Miners strike 1984-85

Workers Playtime on the miners' strike

WP covers

Slightly too late for the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the 1984-85 miners' strike... Here are all the Workers' Playtime articles about the strike and related issues, with PDF and Kindle versions.

Workers’ Playtime journal

WP "funny" graphic

Online archive of Workers’ Playtime, a more-or-less regular class struggle-oriented journal produced between Feb ’83 and May ’85.

Polmaise: the fight for a pit - John McCormack and Simon Pirani

Polmaise miners

This short book/pamphlet was originally published in 1989. It was written by John McCormack, a miner (and NUM delegate) from the Polmaise pit in Scotland, with the the help of Simon Pirani.

Digging deeper: issues in the miners' strike - Huw Beynon

Dig deep for the miners sticker sheet

A collection of articles by 17 different authors analysing the UK miners' strike in detail. It examines the issues at stake, the Tories' strategy, the role of the police and the courts, the miners and their supporters and families, and the TUC and the Labour Party. Published while the strike was still ongoing, in 1985.

Poster for benefit for Phelps-Dodge and British miners - Libertarian Workers Group

A poster from a joint LWG (WSA) - RSL benefit for British and Phelps-Dodge miner strikes in NYC. Donated by NY WSA Library.

Beyond Thatcher : militant testimonies on miners’ struggles and British syndicalism from yesterday and today

This year, Margaret Thatcher’s death reminded us of the economic policies she initiated in Britain and her anti-social and anti-union fights. In the last months, Autre Futur [French syndicalist website and association] wished to go further and to conduct a series of interviews with different British unionists and syndicalists, about these past struggles but also about the present, in order to get a better grasp of issues which have emerged in recent decades.

The North Sea 3. Coal, oil and after

The third part of an interview with Neil Rothnie about North Sea oil workers’organisation.