Speaker 1: In March nineteen eighty four, coal miners in Britain walked
Speaker 1: out on strike against the pit closure plan of Margaret
Speaker 1: Thatcher's Conservative government. Miners, wives and other women started support
Speaker 1: groups up and down the country which were instrumental in
Speaker 1: helping the workers hold out for nearly a year in
Speaker 1: an iconic dispute which changed Britain forever. This is working
Speaker 1: class history. Now, before we get into the main episode,
Speaker 1: some eagle eared listeners may remember hearing our episode about
Speaker 1: women in the minor strike before. Now, like all of
Speaker 1: our original episodes, it was basically made up of raw
Speaker 1: audio from our interview so there wasn't any narrative to
Speaker 1: fill gaps or explain context and kind of draw the
Speaker 1: story together into a whole. So, in addition to working
Speaker 1: on new episodes for you, we're also going back over
Speaker 1: our earliest episodes to re we edit and release them
Speaker 1: in the new narrative format we use for all of
Speaker 1: our later episodes. So the interview audio today is going
Speaker 1: to be the same quality as before, but they'll be
Speaker 1: added narrative with better quality audio to explain things and
Speaker 1: hopefully tell the story in a more cohesive manner. So
Speaker 1: we hope you enjoy it. As a reminder, our podcast
Speaker 1: is brought to you by our Patreon supporters. Our supporters
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Speaker 1: and discounted merchandise and other content. For example, our supporters
Speaker 1: can listen to both parts of this double episode now.
Speaker 1: So if you can, please join our community and help
Speaker 1: keep our collective history of struggle alive. You can learn
Speaker 1: more and sign up at patreon dot com slash working
Speaker 1: class history link in the show notes. We're working on
Speaker 1: a podcast mini series about the MINUS strike from the
Speaker 1: perspective of MINUS themselves at the moment, So for today,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to give a very brief bit of
Speaker 1: the historical background. At the beginning of the nineteen eighties,
Speaker 1: coal miners in the National Union of Mine Workers NUM
Speaker 1: were the best organized and most militant section of the
Speaker 1: working class in Britain. As detailed in our episode eighty one,
Speaker 1: miners had held successful nationwide strikes in nineteen seventy two
Speaker 1: and nineteen seventy four, when they won big pay increases
Speaker 1: and brought down the Conservative government of Edward Heath. With
Speaker 1: the election of Thatcher in nineteen seventy nine. Her Conservative
Speaker 1: Party were determined to reshape the UK from a more
Speaker 1: social democratic state with high levels of state ownership and
Speaker 1: where working people were organized and had some economic power,
Speaker 1: to a more neoliberal one where there was more widespread
Speaker 1: private ownership and there was a more atomized working class
Speaker 1: which wasn't able to exert its own power. Thatcher's strategy
Speaker 1: was to isolate different groups of workers and defeat them
Speaker 1: one by one. The most important group of workers they
Speaker 1: would need to beat were the miners, who up until
Speaker 1: that point had shown that they were willing and able
Speaker 1: to confront the state and win. To do this, the
Speaker 1: government planned to provoke a strike at a time which
Speaker 1: would be favorable for them, so shortly after their election,
Speaker 1: when winter was almost over, coalstocks were high and energy
Speaker 1: use was low, because both the nineteen seventy two and
Speaker 1: seventy four strikes took place at the height of winter,
Speaker 1: when coalstocks were depleted and energy use was high, and
Speaker 1: most electricity at the time was from coal fired power stations,
Speaker 1: so they would announce a plan to close pits and
Speaker 1: layoff miners, to which the nun would have to respond
Speaker 1: with a strike. The government's hope was that they'd then
Speaker 1: be able to sit out the strike until the miners
Speaker 1: and their families, not earning any wages, were basically stafved
Speaker 1: back to work. To this aim, the government stoppard enough
Speaker 1: coal and coke to last six months and slashed state
Speaker 1: benefits that would have been available to strikers and their families.
Speaker 1: But if the government thought that the workers would be
Speaker 1: forced back to work within six months, then they would
Speaker 1: turn out to be deeply mistaken, perhaps because they didn't
Speaker 1: factor in the support for miners which would come from
Speaker 1: their wives and other women.
Speaker 2: I was a member of the Labor Party, quite active
Speaker 2: in politics, and I was working at the local council
Speaker 2: offices in the housing department, and my husband was a
Speaker 2: plumber who worked full time and we had two children.
