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Mines may close but their legacy continues

CHRIS KITCHEN looks back on a difficult year for the industry

THE With Banners Held High event in Unity Works, Wakefield, was first held last year as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the year-long miners’ strike of 1984-5.

The event was held to mark the end of the strike, when many miners marched back to work behind their banners with pride, having supported their union to protect their jobs, communities and way of life.

It is being held again this year to showcase that the coalmines, while providing employment in the communities that build up around them, also formed the foundation for a more diverse way of life: communities that, while not unique, gave a lot more back to society than they took out.

This year’s event will be the first to be held with no deep coalmine producing in Britain following the closure last year of Hatfield, Thoresby and Kellingley collieries. They closed even though Britain still generates around 20 per cent of its electricity from coal, the majority of which will now need to be imported. How can this be better for the environment?

Although the mines have now closed, the legacy from coalmining will continue for many years to come and events like With Banners Held High and the Durham Miners’ Gala (Saturday July 9) will ensure that the industry, its communities and what it meant to the prosperity of our country will not be forgotten.

It is important that this legacy is preserved for future generations and the communities which, in many cases, are still struggling from the pit closure programme despite investment to regenerate former colliery sites — which has had mixed success.

Coalmining was more than a job; it was a way of life that extended beyond the pit gates, giving much back to the local communities.

Welfare schemes were set up providing pit clubs (“miners’ welfares”) and playing fields for football, rugby, cricket and bowls for everyone to enjoy. Brass bands were popular within many mining communities, with most collieries having their own band, and the welfares provided places for them to practice.

Many mining areas had their own Miners’ Gala where miners, their families and the wider community could come together to celebrate their heritage with brass band competitions, banner processions and a carnival atmosphere for everyone to enjoy.

The Durham Miners’ Gala is the last surviving miners’ gala, held on the second Saturday in July and well worth the effort to attend.

Branch banners, some of which will be on display at today’s With Banners Held High event, were more than a piece of art. They reflected the values of the miners and mining communities that commissioned them at that point in time and document the social history of the mining communities.

The pictures and slogans on the banners show what was important at the time: education, socialism, health and safety, communities and justice were prominent prior to the 1984-5 strike. Banners commissioned after the strike were more political, depicting the violent struggle that took place on the picket lines up and down the country, and the injustice of having to fight the state with all the resources that it had at its disposal.

There are still unresolved issues from both the 1984-85 strike and the privatisation of the coalmining industry in 1995.

What happened at Orgreave and on picket lines up and down the country still needs to be investigated.

It is in the interest of society as a whole to understand how the state was allowed to manipulate the justice system to uphold a political ideology and not the rule of law, to ensure it can never happen again.

An unfair pension surplus-sharing arrangement that was put in place at privatisation, where the Exchequer, in return for guaranteeing basic pensions and an annual RPI increase, receives 50 per cent of the declared pension surplus at the triennial valuation, and the remainder of the employers’ surplus prior to privatisation.

This arrangement was expected in 1996 to generate a profit for the Exchequer of £2 billion over 25 years. To date £8 billion has been, or will be, paid to the Exchequer under this arrangement.

This cannot be regarded as in the best interests of the pension scheme members.

A fairer arrangement should be negotiated whereby a greater share of the declared surpluses should be retained in the scheme for distribution to the pensioners.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers of today’s With Banners Held High festival for their hard work and their commitment to celebrating the history and culture of Britain’s coalmining industry.

  • Chris Kitchen is national secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers.

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