29 November 1984 pp.326-329

Rowbotham,Sheila (1974)Hidden From History300 Years of Women's Oppression and the Fight Against ItLondon: Pluto Press

BIBLIOGRAPHY 99Ruddell,Lorna

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Samuel,Raphael (ed.) (1975)Miners, Quarrymen and SaltworkersHistory Workshop SeriesLondon, Boston & Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul

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Samuel,Raphael / Bloomfield,Barbara / Boanas,Guy (eds.) (1986)The Enemy WithinPit villages and the miners' strike of 1984-5History Workshop SeriesLondon: Routledge & Kegan Paul

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The Enemy WithinLondon: RKP pp.1-39

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The Cutting EdgeLondon: Lawrence & Wishart pp.11-15

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Life As We Have Known ItNew York: Hogarth Press pp.67-72

BIBLIOGRAPHY 100Solidarity With The Miners (1985)

London: Labour Research Department

Stead,Jean (1987)Never The Same AgainWomen and the miners' strike 1984-85London: Women's Press

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Suffer And Be StillBloomington, London: Indiana UP pp.100-120

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13, 1976

Taylor,Sandra (1986)Grub Up for the Miners!Women's Contradictory Role in the 1984-85 Miners' Strikein: Seddon,V. (ed.) (1986)

The Cutting EdgeLondon: Lawrence & Wishart pp.76-96

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no.19, Sept.1984 pp.31-32

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WCCPL & NUM (South Wales) (1985)Striking BackLlandybie: WCCPL & NUM (South Wales Area)

Which Side Are You On

BIBLIOGRAPHY 101Music for the miners made in supportof the Miners Strike 1984-85(c)(p) Which Side Records 1985WSR 1

Whitehall,Mrs. (1984)"Never bothered with politics"in: Armstrong,K. / Wilson,S. (eds.) (1984)

Miners' WivesPeterlee: EDCA pp.11-12

Williams,Raymond (1985)Mining the MeaningKey words in the miners' strikein: New Socialist

no.25, 1985 pp.6-9

Wilsher,Peter / Macintyre,Donald / Jones,Michael (eds.) (1985)StrikeThatcher, Scargill and the MinersLondon: Andre Deutsch

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Witham,Joan (1986)Hearts and MindsThe story of the women of Nottinghamshire in the Miners' Strike, 1984-1985London: Canary Press

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No.68, Dec.1984 pp.22-30

Women's Links (1987)"Women's International Day For Disarmament"pamphletManchester

Wood,Heather (1987)Interview with Heather Wood, chairperson of the Easington Women's Support Group4 February 1987(in possession of G.Schoone, Oldenburg)

Workers PowerWomen's Oppression, Women's Liberation and SocialismWhy we need a working class women's movement

BIBLIOGRAPHY 102London: Workers Power

Content

Glossary 1

1. Introduction 4

2. The Evolution of Women's Roles in the Coalfields 62.1 Introduction 62.2 Coal-mining and the pit-village 6

2.2.1. Mining - male or female ? 62.2.2 The pit-village 9

2.2.2.1 Physical Isolation 92.2.2.2 Economic predominance of mining 112.2.2.3 The nature of work 122.2.2.4 The leisure activities 152.2.2.5 The family 16

2.2.3 Conclusions 182.3 Women's roles in mining-communities before 1984/85 19

2.3.1 Introduction 192.3.2 Excluding women 192.3.3 Jobs for women 202.3.4 Women and leisure 202.3.5 The union and the women 212.3.6 Masculinity and muscularity 212.3.7 Family 232.3.8 Identity 252.3.9 And today... 26

3. Women in industrial disputes of the coal industry before 1984/85 29

3.1 Introduction 293.2 The Miners' Lock-Out of 1926 303.3 Women's fight for pit-head baths 31

4. The 1984/85 Miners' Strike and women's roles 334.1 Introduction 334.2 The background to the Miners' Strike 1984/85 33

4.2.1 The run-down of the industry1947-1984 33

4.2.2 The state prepares 374.2.3 A short chronology of the strike 384.2.4 What was the Miners' Strike about? 42

4.2.4.1 Jobs 434.2.4.2 The community 43

4.3 Women's activities in the Miners' Strike 1985/85 444.3.1 The origins of women's participation 454.3.2 Women's activities and what they meant for

them 47

4.3.2.1 The soup kitchens 474.3.2.2 Picketing 504.3.2.3 Fund-raising and public speaking 524.3.2.4 Strength from Greenham 544.3.2.5 Writing 554.3.2.6 Other activities 574.3.2.7 Concluding remarks 58

4.3.3 A re-run of the past ? 594.4 Women's roles during and after the

Miners' Strike 1984/85 604.4.1 What the men thought... 624.4.2 Women's words and women's roles 67

4.4.2.1 Topics. orWhat they had to say 68

4.4.3 Was it all over - when it was over ? 734.4.4 The future - Back into oblivion ? 76

5. Conclusions 79

6. Appendix 816.1 Diary of Mrs.Patricia Heron 816.2 Letter from Mrs McG. to W.S.Howard 846.3 Final chapter of 'For the Children' 866.3 Poems 886.4 Titlepage of 'Coalfield Woman' 916.5 Map of England with the North East coalfield 926.6 Map of the North East coalfield 936.7 Translations 94

7. Bibliography 95