We are women, we are strong, we are fighting for our lives - Women Against Pit Closures

 

 

Women Against Pit Closures

We are women, we are strong, we are fighting for our lives

Side by side, with our men, who work the nation’s mines.

United by the struggle, united by the past,

So it’s here we go, here we go for the women of the working class.

The independent organising of welfare facilities – including social housing – had always been a big part of mining communities throughout Britain. ‘Societies’ created a community base of support for the sick and needy, generating a collective spirit that had stood the test of time. If the miners in 1984 were to stay out for any length of time then they were going to need everyone in their local communities to get involved.

In the lead-up to the strike there had been discussions in many mining communities about setting up communal kitchens, attached to which would be food-parcel centres. The aim was to prevent people being forced back to work by poverty. Women’s support groups quickly sprang up to turn the ideas into reality.

The women involved, many of whom had never previously addressed a meeting in their life but who were by no means apolitical, were to find themselves plunged into the most exciting times of their lives as they spoke at many meetings and rallies, raised funds, provided welfare rights advice, took part in picketing and challenged the full force of the State, including the police. Some also took part despite resistance at home from their partners who were not used to seeing women as equals who took a public role in political affairs.

Without the women’s efforts there is no doubt the strike would not have lasted anywhere near as long. Amongst the women involved were a number who were on strike themselves from their jobs working in administrative roles in big NCB regional offices, the pit canteens and cleaning offices. (Sadly there appear to be no reliable figures on the actual numbers of women strikers.)

In east Durham the women in the SEAM campaign swiftly organised kitchens in the Easington area. Very quickly there were established over 50 miners’ support groups in the county and this helped ensure that Durham remained totally solid for the first five months of the strike.

Having started out by attempting to use women, and miners’ wives in particular, as victims of an irresponsible strike the media were unable to ignore the highly politicised voice of women in mining communities. In the first few days of the strike the papers were full of stories in which women in Nottinghamshire were urging their husbands not to strike. In Barnsley, five women met and wrote to the Barnsley Chronicle to counter the suggestion that women weren’t in favour of the strike. Seeing the letter it wasn’t long before other women were stimulated into getting involved.

Over the next few weeks the group helped with supplementary benefit claims for wives and children of striking miners. Welfare Rights workers provided the women with advice. In the following months the 50 women in Barnsley Women Against Pit Closures (BWAPC) organised 16 different kitchens, each providing 300 meals. The women also had to find the money to pay for the meals as, by and large, all women’s support groups were responsible for finding their own funds.

In Carmarthenshire, Cynhedire WAPC raised £1,000–£1,500 a week to pay for their kitchen whilst in Faudhouse in West Lothian women collected in their village every day. In Kent the Women’s Committee regularly received food from the Daily Mirror printers and at Christmas turkeys arrived from Smithfield Market.

At their weekly meeting on 22 April 1984 BWAPC agreed to hold an All Women’s rally on 12 May 1984. Three women – Lorraine Bowler from Barnsley, Annette Hoyroyd of Nottingham (whose birthday it was) and Maureen Douglass of Doncaster – were invited to speak, along with Jack Taylor and Arthur Scargill. Both men encouraged the women to lead the march and maintained a position, surrounded by children, a couple of rows behind.

Everyone involved hoped for at least 2,000 to turn up on the big day. At least five times as many came from all parts of the country and they were cheered all the way by people lining the street as they marched.

At the rally in Barnsley Civic Hall Lorraine Bowler said: “ This fight does not just belong to the men, it belongs to us all. It has been good over the weeks to compare how some men have reacted to women’s involvement in the beginning and how they react now. It has been a gradual acceptance for most. The reception we receive from the men on picket lines and demonstrations is tremendous … Being active, as we are, takes away most of the uncertainty that is involved in a strike … We cannot allow this Government to decimate our industry and our communities. Is that what we want for our kids?

“In this country, we aren’t separated as a class. We are separated as men and women … I have seen change coming for years and the last few weeks has seen it as its best. If this Government thinks its fight is only with the miners, they are sadly mistaken. They are now fighting men, women and families.”

As a result of the day’s events links were forged that established a national women’s group – Women against Pit Closures – in all but name. Possibly the first ever national working class women’s organisation, this was formally constituted on 22 July 1984 when miners’ wives (around 75% of those present) and women supporters representing every British coalfield met at Northern College, Barnsley for their inaugural delegate conference.

This was called to co-ordinate a National Women’s Demonstration in London with the purpose of highlighting women’s support for the miners in their fight for jobs and against pit closures as well as to inform the public of the effects the pit closure programme would have on mining communities. It was intended to present the DHSS with a bill for £45,000,000, the sum that had been deducted from striking miners’ social security entitlements over the first 20 weeks of the strike.

There was also to be a 100,000-signature petition presented to the Queen appealing to her to speak on behalf of the miners’ defence of their jobs and communities. 15,000 women from all coalfields descended on the capital on 11 August, proving that the women behind the strike were determined to continue the struggle.

The Little Blue Bus

Every time we see a little blue bus

It sends shivers right through us

You see these are full of police

They keep saying they’re only here to keep the peace

But the only thing we get from them is

Are abuse and lies and intimidation

They arrest our men whenever they like

Even when they’re in bed in the middle of the night

They threaten women and children with arrest

Of course this is something that we detest

They don’t care, they don’t respect us

They just drive around in their little blue bus.

Lynn Dennett, Church Warsop WAG

The Party

Oh what a lovely NOISE,

Hundreds of shouting girls and boys

Tables of goodies laid out with care

Ten minutes flat, laid again bare,

Boys now wearing, jelly daubed trousers

Girls, the last in spattered blouses.

Oh what a lovely NOISE,

Children’s laughter joy of joys,

Rivers of ice-cream running down legs,

Bursting balloons like gunpowder kegs,

Christmas crackers, streamers, one enormous din,

 

Disco dancing, party games, prizes to win

Oh what a lovely NOISE,

Santa’s arrived with sacks full of toys,

Sweating faces shining with glee,

Scramble in turn onto his knee,

Whispering secrets recoiling in shock,

Have they been naughty, most certainly not

Oh what a lovely NOISE,

As without ceremony or poise,

Wrapping papers discarded, flung to the floor,

Everyone happy, who could ask more,

Time to go home, the noise starts to cease,

Oh what a lovely, lovely, PEACE.

Madeline Butterfield

‘‘Our organisation got better as the strike went on. More women are becoming politically active and want to carry on the women’s movement after the strike. Our women in the various groups have visited Germany, Denmark, Austria, France, Belgium, Sweden, Holland, Spain, Norway, America and Canada. Contacts have been made with union organisations, socialist groups, miners’ families and communities and ordinary people. A great flow of clothes; food, toys and chocolate cake came at Xmas, with vast sums of money. Many lasting friendships were made. People from these countries have visited the mining communities.’’ South Wales Women’s Support Group, which covered 100 women’s support groups across the 27 pits in South Wales.

“We loved it; everyone was like a community, everyone helped each other. We were all skint, all in debt, but we were together. If it hadn’t been for the strike I’d never have gone to America, never had met all those people.” Liz French of Kent Women’s Committee.