E109: Women in the miners' strike, part 2

Working Class History

Society & Culture, Education, History

5.0 • 813 Ratings

🗓️ 14 August 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Concluding part of our double episode about the crucial role played by women in the great miners’ strike in Britain, 1984-5, in conversation with Heather Wood, chair of the Easington women’s strike support group.
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Part 2 is about the formation of a national organisation and national protest, the media, the end of the strike, the effect on the women, and possibilities for the future.
These are re-edited and improved versions of our original episode 13. More information, sources, and eventually a transcript on the webpage for this episode: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e108-women-in-the-miners-strike/

Acknowledgements

Thanks to our Patreon supporters for making this podcast possible. Special thanks to Jazz Hands, Fernando López Ojeda, Nick Williams and Old Norm.
Episode graphic: Courtesy Heather Wood
Music courtesy of the Easington Colliery Brass Band
Speech recording courtesy of Amber Films and Can’t Beat it Alone. The full film in multiple parts can be seen at www.amber-online.com
This version edited by Tyler Hill. Original editing by Jesse French.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and welcome back to part two of our double episode on Women in the Minor Strike of
0:05.5	of 1984-5. If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, I'd go back and listen to that first.
0:20.1	As a reminder, our podcast is brought to you by our Patreon supporters.
0:24.4	Our supporters fund our work and in return get exclusive early access to podcast episodes without ads,
0:30.0	bonus episodes every month, free and discounted merchandise and other content.
0:34.2	So if you can, please join our community and help keep our collective history of struggle
0:38.3	alive. You can learn more and sign up at patreon.com slash working class history. Link in the show
0:45.5	notes. As the strike progressed, many picket lines became increasingly violent, including at Easington in the northeast of England.
1:00.8	At one point, there was a police car turned over and there were some windows put out at the, yeah, colliery officers,
1:09.0	but it wasn't anything on the lines of Orgreve.
1:11.2	I mean, my God, Allgreve is just horrendous.
1:14.2	As a reminder, this is Heather Wood, chair of the Easington Women's Support Group.
1:19.1	Algreave was a coking plant at which there were extremely violent clashes between police and pickets,
1:24.6	which we're going to talk more about in our forthcoming series with
1:27.6	striking miners.
1:28.9	After those cars had been turned over the way people were picked up on the streets
1:35.5	and taken to court, and even if it just happened to be passing them, were arrested.
1:41.2	I mean, I know one young lad who'd been taking his girlfriend home, they picked him up as somebody involved in that.
1:49.1	He was taken to court and the judge just said, I'm not listening to individual stories, I'm treating you all the same, you're going to prison.
1:56.0	He went to prison and it happens it was a relative of mine and he was still at home with his parents while
2:04.1	his parents were on holiday the governor of the prison rang my mother and said it's quite clear that
2:09.7	this lad shouldn't be here and if you are prepared to accept responsibility and make sure he gets back
	...

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