Category: Trade Union Reporting
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Highly acclaimed cartoons published during the 1984-85 miners’ strike are to be included a book celebrating the work of the socialist cartoonist Alan Hardman which is due to be released during the 40th anniversary year of the dispute.
His illustration based on the wartime recruiting poster Lord Kitchener Wants You – one of the most iconic and enduring images of World War I – was widely publicised to rally support for the mining communities.
“Your Class Needs YOU: Save the Pits” was the stark appeal from a miner wearing a helmet and pit lamp.
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Attempting to correct some of the deeply held opinions of his most loyal supporters is becoming a priority for Arthur Scargill in speeches marking the 40th anniversary of the miners’ strike.
He blames the news media and historians for the perpetuation of myths about the dispute but is aggrieved to find that “unfortunately some of our members” are continuing to spread “lies” over the tactics deployed in 1984-85, especially during the Battle of Orgreave.
A succession of tv and radio documentaries have given the strikers and their families an unprecedented opportunity to relive their experiences but some of their recollections have riled the former President of the National Union of Mineworkers.
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Television and radio documentaries commemorating the 40th anniversary of the 1984-85 miners’ strike have been welcomed for providing a much-needed correction to the news media’s original portrayal of the dispute.
“At last people are seeing the strike from a different perspective” says former South Wales miners Ron Stoate.
His praise for a series of newly commissioned documentaries drew wide support at a conference in Cardiff held by the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data.
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Previously unseen footage in a Channel 4 documentary about the Battle of Orgreave was confirmation if any was needed that heavy handed policing of a mass picket outside the Orgreave coke works in June 1984 descended into unprecedented brutality.
Battered and bloodied pickets were captured on camera by two officials from the National Union of Mineworkers who carried on filming amid the mayhem – footage that had been left for years locked in a cupboard and which was broadcast for the first time.
- Details
Previously unseen footage in a Channel 4 documentary about the Battle of Orgreave was confirmation if any was needed that heavy handed policing of a mass picket outside the Orgreave coke works in June 1984 descended into unprecedented brutality.
Battered and bloodied pickets were captured on camera by two officials from the National Union of Mineworkers who carried on filming amid the mayhem – footage that had been left for years locked in a cupboard and which was broadcast for the first time.