Speaker 1: This is Heatherwood, who was living in Easington, County Durham
Speaker 1: in the northeast of England and later became chair of
Speaker 1: the Easington Women's Support Group.
Speaker 2: In the eighty three, I was chair of the constituency
Speaker 2: Labor Party and we had heard rumors that pitts were
Speaker 2: going to clause in our area and our district, so
Speaker 2: we decided that we needed to inform people and we
Speaker 2: set up the constituency had an open public meeting and
Speaker 2: we established how many people were interested in having to
Speaker 2: fight for the community and fight to say of jobs,
Speaker 2: and we set up an organization called Save Easington Area Mains.
Speaker 2: We call it Scene for Shot and it was that
Speaker 2: same year eighty three when we had what were then
Speaker 2: the biggest rally of MINUS banners outside of the Doha Big Meeting,
Speaker 2: and it was in Easington.
Speaker 1: This big meeting is also known as the Durham Minus Gala,
Speaker 1: a legendary gathering of miners and their supporters which has
Speaker 1: taken place almost every July since eighteen seventy one.
Speaker 2: PATCHA that amazing and from there we just went on
Speaker 2: giving our public informations to what the cost to our
Speaker 2: villages would be if the mines.
Speaker 1: Caused Around the country. Miners and their supporters stepped up
Speaker 1: organizing campaigns against pit closures, and in October nineteen eighty
Speaker 1: three NUM delegates voted to fight all pit closures other
Speaker 1: than ones where coal at the pit had been exhausted.
Speaker 1: In March nineteen eighty four, the government announced that collieries
Speaker 1: in Yorkshire would be closed and work that immediately walked
Speaker 1: out on wildcat strike. They were soon joined by a
Speaker 1: majority of MINUS nationwide, and within a few days the
Speaker 1: NUM called an official national strike. Right away, activists like
Speaker 1: Heather began supporting the strike and raising funds to help
Speaker 1: the workers.
Speaker 2: Of course, along in early eighty four came the strike
Speaker 2: and my own village, the pitch voter to come out
Speaker 2: on strike. My husband and I said, well, two things.
Speaker 2: We wanted somebody to fight the government. The second one
Speaker 2: and the main one was we want our community to
Speaker 2: remain as it is close in this community who help
Speaker 2: each other. So we decided that we'd give five pounds
Speaker 2: a week to the fund. But as with everything in
Speaker 2: my life, it was like topsy. It grew and grew
Speaker 2: and grew, and I decided a couple of weeks into
Speaker 2: the strike, I mentioned at the scene meeting that we
Speaker 2: needed to get at the women in the mining communities
Speaker 2: because without the women, the men would not stay out
Speaker 2: on strike because, contrary to public beliefs, MINUS wives are
Speaker 2: not held down the rule and if their wives had
Speaker 2: said you go back, with the how to go back.
Speaker 2: So what I said was all the literature that was
Speaker 2: coming out to the villages then to the houses as
Speaker 2: minus was from the union, so it was more than
Speaker 2: likely to be read by the men and not the
Speaker 2: women of the house. So we got together three of us,
Speaker 2: Dave Temple, Brian Blanchard himselves in our house would put
Speaker 2: together a letter for every woman in Easington district. We
Speaker 2: had to do that because there nobody had a list
Speaker 2: of where each miner lived in the district, so we
Speaker 2: just decided to live at every house. We had a
Speaker 2: meeting of women in the council offices of Asent in village.
Speaker 2: The council chamber was absolutely full with women. It was
Speaker 2: wonderful to say that so many wanted to be part
Speaker 2: of and wanted to support and stand beside the husbands
Speaker 2: and or the brothers or the fathers. And from there
Speaker 2: we formed the first Apartmentroup, which was in Easington Colliery.
Speaker 1: In mining communities up and down Britain, other women, particularly
Speaker 1: miners wives, also started organizing groups to support the strike.
Speaker 1: They were raising money, setting up soup kitchens and gathering
Speaker 1: and distributing parcels of food for strikers and their families.
Speaker 1: The same happened in Easington.
Speaker 2: I went to the miner's lodge at Easington, just to
Speaker 2: let them know what we were doing, and just as
Speaker 2: in a side, the two of us women had to
Speaker 2: sit outside of the meeting while the men decided whether
Speaker 2: a woman could come into the lodge meeting. And after
Speaker 2: about half an hour the debate had gone on and
Speaker 2: came out and said we could enter. And I remember
Speaker 2: saying too, while I'm coming into the secretary of the lodge.
