Another Planet

Women of the Working Class

We are women, we are strong
We are fighting for our lives,
side by side with the men
who work the nation's mines.
United by the struggle,
United by the past.. and it's
Here we go, here we go
For the women of the working class.

Don't need government approval
for anything we do,
We don't need their permission
to have a point of view.
Don't need anyone to tell us what to think
or what to say
We've strength enough and wisdom of our
own to go our own way.

They talk about statistics, about the
price of coal; the cost is the communities,
dying on the dole.
In fighting for our future, we find ways to organise;
Where women's liberation failed to move,
this strike has mobilised.

Ours is a unity that threats could never
breach; ours an education
that books could never teach.
We face the taunts and violence of Maggie's
thugs in blue;
When you're fighting for survival, you've got
nothing, nothing left to lose.

Women Against Pit Closures

This song is from the 1984 - 1985 miners strike. Women of the Working Class, written by Mal Finch has become an anthem to the women involved in the miners struggle. The Thatcher government planned mass pit closures with huge job losses for the miners concerned and the devastation of their communities and the miners fought back with long-lasting strikes. It was a long and bitter struggle and there were running battles between police and strikers. At the time footage was played backwards on TV to make it look like the strikers had attacked the police first to try and discredit them and their struggle. This was admitted years later but by then the damage was done. Apart from the state violence there was the poverty miners had to face from being without pay for so long. Without the support of their wives and girlfriends who turned up at the picket lines and kept the picketers fed it is doubtful whether the miners would have been able to keep up the strike for as long as they did. It was a real joint effort and community effort. The strike became famous and something of a cause celebre. Well-known people from the entertainment industry voiced their support. Miners support groups sprang up around Britain. The miners' wives became as much heroines of the strike as the male miners. But Margaret Thatcher the Conservative Prime Minister stubbornly refused to listen and lots of jobs were lost and lives ruined. It is the one thing Thatcher is probably most notorious for. She also weakened the trade unions by making secondary picketing illegal. Strikes were more successful under her fellow-Tory Edward Heath. He resigned as the result of a strike as he was not as ruthless. Although a Tory, Heath was seen as a bit more human than Thatcher. Even left-Labour Tony Benn acknowleged this when people were paying tribute to Heath after his death. Edward Heath was actually to the left of New Labour, if you can imagine a Tory being associated with the word "Left", which shows how far to the right successive UK governments have moved. Thatcher in defeating the National Union of Mine-workers ( the NUM ), traditionally the strongest union in Britain, set the country on a path that has moved ever more to the right with the continual eroding of workers' rights. New Labour under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown did not reverse Thatcherite policies and just developed them further with their program of cuts and attacks on services and the poor and now the current Conservative Lib-Dem coalition is continuing the attacks still further. Luckily, people are still fighting back and some other unions have grown stronger over the years. TrishMaryHill