THIS year we meet again at the Miners’ Offices in Barnsley to remember and pay our respects to David Jones and Joe Green, two NUM members who lost their lives on the picket lines of the 1984-85 miners’ strike.

As is now customary following the laying of the wreaths at the miners’ memorial to remember and pay our respects to David and Joe, we will gather in the Miners’ Hall to hold the memorial lecture. 

The two speakers we have this year are Bill Adams, regional secretary of the Yorkshire and the Humber TUC, and Sarah Woolley, general secretary of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU).

As we mark the 39th anniversary of the start of the miners’ strike of 1984-85 it is difficult to believe that any time has passed at all when you look at the wave of industrial action being taken by working people in many sectors of the economy.

The miners’ strike was not to improve our terms and conditions or pay, it was to protect our jobs, communities and way of life that were under threat by a politically motivated vendetta by the then Tory government. What good is a four-day week with decent pay if the job no longer exists?

There are many similarities with what is happening today with the current wave of industrial action. While the strikers are about pay, they are not to improve pay but to preserve it, to be able to continue to earn enough to maintain their standard of living.

For many taking industrial action it is also about preserving the service that they provide ensuring that the general public and our children get the best possible care, assistance, public transport and education — services that in some cases were already on their knees due to being subjected to over a decade of Tory-imposed austerity before Covid-19 hit.

It’s strange how quickly workers can go from heroes to “left-wing anarchists” when they start to work together and stand up for their rights. 

In 1984 miners went from being salt-of-the-earth workers who dug the coal that powered our industries and heated many of our homes and public buildings to “the enemy within.” 

Now key and front-line workers who we applauded on the doorsteps during the pandemic are branded as left-wing, selfish, greedy people who are not prepared to take a drop in their standard of living caused by problems that were not of their making.

The Tory government was not responsible for causing the Covid pandemic or the illegal invasion of the Ukraine by Russia. But it was negligent in its duty to protect our country and its citizens from the effects of these events.

In the case of the cost-of-living and energy crises these are a direct result of the Westminster government’s political vendetta against the British coal industry, sacrificing an indigenous energy source that with investment in carbon capture and storage (CCS) would have ensured a secure, affordable supply of carbon neutral energy for our nation and tens of thousands of decent British jobs.

Would it not have been better if we had taken this option, to be able to ask other countries who are still dependent on coal to deploy CCS on their coal power stations, than to ask them to follow our lead and decimate their coal industries, leaving their energy security, supply and affordability to the market as we have done and run the risk of suffering the same fate when the next global incident occurs to give the markets an excuse to increase prices.

At the start of the industrial unrest on the railways the Tory government and some in the media resorted to the old tactic of divide and conquer. 

Attempting to put striking railway workers against the rail-using public and demonising the leaders of the trade unions taking industrial action as left-wing anti-government barons — a tactic that this time failed as the current trade union leaders made it clear that they regarded themselves as servants of their members not barons over them and that their members were not mindless followers but decent, hard-working people who had a genuine grievance; a situation that over time a lot more workers in different sectors have found themselves in.

After 12 years of power, the Tory government has failed to protect British citizens from the Covid-19 pandemic, rising inflation, the cost-of-living crisis and the rising cost of energy. 

They have failed to learn the lessons of the past and still believe that they are elected to make the decisions (which they are) without having to suffer the consequences of making the wrong decisions, that decent hard-working people have a duty to make the sacrifices required as a result of their bad decisions to get through the hard times.

This government will never change and we cannot afford to pay for their mistakes any longer.

Hopefully the next government will realise that times have changed, that if we are “all in it together” we share in the good times and not just the bad, that politics is not a game and there are real-life consequences to the decisions that ministers take.

The NUM supports everyone who has been forced to take industrial action to defend their rights and standard of living, to stand up so that they are able to provide the best level of service that they believe we deserve. 

NUM members know better than most how hard it is to go on strike and that it is always a last resort when faced with an immoveable employer or government.