Speaker 2: Once I'm in, I'm not going back, you know, And
Speaker 2: he last, and it was true, because we went from
Speaker 2: strength to strength. But we set up from there. We
Speaker 2: went to all the different communities in Easington District and
Speaker 2: some beyond and had set up support groups there, and
Speaker 2: I attended lodge meetings to let the managers know what
Speaker 2: each of those groups were doing. We ended off. We
Speaker 2: set up in Easington District fourteen support groups which either
Speaker 2: provided food that by with a meal each day or
Speaker 2: food parcels where they couldn't provide a meal, but the
Speaker 2: would raise funds for food parcels. And I'm pleased to
Speaker 2: say that I can now speak of my own community, Easington.
Speaker 2: We had our free cast within Easington Collie Workman's Club
Speaker 2: and for a year we fed people one mile a
Speaker 2: day for five days a week, and during the school holidays,
Speaker 2: I wrote to the county council to ask you for
Speaker 2: good yuse yeah the school kitchens, and I'm police to
Speaker 2: say they said yes. So that made life so much easier.
Speaker 2: For instance, my mother was an ex cook for school meals,
Speaker 2: so she knew the school kitchen as well. And for
Speaker 2: the six weeks we were able to provide a really
Speaker 2: good mail for those children, and the mom and dad
Speaker 2: used to pay for and my mom would make a
Speaker 2: dessert for the children, so the adults didn't go desert
Speaker 2: for that six weeks, but the children got looked after.
Speaker 2: We raised funds from all over the world and in fact,
Speaker 2: in Babish Museum there is a section that's called the
Speaker 2: head of Wood collection and that has every photograph for
Speaker 2: every press cutting, every notice that we sent out to
Speaker 2: people about the striking, giving them information on where you
Speaker 2: could go to get this family other with regards especially
Speaker 2: to school uniforms after some holidays, so it was a
Speaker 2: busy year. Christmas we did all sorts of Christmas and
Speaker 2: we kept going for a year, and I'm proud to
Speaker 2: say I was part of it.
Speaker 1: Women all over the country were involved in support groups,
Speaker 1: organizing and also taking to the streets. In May nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty four, up to twelve thousand women from support groups
Speaker 1: marched through the streets of Barnsley against the pit closures.
Speaker 2: Were out actively working in the groups. There were no
Speaker 2: more than a dozen women in each of the fourteen groups.
Speaker 2: But the important thing to remember is it wasn't just
Speaker 2: the women who came out and did something in the
Speaker 2: support groups that kept the strike going. It was the
Speaker 2: women in the houses where they had to keep the
Speaker 2: household going on very very little money, and that wasn't
Speaker 2: an easy task. So you're I mean you talked about
Speaker 2: every miner's wife was involved and was active in the
Speaker 2: sense that they motivated their husbands to stay on strike.
Speaker 2: The may have gone and stood to where the pigot
Speaker 2: buses off on a morning, or to welcome them back
Speaker 2: on a night. So they were active even though they
Speaker 2: weren't out making meals being organized as far as fundraisings concerned.
Speaker 2: But I have to say the women in the support groups,
Speaker 2: a lot of them weren't politically motivated. When they started.
Speaker 2: It was to save their communities and save their futures.
Speaker 2: For their children and their grandchildren, so it was very
Speaker 2: difficult to talk to them about the political side of
Speaker 2: the strike. But as the weeks went on and there
Speaker 2: was sort of drip said about what was happening, they
Speaker 2: started to ask questions, and they started to want to
Speaker 2: board a place where there was political discussion and to
Speaker 2: want to be on the pickup lines. And some of
Speaker 2: them actually spoke in public meetings which they had never
Speaker 2: ever done before, gone on television and being interviewed. Helped
Speaker 2: to put together a book, The Last quarterse of Spring,
Speaker 2: which was poems and songs and short stories written by
Speaker 2: the women of Easington. They were approached by Northern Arts
Speaker 2: to have a right to be in residence. Margaret Heine
Speaker 2: came and she wrote a play Not by Bread Alone
Speaker 2: about the minor strike, and that was performed around the Northeast.
Speaker 2: Then it went to London, then it went to the
Speaker 2: Lamplish Theater in Germany and Oldenburg University. So they were
Speaker 2: big things from women who came out to make a
Speaker 2: mail for a few hundred people. They'd ended off organizing
Speaker 2: all this themselves.
Speaker 1: Fantastic involvement in the strike started to have a transformative
Speaker 1: effect on the lives of many of the women.
