Films about the miners strike?

[Dadwasinflame]

Did anybody see the More 4 tribute to the Miners strike on Saturday night i thought, it was very good but i thought the reactmeant in front of famuiles by former Miners was a bit bizzare to be honest, one of the most bitter and bloody disputes against the working class , is hardly what i would call Family entertainment , but other than that it was an excellent show

I am well aware what happened at orgrave as well, and i went to the games between Leeds , Huddersfield/Barnsley during the strike aas well

[Flanker]

I have taped most of the night but not seen it all yet.

The documentary "when Britain went to war" or something like that was a bit weak, too many celebs offering their pearls of wisdom.



The Ken Loach film was much closer to the feel of the strike.



One thing that did come through was the police Lie's and the media collaboration with the state to tell a one sided story. Only now are they telling something closer to the truth.



And yes I was a miner and I was on strike for 13 month and I was a picket and I was arrested, so please consider my self interest declared.



Flanker

[hhhhancock]

Apologists for Thatcher suggest that she had no choice but to close uneconomic pits and I have friends who hold that view. However, my opinion is that this fails to look at the whole picture. The closure of pits decimated many mining communities and left thousands out of work. Not only were the miners who lost their jobs unable to find other work but also the shops, pubs and small firms that relied on the miners business also went under. In fact it DID NOT make economic sense to close many of these pits although there may have been some that were clearly unsustainable.



I

[Flanker]

Hi All



Its worth noting that the NUM have never fought to keep open a pit that had exhausted its reserves.



The NUM also lobbied for closure of some underground workings that were too dangerous to work safely, this of course greatly reduced the life of the pit but probably extended the life of some of the miners.



Over the next 10 years we are heading for an energy crisis, the obvious answer to it is coal (once again the fuel of the future). In the 80's work was underway to clean up emissions from coal fired power stations but I don't know the results of that work.



The fight to maintain an indigenous energy base was a political struggle, the Tory's wanted to break the unions and the entire economic argument was disinformation to stop wide spread support from other industries.



When the NUM claimed that for every mine worker who lost their job 3 others in the community and associated industry would lose theirs the government rejected the claim as an exaggeration. These figures are now accepted as a possible understatement.



The villages that grew up around pits are now decimated by unemployment and social decline with many now on the 3rd generation of folk without work and without hope. The drug dealers are literally making a killing in these communities and the police are nowhere to be seen now.



The pit closure programme of the 80's and 90's was nothing short of industrial vandalism and an abdication of keeping the nation in a state of energy security.



Their was an enemy within involved in the miners strike but it was not the miners and the families who were fighting to keep their jobs, industry and communities secure.



Flanker

[Dadwasinflame]

There is a recently released Book called Shafted, the Media and the Miners is it any good and although i have read only oine book on the Strike on M15, and the Miners strike would like to read more i remember it well and every week, we had a collection at St Albans city Hospital were i was working at the time(it has since closed btw) and remember when the Miners came down to London and some Comrades, who were in the SWP, put them up



Any recomedations

[Flanker]

A few worth finding hear, I have the "shafted" book but not read it yet.



The miners fight for jobs "our day will come. Mike Freeman

The Great Strike .Alex Callinicos and Mike Simons

Blood sweat and tears, by Artworker Books

Media hits the pits.Campaign for press and broadcast freedom.

A Miners Life , David Douglass and Joel Krieger

The miners strike day by day edited by Brian Elliot

Striking back, Mike Simons

The Enemy Within, Seumas Milne

A year of our lives. Edited by David Douglass (written by ordinary folk involved in the strike)

Killed on the picket line "the story of David Gareth Jones" by his father.



That should keep you going for a while, by the end of this lot you should be as angry as me

[Dadwasinflame]

Come and wet this truncheon - Dave Douglass | libcom.org

[Dadwasinflame]

Apart from Billy Eilliot and the Bbc drama Faith , does anybody know of any other tv dramas or films , or even drama docs on the 84/5 Miners strike

Remember one on itv in 90s, but cant remember the title , anybody help

[CaptainWaggett]

The Strike. Also it comes into an episode of Our Friends in the North

[Mr Sloane]

A superb play about the mining industry in the 70's is The Price Of Coal.

http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/as...rice-coal.html

[DB7]

Brassed Off.

[CaptainWaggett]

Brassed Off.

This isn't about the strike - it's about the pit closures in the 1990s. There are surprisingly few films about the strike.

[luthien]

As the good Captain has already pointed out,
episode seven of the nine part 'Our Friends In
The North' is a very good reflection on the
strike. I think you would need to view the
whole series to grasp how each individual
character is involved or affected,but I have
recently viewed them again,and they still
stand as some of the BBC's finest drama.

[Steve Crook]

A superb play about the mining industry in the 70's is The Price Of Coal.

http://www.britmovie.co.uk/forums/as...rice-coal.html

Either the book or the film - both parts

Steve

[bruiser15]

Though set post strike, a vital part of Danny Scoular's [Liam Neesan] back story in David Leland's The Big Man is the miners strike and his actions during it, also the effects it has had on the community he belongs to.

[Hugo]

There was also Channel 4's 2001 documentary The Battle of Orgreave diected by Mike Figgis.

[Dadwasinflame]

Would be very intrested in seeing Price of Coal , if anybody has a copy
thanks

btw How ironic i started this thread as on more 4 now is a repeat of Strike when britian went to War

[Mr Sloane]

The Price of Coal is on youtube. Also on you tube I would recommend Which Side Are You On? a Ken Loach film commissioned by Channel 4 at the height of the miners strike. The programme was originally shelved and only shown after it won International awards.

[Mr Sloane]

Days of Hope is about miners struggle from the first world war to the General Strike.