af015426: We're all in a narrow seam
Affiche uitgegeven in 1984 door de National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) voor solidariteit met de Britse mijnstaking. Afbeelding: zwart-witfoto van een mijnwerker. Tekst: WE'RE ALL IN A NARROW SEAM. The miners' strike is 19 weeks old. It began as a Yorkshire protest against the forced...
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| Reference code: | af015426 |
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| By: | , |
| Type: | affiche |
| Date: | 1984-1984 |
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| Summary: | Affiche uitgegeven in 1984 door de National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) voor solidariteit met de Britse mijnstaking.
Afbeelding: zwart-witfoto van een mijnwerker.
Tekst: WE'RE ALL IN A NARROW SEAM.
The miners' strike is 19 weeks old. It began as a Yorkshire protest against the forced closure of the Cortonwood Colliery. It became a national revolt against the cockeyed auction of our coal resources on the basis of the narrow calculations of the energy accountants. But the strike is now an act of defiance against the crackpot realism that has told us all this doctrinaire decade that economic growth is only possible by mass closures… as if a flame could somehow be rekindled by a fire extinguisher. And a demonstration against a political philosophy designed to make us ashamed that we are so economically inconvenient as to exist.
The government's problem, as Bevan put it, 'has never consisted in the suffering of the miners but in the fact that the miners are able to struggle'. They have no genuine concern for the livelihoods, skills and communities that MacGregor proposes to tread as flat as empty cardboard cups. But they are most upset when the miners decline to come quietly and suffer silently. So motorways are sealed, police squads flown across Britain and billetted in army camps, afternoon marchers are charged with riot, social security spies watch out for donated tinned food and firewood and the whole machinery of the state, grand and petty, is set to make the strike ineffectual.
The miners' solidarity is unbroken. Their support, especially from women in the coalfields, is stronger than even in 1972 and the impact of the stoppage on the power stations and steel mills increasingly effective. The miners can win and the government know it. And if they do we all stand a little bit taller and our seam is a little less narrow. It will not, unfortunately, end capitalism or end the Conservative Party. But they will no longer appear invincible. And it will prove, as Bevan also used to say, 'That there are betters answers than throwing in the sponge.'
The National Union of Mineworkers, and the mining communities need your support. Here are some of the ways that you can give it. • Get your trade union, community group, ward political party, women's grout etc to pass a resolution supporting the miners and pledging financial assistance. • Hold a weekly workplace collection. • Invite a miner to speak at your meetings. • Visit Nottinghamshire and experience the police state. • Send delegates to the picket lines. • The strike is 14 weeks old. Since, as the NUM points out, the Department of Health and Social Security deems strikers to be paid £ 15 per week it knocks money off the benefit that miner's families can claim. • This means they need help. Donations can be sent to: • Miners' Solidarity Fund, Co-operative Bank, Sheffield (Account number 30000009, Sort Code 08-90-75. • Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures (Kath Mackie, 17 Merlin Way, Sheffield S5 6SR) • Chesterfield Women Againt Pit Closures (Margaret Vallins, c/o Labour Rooms, Salter Gate, Chesterfield) • Barnsley Women Against Pit Closures (Jean McCrindle, 58 Marlborough Rd, Sheffield S10).
(EXCEPT). Printed by Blackrose Press (TU), 01-251 3043. DESIGN / COALFACE. |
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| Physical description: | geheel: hoogte: 43.50 cm geheel: breedte: 61.50 cm papier |