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Made in Barnsley

The National Union of Mineworkers is backing a new venture in Yorkshire. Peter Lazenby reports

There’s not much left of traditional industries in Barnsley in South Yorkshire. The coal mining industry has been wiped out, and textiles went mainly the same way.

The steel industry in neighbouring Rotherham and Sheffield has likewise been massacred.

But two ex-miners, a former textile worker and a former steel worker have joined forces to ensure that the trade union traditions of the area’s industries are preserved and passed on to new generations.

They do so by recreating the banners of the trade unions. They can also reproduce historic banners on T-shirts. And they produce them by the hundred.

Products also include a nifty doormat with a picture of Margaret Thatcher on and the obligatory instruction “wipe your feet.”

They also teach kids about trade union culture.

The project, which is supported by the National Union of Mineworkers, is called Made in Barnsley.

It’s essentially a textile-production project, but with an educational wing. It operates on a not-for-profit basis, with any surpluses going to campaigns like Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign and the Justice for Mineworkers campaign.

Made in Barnsley involves ex-miners Paul Darlow and Paul Hardman, former steel worker Alan Darlow, and the operation’s textiles expert Martin Hopkins.

The project is based at the headquarters of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in Barnsley.

Earlier Martin won a grant to promote the old industrial skills and traditions of the Barnsley area. It helped acquire a digital industrial textile printing machine now used by Made in Barnsley. The press is based at Mapplewell Community Hall, outside Barnsley, and is operated by Martin.

Paul Hardman went down Agecroft colliery in Lancashire when he left school in 1975. He was the NUM’s Lancashire area President. He also worked at Parkside colliery in Lancashire, until it closed in 1993.

He said the work of Made in Barnsley started originally when material such as printed tee-shirts were produced to support the Oaks mining disaster memorial appeal.

In December, 1866, 361 men and boys died in a series of explosions in England’s worst pit disaster. The dead included 27 rescuers. It took two years to raise funds for a memorial, which was erected in 2017.

Paul said: “From the Oaks we thought there were lots of things we could do. There were banners which had seen better days – we could do banners.

“The first we did was the Lancashire area banner. The old banner was in shreds.”

The team works with a project called Past Pixcels, which has probably the biggest collection in the UK of images of union banners. It provides original, high-quality images.

“We did a reproduction of the banner,” said Paul. “Then we did a reproduction of the Yorkshire NUM area banner. It looks brilliant. And we can do it at a tenth of the cost of having a new banner made.”

The problem of preserving or reproducing historic union banners is a constant one.

Some banners cannot be restored and are simply too fragile to use at events. In the Durham area some banners have had to be copied from the fragile remains of originals.

In other cases banner have simply disappeared, but can be recreated based on photos of the old banners.

More and more interest is being taken in political anniversaries, such as the Chainmakers’ Festival and Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival.

But the coal mining industry has always been in the lead, particularly the Durham Miners’ Gala, and much more recently the With Banners Held High festival in Yorkshire.

Alongside that, demand for reproduction banners is growing, especially in former coal mining communities.

“Thatcher thought that by closing the pits she could wipe out the culture,” said Paul. “But our culture is about caring for each other. She thought she could wipe it out but she couldn’t do it. It has been part of the working class since the industrial revolution.

“The real enemy within during the strike wasn’t the miners. It was the ruling class that wanted to smash us.”

Miners’ union banners carry messages and there’ll be plenty of such messages on show today in Durham: Unity is Strength; The Past we Inherit, the Future We Build; Health, Welfare, Socialism. The messages are part of the educational aspect of the work done by Made in Barnsley – getting those messages over to new generations.

Paul said that when the Oaks disaster memorial project was launched in 2015 “there were children who did not know what coal was.”

“They know now, and they know how many died at the Oaks,” he said.

“Now we get children coming to the miners’ hall in Barnsley. We tell them how children had to get up at 4am to work at the pit. You know the saying ‘they’re not worth a candle?’ That was the people in the pit. They had to work in the dark. The kids had to push coal trucks in the dark.

“When they come to the miners’ hall, we ask the children, what is the point of a union? Then we tell them. The employers were more worried about the horses than the people who worked there. They needed the union.

“It was the union that asked that children should not work down the pit. It was the union wanted the hours reduced. It was the union that wanted houses, health services.

“They had hopes and aspirations. This is what the banners depict.

“That is the essence of what we are about, that hopefully gives new generations inspiration for future battles.

In March, 1878, a disaster at Unity Brook pit in Lancashire killed 48 men and boys.

“It was commemorated – the 170th anniversary. Children in the local community designed their own banner,” said Paul.

“The banners all have something to say. People can associate with them. They can wear them on a T-shirt. So the more stuff we get out the better.”

The news about what Made in Barnsley does has spread beyond former coal mining areas.

Members of the Bakers’ Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU) are involved in a struggle at fast-food giant McDonald’s.

“We’ve produced T-shirts and flags for them with their logo on ‘Strength in Unity.’

“We are getting orders from the train drivers’ union Aslef – T-shirts, banners, whatever we can produce.

“We are not business people,” said Paul. “We just want to get the message across. We want quality too – Past Pixcels material is top quality. We want the encouragement to last. We don’t want them falling to bits.”

The project is keen to extend its work to provide materials for community action groups and other campaigners.

“We can make stuff for people to promote their causes, trade union and community based.”

The four activists take a stall with their products to political and trade union events regularly. They are at today’s Durham Miners’ Gala.

And there’s also the little speciality that the team produces – a nice line in doormats carrying a photograph of Margaret Thatcher and the message “THATCHER – PURE EVIL,” and of course a reminder to “Wipe your feet.”

 

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