By John Dunn
I never imagined, 35 long years ago yesterday, that I would still be making speeches and campaigning for justice so many years later. The beginning of the most monumental fight for jobs, families and communities was only just starting on March 5 in 1984.
Faced with an onslaught by the Thatcher government, via her appointed American hitman, Ian McGregor, my union, the NUM, responded and started the fightback, first at Cortonwood, and then spreading in the days that followed throughout the entire British coalfields. None of us expected what we were to face; we knew it would be hard but it was impossible to even fathom what Thatcher’s government and the capitalist state would do to us over the following 12 months.
A year of the most grinding hardship, with the Tories using our families as targets, denying them benefits in a literal policy of starvation. Sequestration of our union’s funds to further prevent assistance to its members, backed up by the most brutal of physical attacks upon our pickets and our communities.
The sealing off of roads with a ring of steel to prevent pickets travelling, police sieges of our villages and daily police riots through our streets. We were besieged by an invading army. Thatcher had instructed the police to ‘get tough’ and they did just that, with absolute relish and delight.
Two of our comrades murdered, simply for wanting the right to work, 11,000 arrested and convicted on trumped-up charges, over 7,000 injured and over a thousand sacked. Our crimes were simply wanting to maintain our communities and feed our families.
Anyone turning out to picket was literally putting their life on the line, every day. Yet none of this deterred our members, young men in T-shirts and shorts, bravely defending themselves against cavalry charges and riot police determined to inflict as much pain and injury as they could.
All this happened, not just at Orgreave, the most visible and widely known event, but daily, on our picket lines and in our communities. Our wives and even our children were also targets for this orchestrated violence, but they stood strong alongside us. Women Against Pit Closures were absolute giants, proving time and time again that the women of our communities were just as tough and determined as we men!
To the Tories, miners were the “enemy within”
A media conspiracy smeared and maligned us, with, as always, the good old BBC being principal cheerleader for Thatcher, who, remember, had gleefully labelled us “The Enemy Within”. I am proud that we stood tall against all this but, whilst my anger and hatred for the Tories is unabated, it is nothing compared to what I feel for those that betrayed us, not just the scabs, but for the alleged leader of the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock and the leader of the TUC, Norman Willis.
These more than any others, were the cause of our defeat. Had they lifted even their little fingers in support we would have won and Britain would be a different place today.
I am in eternal gratitude for all those that rallied to our cause, from the rail unions who refused to move coal, the dockers who refused to unload imported strike-breaking coal, those that formed support groups and raised funds to keep our fight alive and many, many more, too numerous to mention. We are eternally in your debt! That is why I still, avidly, support every strike, protest and campaign against this rotten system and will do so until my last breath.
The parallels today, though, are remarkable; another socialist leader vilified and attacked, with scabs undermining his every move. However there is one major difference: 35 years ago our leader, Arthur Scargill, never took a step back, never gave an inch and that is why miners like me are still fighting all these years later, still proud, still standing strong. There is the simple lesson: stay solid, fight on, stick to your beliefs and never, ever yield even a single inch!
Please take note today’s leaders!
March 6, 2019