Speaker 2: Definitely. It is as I say, At the beginning, they
Speaker 2: wanted to make males, which is very important. But as
Speaker 2: time went on, they wanted to know more of what
Speaker 2: was going on with the strike, the political side of
Speaker 2: the strike, and they wanted to go and stand on
Speaker 2: the picquet line and fight for the jobs in the community.
Speaker 2: That way, they didn't necessarily want to go and speak
Speaker 2: on television or in meetings. They did it in the
Speaker 2: end because I was doing it all and I said,
Speaker 2: it's just too much. You're going to have to have
Speaker 2: your names and I have to manage your turn. You
Speaker 2: do it, and thank god they did. One woman who
Speaker 2: was one of the quietest people you wished to meet.
Speaker 2: She ended off with one of the biggest rallies in Middlesbrough,
Speaker 2: with Tony Ben on the platform with her and all
Speaker 2: she said was I work for British call im a cleaner,
Speaker 2: and I'm on strike. My husband's a miner, he's on strike.
Speaker 2: We have two children. Can you help us now? The
Speaker 2: crowd erupted. It was obvious that woman wasn't used to
Speaker 2: being where she was. But after that that woman went
Speaker 2: to Greenham Common. She came on rallies with US. I
Speaker 2: was on the pickup line. She wasn't frightened to speak up.
Speaker 1: Greenham Common was a women's peace camp set up in
Speaker 1: protest at US cruise missiles being stationed at the Berkshire
Speaker 1: Royal Air Force Base.
Speaker 2: That made all the difference there. So instead of coming
Speaker 2: out and doing a job and then going home quietly,
Speaker 2: you know, sort of it's a bit like they changed
Speaker 2: the world but hadn't realized that had so they just
Speaker 2: went back to what they were doing. Where in the
Speaker 2: strike it continued on, it grew. Some of them went
Speaker 2: on to be well. Julianna Heaven she was. I think
Speaker 2: she's been made twice. She's from the South Heaton support
Speaker 2: group when she hadn't really been involved in politics before
Speaker 2: the strike, and she's still involved. You know, the people
Speaker 2: like her who've continued on the fight. There's women who
Speaker 2: went on to parish councils or who just became more
Speaker 2: active in the community, to involuntary work, fundrais and for
Speaker 2: whatever organizing. And I think that's that's important to know
Speaker 2: that those women, although there were doing it before, they
Speaker 2: did things very quietly. Now the shout more and said
Speaker 2: look this is what we do and you better write
Speaker 2: it all down. It needs to be written for history.
Speaker 1: In mining communities, women's activism contributed to a shift in
Speaker 1: family and gender and ynamics. As a note here for
Speaker 1: non UK English speakers, bends is another word for children.
Speaker 2: I think it was strange at first. Nobody ever really
Speaker 2: said anything, but it was strange to something because it
Speaker 2: was out of the ordinary for them to do. I mean,
Speaker 2: the hour hours, it was just something that happened. I
Speaker 2: was always out doing something politically, but it was something
Speaker 2: that changed. Now. Got no doubt that it would have
Speaker 2: been difficult because of the men. This is where it
Speaker 2: comes in the masculinity to me, because it's not even
Speaker 2: the masculinity, just the fact that they would normally be
Speaker 2: at work, but now we they had time on the hands.
Speaker 2: So they were taking the children to school, they were
Speaker 2: staying at the school gates to pick the bends up.
Speaker 2: You know, they were housekeeping because a lot of the
Speaker 2: women went and got part time jobs factories and in shops,
Speaker 2: so they were now looking after the household. So there's
Speaker 2: boundary of being some because I mean, if it was
Speaker 2: in our house, I'd be saying with John, couldn't do
Speaker 2: it as well as our cou so there would be
Speaker 2: a grow there part from having no money. So there's
Speaker 2: boundary of being. And I know as we went into
Speaker 2: the strike, as the months went by, the women in
Speaker 2: our support group in Eavenson, that and fakeful. Now they
Speaker 2: were getting quite despondent and the money was getting really
Speaker 2: short and bills were coming in, so tempers were getting fraught.
Speaker 2: And I remember there were a few barneys just within
Speaker 2: the women, and I'd said, I'll tell you what when
Speaker 2: we meet every Thursday, which we did to organize the
Speaker 2: following week, just when you're at home, right down, how
Speaker 2: are you feeling about something, or just come and speak
Speaker 2: on it at our next meeting. And they did that,
Speaker 2: and that's where and then there was some really humding arguments.
