![Sample our Politics & International Relations journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5947/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Politics-International-Relations.jpg"})
Abstract
This article will offer the first historical assessment of the National Women Against Pit Closures movement. It shows that it was not a spontaneous formation but the result of work by a network of committed, long-time activists with strong connections to the left, including the Communist Party and the Women’s Liberation Movement. It will show how key questions caused divisions within the national organisation as it grew. In particular, activists were divided over whether the movement should aim solely to support the strike, or whether it should have broader aims relating to women’s lives, gender and feminism. Related to this, the movement divided over relationships with Arthur Scargill and the National Union of Mineworkers, and the question of which women should be allowed to be members. Finally, the article examines how these questions grew more pressing after the end of the strike, and how and why the national movement had largely disappeared three years after the strike.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Jörg Arnold for organising the ‘End of Coal’ conference at Nottingham in June–July 2016, as well as participants at the conference, the anonymous reviewers for this special issue, for their extremely useful comments and questions, and Keith Gildart, for the many insights about the mining industry, the strike and coalfield communities that he has shared with us on different occasions. We must also thank our interviewees, Jean McCrindle, Kay Sutcliffe, Margaret Davis and Janice Bartolo, for their generosity with their time and insights, and Daisy Payling for sharing her oral history interviews with us.
Notes
1. On the history of the strike, see: Beynon, Digging Deeper; Winterton and Winterton, Coal, Crisis and Conflict; Curtis, The South Wales Miners; Milne, The Enemy Within; Phillips, Collieries, Communities and the Miners’ Strike in Scotland; Richards, Miners on Strike.
2. Cowie, in Scotland, was a very rare example of an area where communal feeding and fundraising were organised entirely by men; see McGrail and Patterson, ‘For as long as it takes!’, 10–11, 34–35.
3. See Beaton, Shifting Horizons, 80 ff. for an account of how two women decided to go picketing despite the opposition of their husbands.
4. Some of the key contemporary accounts of the women’s support movement and its activities are: Loach, “We’ll be here right to the end”; Newton, We are Women, We are Strong; Miller, You Can’t Kill the Spirit; Seddon, The Cutting Edge; Witham, Hearts and Minds; Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures, We are Women, We are Strong; Barnsley Women Against Pit Closures, Women Against Pit Closures. And see Spence and Stephenson, “Pies and essays”; Palfrey, “Writing and the miners’ strike.”
5. McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures,” 131, 132.
6. Poster from Miners’ Families Appeal, ‘Don’t Desert Them Now’, WAIN/1/4, Papers of Hilary Wainwright, People’s History Archive, Manchester.
7. Kelliher, “Solidarity and Sexuality”; Robinson, Gay Men and the Left, 164 ff.; Beale, “Shoulder to Shoulder.”
8. The key historical accounts are unpublished PhDs: McCrindle, ‘National Women Against Pit Closures”; Allen, “Carrying on the strike”; Shaw, “Women in Protest and Beyond”; McIntyre, “The Response to the 1984–5 Miners’ Strike.”
9. Stead, Never the Same Again. For further examples, see, e.g. Loach, “We’ll be Here Right to the End,” 172 (an expanded version of an article first published in Spare Rib, 147, Oct. 1984); Maggie Brown, Guardian, 28 May 84.
10. Adeney and Lloyd, The Miners’ Strike, 223, 224.
11. E.g. Richards, Miners on Strike, 150 ff.
12. Beckett and Hencke, Marching to the Fault Line, 85.
13. Phillips, Collieries, Communities and the Miners’ Strike in Scotland, 111, 112.
14. Ibid., 131, 132.
15. Curtis, The South Wales Miners, VI, ‘The Strike, 1984–5’, ‘Support Groups and Fundraising’ (ebook.).
16. Loach, “We’ll be Here Right to the End”; Maggie Brown, Guardian, 28 May 84; Stead, Never the Same Again; and see articles in Spare Rib during the strike. For a dissenting view see Gibbon, “Analysing the British Miners’ Strike”.
17. Authors’ interview with Kay Sutcliffe, Margaret Davis, and Janice Bartolo, 5 March 2016, Aylesham. See also Rowbotham, The Past Is before Us, 282–284.
18. Witham, Hearts and Minds, 9.
19. In Defence of the NUM, 14–19; and see Ey Up Mi’ Duck.
20. Allen, “Carrying on the Strike,” 71 ff.
21. Nell Myers, “Notes for Hilary Cave, and all members of the campaign committee: Family and community involvement in the fight to save and expand the coal industry”, 2 Aug. 1983, 7JMC/A/22/01, Papers of Jean McCrindle, Women’s Library, LSE, London.
22. Authors’ interview with Jean McCrindle, 29 Sept. 2015, London.
23. Jean McCrindle, letter to Arthur Scargill, 21 March 1983, 7/JMC/A/22/07.
24. McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures,” 74.
25. Ibid., 78 ff.
26. Ibid., 81.
27. E.g. also in Hatfield Main Miners’ Wives Action Group: see Holmes, ‘Miners wives organise’.
28. Margaret Thatcher, Interview for Woman’s Own, 16 Oct. 1984, http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105577. See also Thatcher, Downing Street Years, 365.
