TODAY’S celebration of the 1984-5 historic miners’ strike for jobs in Wakefield pays tribute to the courage, spirit and strength of the miners, their families and their communities and is aptly named With Banners Held High.

I say this because no trade union, in my opinion, typifies the role of the banner in the working-class struggle like the miners’ unions do.

These ornate banners symbolise the strength and solidarity of workers and really are the battle honours of the workers. The slogans carried on them even today are as relevant as they have ever been — indeed, maybe more so. “Unity is Strength,” “An Injury to One is an Injury to All” and “Workers of the World Unite” typify today’s struggles.

Banners in the mining industry came about in the 1800s as a symbol of solidarity and just demands against oppression. Portraits and pictures were used because lots of miners could not read or write, but they could recognise their own colliery banner by its design.

I remember in the early 1950s me and my sister at the Durham Miners’ Gala becoming lost on the racecourse. In those days hundreds of banners would be ithere and crowds of 200,000 to 300,000 were common, but we had been told if we got lost to look for our own banner with its picture of the “breaking of the bond,” a courtroom scene in 1869 at Sunderland court.

After a long period we duly found and were reunited with our parents. Incidentally this portrait is still on the banner today.

Of course the miners’ banners which paid tribute to ordinary people as well as the famous, of victories as well as defeats and the struggle for emancipation and a better world, were never complete without the accompaniment of a band, paid for by the miners.

Banners are synonymous with the struggles of Britain’s coalminers and there have been plenty of them, especially when the miners were at the head of the British trade union movement.

That is why I believe that the coal industry was obliterated by Thatcher. In order to create a low-wage, free-market economy she had to destroy the power of the trade union movement in Britain, and she did so by closing our coal industry.

Unfortunately for us at the time we had a trade union movement and Labour Party led by Norman Willis and Neil Kinnock, who were terrified of Arthur Scargill leading the NUM to any sort of victory.

This type of treachery has led to what we witnessed in December last year, the closure of Kellingley colliery in Yorkshire, the last deep mine in Britain, something I never believed would happen in my lifetime.

So we welcome events like With Banners Held High which highlight the injustices of the miners’ year-long strike in 1984-5 and keep the focus on the role of the state in the dispute.

Not one police officer was ever charged with violence at Orgreave, when there was evidence to prosecute many of them. Indeed, not one police officer was ever charged with violence during the strike.

Quite a contrast to the 10,000-plus miners who were arrested and criminalised by the state for fighting to protect their jobs and communities.

I also wonder who gave the order to the BBC to tamper with the film of Orgreave on the news that evening to show the miners throwing rocks at the gates before the police mounted charge on horseback, when in reality this did not happen until after the police had mounted the charge. An inquiry was held into that conspiracy when the BBC admitted its guilt some five years later. The government could not have sanctioned this blatant deception, could it?

The strike was totally organised by the state who for the first time established a national police force.

I am convinced that the refusal of the state to put any of the police on trial for their despicable actions gave the green light for the actions of the South Yorkshire Police to act as they did at Hillsborough against those Liverpool football supporters.

I believe that the people of Britain eventually realised just how much they were misled and deceived by the media’s unequivocal support for the government during and after the 1984-5 miners’ strike.

The fact that there are still events being held to get issues raised for justice, that keep these events in the public domain some 30 years on is crucial to the working-class movement.

Unfortunately the New Labour government, under the leadership of the warmonger Tony Blair, did nothing to redress the balance or bring any inquiries into the conduct of the police or the Thatcher government.

There was also little or no support or protection for the remnants of the coal industry or effort to change the reams of anti-trade union legislation introduced since the strike.

Fortunately the former mining communities have not just faded into the past. They have got on with the job of trying to protect what is left of their communities and campaigned to make society fairer, just like their forebears who marched and campaigned with their banners held high all those generations ago.

Whenever the campaigns go on, miners’ bands and banners are still in attendance — and no more so than in County Durham every July at the Durham Miners’ Gala.

It was once the most important miners’ demonstration in Britain.

It is now the most important trade union and labour gathering in the country, at a time when the struggle of the working class and its organisations are fighting for survival.

It is the only event that can inspire workers to defend their jobs and conditions against the incessant attacks of their employers.

The sheer spirit of togetherness and hope for a better future can galvanise our trade union movement to stand up against the exploitation of zero-hours contracts, attacks on pensions and wages, among many other issues.
The election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party has given us hope for change.

Come to Durham in July to support the collective. The bands and banners will be held high. There must be a better way forward for our youth. Support the Friends of the Durham Miners Gala.

• Davey Hopper is general secretary of the Durham Miners’ Association. Visit www.friendsofthedurhamminersgala.org