Published: Wednesday, 21st March, 2007 11:57
COMING OUT FIGHTING - The women who helped shape the Miner's Strike
By Cumnock Chronicle Newsroom
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The women who helped shape the Miner's Strike
THE true mark of a person emerges in a time of great struggle; they can find the courage to walk a terrifying path, the strength to do what needs to be done and the integrity to stand together for a cause.
The 1984 miner’s strike was a year of great sacrifice and hardship as communities pulled together to fight for their livelihoods and their way of life.
But a new and unfaltering strength was borne out of the troubles.
WITHOUT THE ENERGY, EFFORT AND ENDURANCE OF LOCAL WOMEN IT IS WIDELY RECOGNISED THAT THE STRIKE WOULD NOT HAVE GONE THE DISTANCE.
Women gave new meaning to the phrase ‘standing by your man’ as they launched their own offensive against the NCB and the heart of government.
They set up support groups, ran strike centres and soup kitchens, spoke at gatherings the length and breadth of the country and stood shoulder to shoulder with their men on the picket lines to declare in one clear voice that decimation of the industry would be decimation of their communities.
NOBODY wins in a strike, but it is the women who suffer the most,” recalled one former miner’s wife from Netherthird.
The General Strike in 1926 was fought squarely by the men as women focused on family and domestic duties, at a time when a great divide separated the two roles.
However, the 1984 struggle was a call to arms for local women as they refused to sit back and let their husbands, brothers and sons take on the biggest fight in mining history alone.
“I remember that Friday as if it were yesterday,” the woman added. “It was my third strike as a miners wife; the second I was heavily pregnant and this one I had been ill with Crohn’s disease. But I said to my husband ‘you come out with the other men and if that’s how it’s to be, then we will deal with it’.
“But we thought it would be six weeks max! Never had any of us imagined that it would go on for a year.”
When it became clear that Maggie Thatcher had buckled up for a long and turbulent ride, the women’s movement came into its own.
The strike centres, which were set up in the opening weeks, became the heart of their activities.
Soup kitchens were operated daily to ease the hardship and ensure every miner and their family had a decent meal; sandwiches and packed lunches were put together for picketing miners and a wealth of talents were drawn together for the greater good of the cause.
The local woman, who had been travelling back and forward to Glasgow hospitals for tests during the turmoil, was an active member of the WASH (Women’s Action and Self Help) group for Netherthird and Craigens.
She revealed: “The people of this area were fantastic. Food and donations were coming in from all over and families came together. The men would go picketing and we would be there feeding families and doing what needed to be done.
“It was a great source of strength for us all. We needed this, for as the strike went on, it got worse. Tension was mounting, but the situation at Orgrieve Colliery brought us even closer.”
The stress of keeping a house and family together during the turbulent time was weight enough on a woman’s mind.
But as the strike mood turned darker, a new fear crept to the surface.
As the woman recalled: “The pickets in Orgrieve were a nightmare. We had been up at the centre early in the morning getting the pieces ready for the men before they left. And then the hard bit came - the waiting for word.
“We had heard about the violence and had no idea who had been hurt or lifted and you were sitting worried, waiting on a phone call. The reports said that men turned up with tackity boots ready for a fight. But that was a load of rubbish. This was a really hard time for us all.”
There was a deep rooted unity among women that had not been witnessed since the Suffragette movement in the 19th century.
Auchinleck councillor Jean Allan’s rallying cry of ’All the women should be out fighting with their men because we are not just fighting for jobs. We are fighting for the birthright of our people’ had not fallen on the faint hearted and the ongoing efforts had brought high levels of praise from all corners.
Banners were made to show their solidarity at the pit gates, they marched with their families through the streets of Cumnock, they organised events to masquerade a normal existence as they fought off taunts and personal attacks from those unsympathetic to the cause.
They dealt with financial strains as debt mounted and many had their power cut off.
The miners' wife continued: “Some of the women were taken to a factory in Glasgow to beg for money. Colour it whatever way you want, that’s what it was...begging.
“One woman came out and said ‘My! That’s not a bad looking coat and shoes for a miner’s wife. They had no idea what it’s like living in a mining area! But you were stigmatised.
“The strike brought out pure emotion in the women. You wanted to cry, you needed to cry, but nobody would. They just wanted to stand beside their men and fight for their livelihoods. I would go to bed at night and say ‘please God, let them settle this, I don’t know how much longer we can go on’.
”BUT YOU FOUND A WAY.”
The unity of the women was unbreakable, despite heated words as tensions flared.
They stood firm and in doing so discovered a new depth of strength and compassion as they rallied together to do what was needed.
The woman added: “Women discovered talents they never knew they had. And in the centre you would find that there was someone who could sew, someone who could cut hair and so on. No-one would be stuck, or left without. The groups were so well organised. We knew that no-one would go to bed hungry, and no matter what happened there would be someone there to help you. There was great banter and it got you through.”
“It was a hard year, but if we hadn’t come through it, we would never have seen just how good people can be.”
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