UK

Hatfield Main Pit: Never Forget, Never Forgive

Forty years after the start of the historic miners’ strike, Bryn Griffiths returns to Yorkshire, where members of his family once mined coal.

 On Saturday 9th March 2024, I had an emotional return with my family to Hatfield Main in South Yorkshire to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Great Miners’ Strike. My Grandad and other family members of that generation had worked in the local pits during the earlier successful strikes of 1972 and 1974. I spent the 1984-85 strike as an activist in the Brighton Miners’ Support Group but my heart always lay with the militant miners of Hatfield Main. Emotion was the order of the day for everyone. As we made our way through the streets, people came out of their houses to clap and show their respect. I spotted one woman shed a tear.  

Ken Capstick, a Vice President of the Yorkshire NUM during the strike, wrote to event organiser Mick Lanaghan: “In all my 50 years as Branch and Area Official of the NUM (Yorkshire Area) I have never attended a miners’ event so full of emotion… to receive such a warm welcome from so many wonderful people will remain with me a as a special moment and the proudest moment of my life as a Yorkshire Miners’ Leader.”

Capstick went on to put the Hatfield miners alongside “the Chartists, the Levellers, the Tolpuddle Martyrs and the suffragettes.” We were all attending an important event and we knew it.

We gathered at a packed Broadway Hotel, in Dunscroft, and in the very best traditions of the miners we set off towards the Hatfield Main Pit Head with the Doncaster and East Yorkshire Pipe Band leading the way.  The Hatfield Main Branch Banner featured AJ Cook, the Miners Federation of Great Britain and of course Keir Hardy from the Independent Labour Party and a founder of today’s Labour Party.

The Doncaster and East Yorkshire Pipe Band

We stopped at the Hatfield Main pithead, one of the few winding gears left standing after a campaign by  the Hatfield Main Heritage Trust.  The head gear was constructed in 1922 and now, thanks to the community campaign, has official Historic England Status.  At the pithead we were entertained by the Hatfield and Askern Colliery Band. 

The most important speech at the pithead was delivered on behalf of Dave Douglass – one of Hatfield’s most prominent militants who appears on one of the Hatfield Main banners alongside such greats as Scottish NUM leader Mick McGahey, local miner Freddie Matthews who gave his life on the picket line in 1972 and none other than Rosa Luxemburg.

Dave’s speech in absentia drew from his must-read working-class miners’ historyGhost Dancers. Dave put the strike of 1984-85 in its historical context. Taking us back to the miners’ strike in 1912 he reminded us that, “Churchill put machine guns at the pitheads, and tanks on the streets,  armoured cars on the docks and swore to drive us back down our holes like rats… and when Arthur Cook [Miners’ Federation of Great Britian leader] said we would let grass grow on the pulley wheels before we’d submit to longer hours and still more wages reduction, Churchill said he’d make us eat the grass.”Dave, the South Yorkshire picket organiser in 1984-85 is unwell so I wish him a rapid recovery.

We were joined by Arthur Scargill, the former NUM president, as we marched to the site of the Battle of Hatfield  where the local community was attacked by riot police as a few scabs were escorted into the pit in 1985.  The day is memorialised by the broken stump of a lamppost that met its end in the mayhem that ensued.

The site of the Battle of Hatfield

At the Pit Club we heard keynote speeches from Rose Hunter, North Staffs Miners’ Wives Action Group, and Arthur Scargill.  Arthur wore a Palestine badge and stood proudly, alongside Ken Capstick (on Arthur’s right), in front of a tall Palestinian flag.  Arthur opened his speech to loud cheers saying the “slaughter of more than thirty thousand innocent people including children and the unborn in Gaza is nothing less than genocide.” 

Arthur Scargill (centre) with Ken Capstick (right) at the Hatfield Main 1984-5 Strike commemoration

Arthur Scargill’s leadership of the NUM ended with some  controversial wrangling within the union and the creation of the ill-fated Socialist Labour Party adventure, but every militant supporter of the miners’ strike would praise him as a great trade union leader who stood with the rank-and-file miners to the very end.  This anniversary event was to mark our labour movement history and Arthur has an important place within it.

