Women of the British coalfields on strike in 1926 and 1984: Documenting lives using oral history and photography

Frontiers

Volumn 19, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 199-230

  Gier Viskovatoff, Jaclyn J ^a   Porter, Abigail ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0039984814     PISSN: 01609009     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3347166     Document Type: Review

References (48)

1. In the Great Lockout of 1926, the owners of the coal pits literally locked the miners out of the mines until they agreed to work for lower wages. The lockout, which began on April 30, 1926, precipitated the General Strike of 1926, a nine-day strike of approximately two million workers in other industries who went on strike to show support for the miners. This strike, led by the Trade Union Congress of Great Britain, was the largest strike in British history at the time. After the General Strike failed to persuade the government to force coal owners to keep wages at the same level or reduce the length of the work day, the miners remained on strike for another six months. Eventually they were forced to return on the owners' terms after losing more than sixty million pounds in wages. The 1984-85 Miners' Strike was precipitated by the National Coal Board announcements in early March 1984 that more than twenty mines would be closed in the coming year with a projected loss of 84,000 jobs. By the end of March some 165,000 miners were out on strike, with approximately 30,000 remaining in the mines. The strike, which lasted until the first week in March 1985, was the longest mass strike in British, European, or American history. It led to one murder, thirteen deaths, thousands of injuries, and almost ten thousand arrests, and cost more than seven billion pounds of British taxpayers' money. But the strike also led to the first large-scale organization of working-class women, Women Against Pit Closure, and to a host of regional women's support groups that changed the public face of British coalfield society.
2. Angela John, "A Miner Struggle? Women's Protests in Welsh Mining History," Llafur 4:1 (1984): 78.
3. Rosemary A. N. Jones, "Women, the Community, and Collective Action: The 'Ceffyl Pren' Tradition," in Our Mothers' Land: Chapters in Welsh Women's History, 1830-1939, ed. Angela V. John (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1991), 27.
4. John, "A Miner Struggle?" 78.
5. Menna Gallie, personal interview, February 13, 1985.
6. See, for example, Margaret Morris, The General Strike (London: Journeyman Press, 1980).
7. Kenneth Morgan, Rebirth of a Nation: Wales, 1880-1980 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 146-47. For general information about industrial disputes in Britain, see Clayton Roberts and David Roberts, A History of England, vol. 2 (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1985), 748-49.
8. Kenneth Morgan, Rebirth of a Nation: Wales, 1880-1980 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 146-47. For general information about industrial disputes in Britain, see Clayton Roberts and David Roberts, A History of England, vol. 2 (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1985), 748-49.
9. Hywel Francis and David Smith, The Fed: A History of the South Wales Miners' Federation in the Twentieth Century (London: Wishart, 1980), 62-65.
10. John, "A Miner Struggle?" 82.
11. Mrs. S. J., Maerdy Community Study Interview, July 4, 1973, University of Wales, Swansea, Oral History Archive, South Wales Miners' Library, tape 86.
12. Mrs. S. J., interview.
13. Mrs. S. J., interview.
14. Many examples of this type of "propaganda" may be found in The Miner. Every issue examined for the period from 1926 to 1931 contained some reference to miners' wives, and many articles specifically mentioned their role in supporting the cause of Labour and their husbands.
15. Elizabeth Andrews, A Woman's Work is Never Done (Ystrad Rhondda: The Cymric Press, 1956), 24.
16. Marion Phillips, Women and the Miners' Lockout (London: Labour Party, 1927), 1-5.
17. Marion Phillips, "A Message for 1927," The Miner, January 8, 1927, 9.
18. Andrews, A Woman's Work is Never Done, 25.
19. The transition from miner's wife to public speaker was not always made easily. Oral testimony from miners wives who were asked to represent their communities in London for the purpose of fund-raising described being terrified by their first public appearance (Margaret Donovan, personal interview, Swansea Neath and Dulais Valley Women's Support Group, April 12, 1985).
20. Report of the Eighth National Conference of Labour Women (1927), 30.
21. Francis and Smith mention the presence of women in a number of protests during 1926 and in the 1930s, but the details they present are limited and viewed primarily in relation to the S.W.M.F. and the Communist Party rather than in relation to the long-standing tradition of protest and collective action by Welsh women (The Fed, 60-67).
22. Francis and Smith, The Fed, 65.
23. University of Wales, Swansea, Oral History Collection, South Wales Miners' Library.
24. Mrs. L. P., interview recorded October 25, 1974, University of Wales, Swansea, Oral History Archive, South Wales Miners' Library.
25. The author was privileged to have been invited along as an observer of this particular event, November 3, 1984, at Pontyberem, South Wales. None of the women were arrested as all agreed to cease their intimidating activities after a stiff warning from the police. However, the police did record the names and telephone numbers of all of those present.
26. South Wales News, November 3, 1926, quoted in Francis and Smith, The Fed, 65.
27. South Wales News, November 3, 1926, quoted in Francis and Smith, The Fed, 65.
28. Mrs. L. P., recorded interview.
29. Morgan, Rebirth of a Nation, 285.
30. Mrs. L. P., recorded interview.
31. "Material Relating to the 1926 Disturbances," Ferndale Lodge, file E., numbers 1-3, South Wales Coalfield Archive, University of Wales, Swansea.
32. Ferndale Lodge, file E, number 3.
33. Ferndale Lodge, file E, number 3.
34. Report of the 26th Annual Conference of the Labour Party (Margate, 1926), 177.
35. Tess Nally, letter, The Miner, September 29, 1928, 12.
36. Anonymous letter, The Miner, February 5, 1927, 5.
37. The Miner, February 19, 1927, 8.
38. Rose Lillie, letter, The Miner, February 26, 1927, 12.
39. Maud Cannon, letter, The Miner, March 19, 1927, 9.
40. Tess Nally, "Women and the War: A Plea for Enlisting Miners' Wives," The Miner, April 7, 1928, 8.
41. Nally, "Women and the War," 8.
42. By a Woman Rebel, "Notts Notes," The Miner, April 9, 1927.
43. Sheila Rowbotham and Jean McCrindle, "Women in the Miners' Strike," Feminist Review (1986): 74-76.
44. Report of the Ministry of Health on the Investigation of South Wales Coalfield, 1928-1929, VIII, Cmd. 3272.689.
45. Gwyn Williams, "Women Workers in Wales, 1968-1982," Welsh History Review 2:4 (1983): 530-48.
46. Margaret Donovan, personal interview, March 12, 1985.
47. William E. Schmidt, "Britain to Shut Most of Its Coal Mines," New York Times, October 14, 1992, C1.
48. Chrys Salt and Jim Layzell, Here We Go: Women's Memories of the 1984/85 Miners' Strike (London: London Political Committee, Retail Services Ltd., 1985), 86.