Speaker 2: But what I said was, you do that in the
Speaker 2: meeting and then you walk out. The cause is bigger
Speaker 2: than you and your argument with whoever. We united when
Speaker 2: we walk out that job, and do you know what worked?
Speaker 2: It actually worked. And from there they did write songs, stories,
Speaker 2: poems and they were published. So out of all that,
Speaker 2: Agro came something that was really good. But the women
Speaker 2: were stronger, they worked better together and they put together
Speaker 2: a book which they would never have done. Probably, So yes,
Speaker 2: I think there's been arguments. I've got no doubt about that,
Speaker 2: because it must be strange you're changing roles completely. They
Speaker 2: were divorces bought in the may and everybody was united,
Speaker 2: all stood.
Speaker 1: Together despite the match. How the image many people have
Speaker 1: of mining towns, women there have always played active roles
Speaker 1: in their communities.
Speaker 2: I think that's a fallacy because, as I say, the
Speaker 2: women have always when you look back in the history
Speaker 2: of mining communities, it's always been the women who've come
Speaker 2: out to get things done. For instance, we needed when
Speaker 2: I was a little girl, I can remember there were
Speaker 2: no indoor toilets and bathroom so it was the women
Speaker 2: who took to the streets and blockaded the men road
Speaker 2: to the pit with their pushchairs and prams and whatever
Speaker 2: to fight for the core board to fit bathrooms and
Speaker 2: indoor toilets to the Polly properties and the one.
Speaker 1: Women also played important roles in previous big industrial disputes,
Speaker 1: particularly during the General Strike of nineteen twenty six.
Speaker 2: I think because mine has come across as there were
Speaker 2: very strong men and the women don't necessarily come out
Speaker 2: and say, oh, we do this. We do that. It
Speaker 2: doesn't mean the we'ren't doing it, that we're doing it.
Speaker 2: In the home, they looked after the money, the husband
Speaker 2: tipped the money up, They looked after all the bills
Speaker 2: and there were very few who didn't do that.
Speaker 1: In addition to providing material support for the strike in
Speaker 1: terms of money and food, many women joined picket lines
Speaker 1: to help physically prevent scam replacement workers getting to work,
Speaker 1: including in Easington. Often, mind bosses would make it difficult
Speaker 1: for strikers to effectively pick it, so they would mark
Speaker 1: mine property with yellow lines to allow space for scabs
Speaker 1: to get in. Then if mine is trying to pick
Speaker 1: it cross those lines, they could be fired. But the
Speaker 1: women weren't employed by the mines, so they couldn't be
Speaker 1: disciplined or sacked.
Speaker 2: I used to go down every morning to my children
Speaker 2: down and as for instance, for August twenty fourth, nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty four, Easington was taken over by police and that
Speaker 2: was because on the evening of August twenty third, Peace
Speaker 2: Merchant Tory MP was on the news saying why is
Speaker 2: it Dome Constabulary. It can't get one man in at
Speaker 2: Easington pit because there had been bring them to the
Speaker 2: village more or less in you know, you've tried and
Speaker 2: allowed just go home. But the next morning after peace,
Speaker 2: Merchant said that I went to take my children to
Speaker 2: school and our village green, which is enormous, was with
Speaker 2: black It was full of place. And we got further
Speaker 2: down the road and then with a police called, and
Speaker 2: so I had to stop and tell them where we
Speaker 2: were going. And I said, I'm going to be mom
Speaker 2: to drop the children off, and he said, okay, you
Speaker 2: can go, and just as we were passing before I
Speaker 2: got the window wound up. The younger son shouted, but
Speaker 2: ma'm you didn't tell them we were going to the
Speaker 2: picket lines first, and I could have killed him. But
Speaker 2: that was me going to the picket lines. But there
Speaker 2: were other women who went, and they went a lot
Speaker 2: more than maybe because I was working. They went and
Speaker 2: stood and gid. One of the things we always say
Speaker 2: is they were arrest women because we were shouting scab.
Speaker 2: So we put half the women at one side of
Speaker 2: the road and half of the other, and one half
Speaker 2: shouted scaf and the others shouted ab. So we've got
Speaker 2: it in news eventually, and we couldn't be arrested. My
Speaker 2: mum was on the picket line the day the first
Speaker 2: man went back at Asington Colliery, who lived in Asington,
Speaker 2: and she saw the women would tell her maybe because
Speaker 2: I wasn't there. She said, I can't shout scab, so
Speaker 2: she said she shouted, come on, bunny, lad, don't go
Speaker 2: back in, and as it happened, he didn't go. And
Speaker 2: my mamma always says it's because she just shouted, come on, body, lad,
Speaker 2: don't go in. But yeah, it was life changing. I
Speaker 2: think paper funother side of life, and started to want
Speaker 2: to organize the pickets rather, you know, try to organize
Speaker 2: the men and get as much activity as we could
Speaker 2: along by the pit.
