Edinburgh Anarchists

Book launch and commemoration of the end of the Miners Strike

7.30pm-9pm, Friday 23rd April

Dave Douglass of the National Union of Mineworkers talks about his first hand, front-line experience of the miners strikes, and launches his new book, Ghost Dancers.

Ghost Dancers the final book in Dave Douglass’s trilogy, will be launched to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the miners’ strike. A first person view of this last generation of the miners and their union, written by a participant at the sharp end of that struggle, the book explodes the prevailing myths around the strike. It also uniquely covers the post strike period. Inspired by the last stand of the native
Americans, Ghost Dancers records the last stand of the last generation of pitmen and their communities.

Dave Douglass, a coalminer for 40 years, in the Durham and Doncaster
coalfields, was an NUM official for 25 years and is still a full member
of the NUM, and the Industrial Workers of the World.

Free/donation, All Welcome!

7.30pm-9pm, Friday 23rd April

Augustine Church, George 4th Bridge, Edinburgh

Hosted by the Industrial Workers of the World: Edinburgh Branch
www.iww.org.uk/edinburgh

Still the case, the miners' fight is your fight.

…that’s a headline you’ll see a lot in the next year. I don’t have any particular insight into the struggle, but I did come across this fantastic set of 4 Xmas Cards produced by a miners’ support group in South Wales. I have scanned them at the highest resolution I could and have uploaded the full set to the site (direct download link, ZIP, 2Mb).

As well as the haunting monochrome images, the cards have poems inside, written by striking miners and their families. If you find it hard to imagine just how strongly felt this dispute was, just read “Ode to a Scab”, or “Kids’ Questions”. Ever think that Margaret Thatcher deserves a bit of sympathy in her later years? Feel the despair caused by her deliberate policy to destroy the labour movement and this particular part of it.

And never forget that it wasn’t just her. She couldn’t've done it without MI5′s “counter subversion”, without the Metropolitan Police beating pickets for overtime, and without the willing lies of the media, including the saintly “impartial” BBC. (Was it them or ITN that re-edited their Orgreave footage to make it look like the miners charged first? Doesn’t matter I guess.)

(PS shout out to South Wales Anarchists who might be interested in this post.)

Poem by striking miner, inside a card

"Support the Miners" one of 4 Xmas cards produced during the Miners' Strike