Gathering in the Pit Club to hear Arthur Scargill

Scargill’s speech was serious, long and intently listened to by the old miners. He recounted how, had NACODS, the pit deputies union which struck in September 1984, stood firm, the strike would have been won. He argued that there should have been a greater focus on starving the steel works of coal and maintained that the Battle of Orgreave could have been won had the pickets been maintained and built upon.  To this day he stands by the decision by the NUM not to hold a ballot and instead recognise the legitimacy of the Area actions in accordance with the union rule book to defend their jobs.

Arthur made a “particular tribute to the young miners.”  He also made a point of praising “the magnificent Women Against Pit Closures (WAPC) who were at the forefront of our struggle.”  On 12th May 1984 Arthur attended the first WAPC march in Barnsley and he said: “I confess that I anticipated that if we were lucky 500 would appear… I couldn’t believe my eyes – 10,000 women were in Barnsley.” He recalled, with admiration, how the women completely ignored police instructions to march away from the centre of the town.

George Galloway’s presence on the day has been noted in some coverage of the event. I did not spot him on the march but he did appear for the photo calls and stood behind Arthur like ‘Where’s Wally’ at the end. He was not a speaker; according to press coverage, he was not invited by the organisers and his main activity seemed to be posing for selfies.  Galloway is marmite and I never put it on my toast! 

For me the most inspiring speaker of the day was Rose Hunter from Stoke who was an important figure in the Women Against Pit Closures movement.  She started by remembering Davy Jones and Joe Green, the miners who were killed in the 1984-85 strike who as ‘Donkey Dave’ reports in the link had been remembered in Barnsley earlier in the day. Doreen Jones, Davy’s Mum, played an important role in the women’s movement. Rose said of Doreen: “The heartbreak of losing a bloody son never left her but she along with Mark Green [Joe’s Dad] continued to fight for justice… Her strong and defiant spirit lives on.”

Listening to Rose I was transported back to the strike as she introduced Liz French from Kent whom I met back in the 1980s. Rose told us that the Women Against Pit Closures were prominent at Wapping during the printers’ strike and were labelled “Scargill’s slags”, a badge she said they “wore with honour.” 

Women Against Pit Closures was the greatest working class women’s movement I have ever witnessed and, as Rose said, turning to the younger women in the room, “This is your legacy.”  She ended her speech by leading a thunderous rendition of the song Women of the Working Class, as many in the room choked back yet more tears.

I have marked the fortieth anniversary in the Labour Left Podcast with Mike Jackson, the co-founder of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners who was portrayed in the film Pride.  Mike was an excellent guest to take us through the political, cultural and industrial legacy of the strike. In the interview with Mike we explored Mark Ashton’s legacy, compared Kinnock and Starmer, re-examined the awful Clause 28, considered the importance of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign today and shared our deep-seated loathing of Margaret Thatcher.

Click to watch it on You Tube here. You can also listen to it on all your favourite podcast platforms such as Amazon, Audible, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Spotify etc. Just search for Labour Left Podcast.

The day was not all serious stuff because as well as choking back the tears we had a lot of laughs.  Even the visit to the men’s urinals was marked by a memorable experience! As I looked down, I was met with a requirement to engage in target practice with a picture of Margaret Thatcher.  I laughed so much I almost missed.  As in the title of the event, we must never ever forgive.

Decoration of the Stainforth Pit Club Urinals

Bryn Griffiths, pictured below, is the host of Labour Hub’s spin off the Labour Left podcast which he produces with Luke Robinson, the podcast editor.  They are both activists in the labour movement, Momentum and The World Transformed in North Essex. Bryn writes regularly for Labour Hub. You can find all the episodes of the Labour left Podcast here  Bryn Griffiths will be speaking at a University of Sussex, UNITE and Sussex UCU event on Wednesday 20th March  to consider How Sussex Supported the Miners.

Bryn Griffiths in front of the Hatfield Main NUM Banners.

Photos: Bryn H Griffiths