At the time of the
great miners dispute of 1984- 85 I was living in Sheffield. I was there as a refugee from the worst
effects of the early 80s recession in South Wales. The miner’s strike had started and escalated
around the March time of 1984 and already I had been involved in organising a
number of benefit and support activities.
Coming from the mining area of South Wales and having two grandfathers
who were miners I felt a strong sense of solidarity with the NUM, their members
and the dispute. I had also seen what
the Thatcher Government had done to the steelworkers of Sheffield in 1980. I
was under no doubt that the Tories being Tories were intent on ending the
problem, as they saw it, of organised labour.
As I said the day started as any other June day. My girlfriend at the time was working in Worksop which was in the Nottinghamshire coalfield area. The news had gone round, god knows how in those pre internet, mobile phone and social media days, that there was to be a mass picket at the Orgreave plant on the outskirts of Sheffield on that day. I knew that a number of my colleagues from work were intending to attend the demonstration and that there were coach loads of miners coming from all over the country were coming as well...
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