29. See Allen, “Carrying on the Strike.”
30. McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures,” 83–85.
31. Jean Miller qu. in Seddon, The Cutting Edge, 228.
32. A sense of the diversity of names is given by the survey of support groups carried out by the Labour Research Department later on in the strike; women’s groups which responded were: Ackworth Kitchen; Barnsley WAPC; BWAPC Kitchens; Cynheidre Women’s Support Group; Chorley & Coppull Miners’ Wives Support Committee (a sub-committee of a wider support group); Fauldhouse Miners’ Support Group; Frickley Ladies Action Group (FLAG); Monkbretton WAPC (part of Barnsley WAPC); Shafton Women’s Support Group (part of Barnsley WAPC), South Wales Women’s Support Groups (coordinating various bodies in South Wales, with combined membership of over 1,000); a women’s miners’ support group in Norfolk; Thornhill Women’s Miners’ Support Group, South London Women’s Miners’ Support Group and Tynemouth Labour Party Women’s Council. See Labour Research Department, Solidarity with the Miners.
33. Betty Cook interview, Sisterhood and After, https://www.bl.uk/sisterhood, C1420/60, British Library, London.
34. See McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures” for more information on the extensive connections of the Barnsley group with the CP.
35. Adeney and Lloyd, The Miners’ Strike, 223.
36. See In Defence of the NUM.
37. See issues of Here We Go! in FWC/9/3/13, Fred Westacott Papers, Nottingham University Archive.
38. Keating, Counting the Cost, 17–20.
39. Dianne Hogg, interviewed by Christine Gregory for BBC Radio Sheffield, 14 Jan. 1986, 689/V/9/1 CD ROM 26, Christine Gregory Papers, Sheffield Archive.
40. Kath Mackey, interview by Daisy Payling, 2014.
41. This is a significant factor to understand in assessing the role of feminism for women during the miners’ strike. This is a very important topic, and one that we are currently writing about elsewhere.
42. Mackey, “Women Against Pit Closures,” 59.
43. This is noted in Mackey, “Women Against Pit Closures,” 61; Miller, “Barnsley,” 237.
44. E.g. Keating, Counting the Cost.
45. ‘Housing crisis—women's offensive’, supplement, ‘Women in struggle’, in 5ERC/2/3, the Papers of the Essex Road Women's Centre, LSE Women’s Library.
46. Sian James, Neath, 1999, qu. in Allen, “Carrying on the Strike,” 174, 175.
47. Notts Women Strike Back, 2, in WAIN/1/12, Papers of Hilary Wainwright, People’s Museum and Archive, Manchester.
48. Ackers, “Gramsci at the Miners’ Strike”.
49. Curtis, The South Wales Miners (ebook).
50. Beckett and Hencke, 78.
51. Curtis, The South Wales Miners (ebook). Welsh mining historian, and later Labour MP, Hywel Francis set out the Eurocommunist case in ‘Mining the Popular Front’.
52. Beckett and Hencke, Marching to the Fault Line, 79, 63; Curtis, The South Wales Miners (ebook).
53. Lorraine Bowler’s speech exists in several different written and oral forms. The top two paragraphs here are taken from a recording in G85/V/1/1 CD ROM 22 Track 1, Christine Gregory Papers, Sheffield Archive. The final paragraph is taken from Barnsley Women Against Pit Closures, Women Against Pit Closures, 19–26.
54. Draft of Jean McCrindle and Sheila Rowbotham, “More than just a Memory,” 7/JMC/B 04.
55. Allen, “Carrying on the Strike,” 48–51. See also Cook interview, Sisterhood and After; Holden, Queen Coal, 69, for a typical view of Cook as a ‘downtrodden housewife with little education or ambition’ before the strike.
56. Hence this view came across in the many articles in Spare Rib on the strike, e.g. Maureen Douglass, Spare Rib, Oct. 1984.
57. Scott, Gender and the Politics of History, 63.
58. Stephenson and Spence, “Pies and Essays.”
59. Halsey and Webb, Twentieth-Century British Social Trends, 291–298; Smith Wilson, “A New Look at the Affluent Worker.”
60. Smith Wilson, “A New Look at the Affluent Worker.”
61. Williamson, “I'm Going to Get a Job at the Factory”; Spence and Stephenson, “Side by Side with Our Men?”
62. Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures, We Are Women We are Strong, 24.
63. McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures,” 96.
64. See Jasper, Goodwin and Polletta, Passionate Politics for more, particularly Collins, “Social Movements and the Focus of Emotional Attention,” 27–44.
65. McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures,” 106, 107 (she takes it from her notes in McCrindle/WAPC archive dated 21 May 1984).
