Published: Wednesday, 28th March, 2007 14:40
THE LEGACY OF THE MINERS' STRIKE
By Cumnock Chronicle Newsroom
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Despite the strong local support, the marches, the rallies, the pickets, the soup kitchens and the sit-ins, the miners strike ended one year after it began. It led to the dismantling of a way of life
TODAY, Cumnock, Doon Valley and Upper Nithsdale miners are still fighting for justice.
Decades at the coal face earned them an unemployment card and poor health as their lives were crippled with new diseases; vibration white finger, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
The compensation scheme has seen four energy ministers, but is still dogged with delays.
Thousands of miners have died since 1996 when the schemes were first started and their widows have picked up the chalice in their absence.
Auchinleck man Alex Mills was the pit delegate for Sorn and Barony and was one of the miners sacrificed in 1983 with the first of the closures.
Since then, Alex has been a champion of the miners, helping them fight for compensation and recognition.
He said: “After the strike we knew what to expect. No jobs for the men or their sons, and worry for the wives. You only have to look out your front door for the proof, it’s there for all to see.
“Margaret Thatcher was an evil woman to the miners. She destroyed our communities without a single thought. She destroyed a culture, a way of life. And what has she left us with? A new culture that is killing our young people and is the scourge of our communities - drugs.”
Alex continued: “Miners are a rare breed. Would they have done it over again? I think they would.
“Now look at the way they are being treated. They have spent a lifetime down the pits and suffer from disgusting diseases as a result. They have to fight for every penny of their own money, while 16,000 old miners are dying before they receive it and their widows are being offered pennies for a lifetime of service. They face horrendous delays in being paid out while others get rich from their money. It’s disgusting. These people deserve better treatment than this.”
If the wealth of an area was determined by the hearts of its people, then Cumnock, Doon Valley and Upper Nithsdale would enjoy a buoyant local economy, high employment and a thriving community.
Instead poverty, deprivation, mass unemployment, poor health, depopulation and an infectious air of hopelessness are the order of the day.
Efforts have been made to try and redress the problems caused by the closure of the pits, but some say this was too little too late.
Meanwhile, the area’s greatest wealth still lies deep beneath the surface. Opencast mines, peppered across the area, employ hundreds and not the thousands of their predecessors.
THE DEEP MINES HAVE GONE, BUT HE LEGACY OF BITTERNESS AND HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT REMAINS.
First appeared in the Cumnock Chronicle Friday April 2, 2004