Speaker 1: There were reports of some male and UM members turning
Speaker 1: women away from picket lines, believing that they were dangerous
Speaker 1: and no place for women, but still women continued to
Speaker 1: turn up. Some women organized themselves into groups of flying pickets,
Speaker 1: traveling to working pits in places like Nottingham Sure where
Speaker 1: a majority of miners were scabbing on. The strike responded
Speaker 1: to women pickets with arrests, violence, and frequently verbal abuse,
Speaker 1: which was often sexualized.
Speaker 2: It was name calling that was the biggest thing I
Speaker 2: can't think. I mean, I know there were women in
Speaker 2: different parts of the country, and there were a couple
Speaker 2: of women from Heaven Lawrence Vnson being born who were arrested.
Speaker 2: But in Easington, it was name calling. It was trying
Speaker 2: to put you down as a woman. You know, it
Speaker 2: was weighing ten pounds notes in your face or in
Speaker 2: van windows as they were passing you. You made to
Speaker 2: feel like, I'm very frightened. I was frightened. I'm no
Speaker 2: shame in saying that. I was frightened because I'd seen
Speaker 2: what they could do, and I'm still frightened because I'd
Speaker 2: seen what the state can do. They were an armored
Speaker 2: the state, and if the state can do that to
Speaker 2: people who weren't at risk to the state, what else
Speaker 2: can they do? So so frightening.
Speaker 1: Police were also happy to arrest and frame pickets and
Speaker 1: disguise their identities in order to brutalize strikers and their supporters.
Speaker 2: They used to stand at the pitchyard outside the pit
Speaker 2: wall and there would be linked arm in arm and
Speaker 2: every now and again they would open up and just
Speaker 2: take one lad through and then they would arrest him
Speaker 2: and he would be charged with God knows what need
Speaker 2: be had caught, and then he'd be in prison and
Speaker 2: never done anything in his life. You know, that keeps
Speaker 2: the en people's keep saying that kind of happened. But
Speaker 2: I saw with my own eyes, you know, there was
Speaker 2: somebody last week said to me, all the reason the
Speaker 2: police didn't have numbers on the jackets was because they
Speaker 2: were torn off by the miners. Where August the twenty
Speaker 2: four I watched them come into my village and they
Speaker 2: came in with no numbers on their jackets. Also, there
Speaker 2: was no fighting, no problems as such, you know, no
Speaker 2: hand and fighting at that point in Easington. That was
Speaker 2: not So it's a lie, it's a fallacy. It's a misinterprets.
Speaker 2: And what went on to say that the k me
Speaker 2: in with those numbers on the jackets they did.
Speaker 1: Well, that's it for part one. We'll conclude the story
Speaker 1: in part two. You can listen to that now by
Speaker 1: joining us on Patreon and accessing loads of other great
Speaker 1: exclusive content. It's only support from you, our listeners, which
Speaker 1: allows us to make these podcasts. So if you appreciate
Speaker 1: our work, please do think about joining us at Patreon
Speaker 1: dot com. Slash Working Class History link in the show notes. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: the episode will be out for everyone else next week.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, if you want to learn more about
Speaker 1: UK minus struggles, check out our episodes twenty seven to
Speaker 1: twenty nine about queer support for the strike, and episode
Speaker 1: eighty one about the strikes in nineteen seventy two and
Speaker 1: seventy four. If you join us us on Patreon isn't
Speaker 1: an option for you at the moment, Absolutely no worries,
Speaker 1: but please do tell your friends about this podcast and
Speaker 1: give us a five star review on your favorite podcast app.
Speaker 1: Thanks to our Patroon supporters for making this podcast possible
Speaker 1: special thanks to Jazz Hands, Fernando Lopez, a Haida, Nick Williams,
Speaker 1: and Old Norm. Music in these episodes is courtesy of
Speaker 1: the Easington Colliery Band. Learn more about them on the
Speaker 1: links in the show notes. This updated episode was edited
Speaker 1: by Tyler Hill with original editing by Jesse French. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening and catch you next time.