66. The Daily Mirror, 17 May 84, 1, qu. in McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures,” 201.
67. McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures,” 115.
68. See Miller, “Barnsley,” for a critical account.
69. Ibid; McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures.” 133, 134.
70. Ibid., 119–123.
71. Ibid., 121.
72. Ibid., 116, 117.
73. Ibid., 120–123.
74. Newton, We are Women We are Strong, 87, 88.
75. Authors’ interview with Kay Sutcliffe, Margaret Davis, and Janice Bartolo, 5 March 2016, Aylesham.
76. McIntyre, “The Response to the 1984–5 Miners’ Strike,” 238, 239.
77. Allen, Carrying on the Strike, 96, 7; Kitty Callan was not involved in the women’s group.
78. Spence and Stephenson, “Side by Side with Our Men.”
79. See McIntyre, “The Response to the 1984–5 Miners’ Strike,” chapter 5 on community.
80. E.g. Campbell, Road to Wigan Pier Revisited; Parker, Red Hill.
81. Shaw, “Women in Protest and Beyond.”
82. MacIntyre, “The Response to the 1984/5 Miners’ Strike,” 106–108.
83. Shaw, “Women in Protest and Beyond,” 188, 189.
84. McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures,” 150.
85. Ibid.
86. Ibid., 152, 153.
87. Mackney, Birmingham and the Miners’ Strike, 79.
88. McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures,” 153.
89. Miller, “Barnsley,” 238.
90. This is one conclusion of Allen and Measham, “In defence of home and hearth?”
91. Authors’ interview with Maureen Coates, 11 Sept. 2014, Doncaster; Minute book, Maureen Coates papers, in the possession of the authors.
92. Allen, “Carrying on the strike,” 23.
93. McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures,” 194, 195.
94. The activities of various groups are detailed in: Coalfield Woman, 2, Oct. 1985, 7JMC/C. The Bentley Women’s Action Group in Doncaster even funded the first issue of the Rank and File Miner in June 1985, which campaigned for sacked miners: Rank and File Miner, 1, June 1985, WAIN 1/11.
95. Coalfield Woman, 1, July 1985, 7JMC/C.
96. Iris Preston strike journal, 290–1, SxMOA 99/58/1, The Keep, Brighton.
97. Iris Preston strike journal, 306, 293, 305, SxMOA 99/58/1.
98. Coalfield Woman, 2, Oct. 1985, 7JMC/C.
99. ‘The Dearne Valley Project’, first six monthly report: 1 April–30 September 1985, Organiser’s report, 733/v1/3, Sheffield Archives.
100. Ibid.
101. ‘The Dearne Valley Project’, first six monthly report: 1 April–30 September 1985, Appendix 3 ‘Socio-economic change in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire’, John Field, Northern College, 24 May 1985, 733/v1/3.
102. Coalfield Woman, 1, July 1985, 7JMC/C.
103. Curtis, The South Wales Miners (ebook); Taylor, The NUM and British Politics, 247.
104. See below for more on the CP. The SWP was attempting to do something similar; see, e.g. ‘Statement by Socialist Workers Party on Lesbians Against Pit Closures’ LGSM/2/3, Papers of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, People’s History Archive, Manchester. And Socialist Action issued a special pamphlet for the Aug. 1985 WAPC conference: ‘Women Against Pit Closures: Making the Links’, WAIN/1/3.
105. Curtis, The South Wales Miners (ebook).
106. Coalfield Woman, 2, Oct. 1985, 7JMC/C.
107. Pete Carter, ‘Women Against Pit Closures Meeting, Friday 20 Sept 1985’, for Women’s Advisory Committee, 23 Sept. 1985, CP/CENT/WOM/5/2, Communist Party papers, People’s Museum, Manchester.
108. Ibid.
109. McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures,” 196; the name that was selected was ‘Women Against Pit Closures (In Association with the NUM)’: Photocopy of ‘Draft Proposals for a Women’s Organisation Associated with the NUM’, CP/CENT/WOM/5/2.
110. Amendments to draft proposals, Women’s’ Conference August 1985, WAIN/1/3.
111. Photocopy of ‘Draft Proposals for a Women’s Organisation Associated with the NUM’, CP/CENT/WOM/5/2.
112. Carter, ‘Women Against Pit Closures Meeting, Friday 20 Sept 1985’, CP/CENT/WOM/5/2.
113. Ibid.
114. Ibid.
115. Coalfield Woman, 2, October 1985, 7JMC/C.
116. Shaw, “Women in Protest and Beyond,” 190.
117. In defence of the NUM, 16.
118. Shaw, “Women in Protest and Beyond.”
119. Coalfield Woman, 6, Jan 1988, 7JMC/C.
120. Ibid.
121. McCrindle, “The National Organisation of Women Against Pit Closures,” 214 ff.
122. Coalfield Woman, 6, Jan 1988, 7JMC/C.
123. Nixon, “Our Anger has Never Diminished.”
124. Beckwith, “Lancashire Women Against Pit Closures.”