22.01.2015
More organised than the men
Mark Fischer reflects on an interview he had with Jean Davis in 1985.
This interview with Jean Davis, a leading women’s support group activist in the 1984-85 miners’ Great Strike, was originally published in The Leninist, forerunner of the Weekly Worker, in January 1985.
There are many things to admire about it. Her solid class instinct that the strike is about fighting to protect “what belongs to us”; her contempt for those miners who crossed the picket lines - her steely determination that “a committee” would be set up after the strike’s victory to “deal with them” and ensure they “pay the penalty”; and her unflinching position that the willingness of the miners to organise physical force to help make the strike effective was fully “justified”.
All of which adds to the poignancy of her remarks about the future of the women’s support group movement. She underlines the dramatic political awakening that so many women of the pit communities had undergone during the struggle and her conviction that they “couldn’t turn the clock back … to being just housewives and working women … our goal is forward.” That is, “forward” to a mass, militant working class women’s movement.
The defeat of the strike was also the defeat of the exciting and tangible possibilities inherent in the women’s support groups that were so integral to the titanic battle of 1984-85.
Mark Fischer
mark.fischer@weeklyworker.co.uk
Fighting for the future
Jean Davis is treasurer of her women’s support group in Deal, Kent; she is also a striking member of the National Union of Mineworkers, working as assistant canteen cook at Betteshanger pit
How did your group get off the ground?
There was an open branch meeting of the National Union of Mineworkers, Betteshanger branch, and we were asked if we would consider forming a group. Twenty women stopped behind and we decided to hold a meeting and we formed ourselves into a committee.
One of the other reasons was that when we were originally on strike the miners’ wives in Nottingham and Leicester were on the picket line urging their husbands to carry on working. We started off by going on a rally in support of our husbands fighting for the right to a job, and that’s really how the group started. That was seven weeks into the strike.
Have you been able to set up a kitchen?
Yes. When the children’s Easter holiday came up, we decided to cook meals for them. We had a group of women coming forward and volunteering their services in the local welfare club for the cooking of the meals at lunchtime. When the children went back to school, we carried on with the meals - this time in the evening.
Now, because of the situation in the Kent coalfield, pickets receive a cooked breakfast and a cooked lunch, and then they cook in the evening for the children. So in total it’s between six and eight hundred meals a day.
What have been the major problems that you’ve faced?
The major problems have been the gas and electric bills for especially the younger wives, who didn’t experience the 72 and 74 strikes, and have just come into this very, very difficult dispute in 1984. The younger husbands go away picketing and the wives are left at home and don’t know where to start to cope with the bills. So we’ve got two retired members that have been dealing solely with department of health and social security problems - gas, electric, telephone, rent.1 Also, on a Saturday afternoon we have two people that come from London, who for the duration of this strike have given their services free on DHSS problems and strikers’ problems. So we’ve had a lot of help, and it’s been good help.
Do the women have representation on the strike committee?
Yes, I’m the representative on the strike coordinating committee. I give any information on the women’s group: there are six women’s support groups in the Kent area, and so I sit in on the meetings with the men every morning. As a member of the NUM I’m entitled to air my views anyway, so, although I go out and speak as a miner’s wife, I always make the point that I’m a woman member of the NUM out on strike with the men.
When you began did you have help or any hindrance from the local labour movement?
The local Labour Party, the membership, have been very good. Several of our own people are members of the Labour Party, many are actively involved.
What do you think of the national leadership?
I met Neil Kinnock during the general election when he was down here canvassing for our local Labour candidate.2 I not only spoke to him when he came into the canteen: I also spoke to him in the town. I felt sure and very confident when speaking to him and hearing what he had to say. I didn’t think he would sit on the fence so long as he has done.
We voted him there, let’s face it. The Labour Party is the party of the working people, and, after all is said and done, he is not airing the views of the wide variety of Labour Party members. That is proved by the Labour Party support groups that I’ve visited - the support that they’ve given us is tremendous, so obviously he doesn’t speak for the rank and file, which is the ordinary working person such as ourselves.
What contact have you had with miners support groups?
We’ve now got in the town a miners support group, so that is very good. We’ve also got several support groups around the country, without whose help we would never have survived. Three of us, from the women’s support group, have been all over the country doing meetings and raising funds to feed the children. You can imagine, with the amount of meals we do a day, the cost is quite big, because it is all fresh vegetables, fresh meat, and the children have squash and a sweet.
We are very well organised, in some cases more organised than the men; that’s something women are famous for. You’ve got to be very well organised - we got ourselves organised within a matter of weeks and from then we’ve gone from strength to strength. Originally, at our first meeting we had 30 to 40 women: now we’ve got a hundred plus.
We’ve heard about the recent Women Against Pit Closures delegate conference. Were there any problems with this, and what is the national organisation and coordination of work like?
The coordination and organisation is an excellent one really. I went up, on behalf of the Kent area women’s groups, to a steering committee meeting. And to actually meet other wives from different areas is tremendous, because the different areas have got such different problems; to hear it first hand is excellent because we in Kent area are cut off from the rest of the mining community.
Would it have been better therefore if it had been a bigger conference?
To limit it to start off with was a good idea. To have a lot of women together when you’re first organising is wrong - you’ve got to take a step at a time and learn how to make it bigger and better the next time.
Politicisation
Unlike before, the women have given much more political (as well as soup kitchen) solidarity. What sort of reactions has this provoked among the women themselves and among the miners?
I can say on my own behalf I’d never spoken publicly to anybody and at the beginning I was very, very nervous. Through this strike I’ve learnt quite a lot politically - the women have learnt a lot politically.
I think that to say the men are proud of us is making an understatement. The attitude of the miners is so totally changed. I don’t think they ever believed, even now after nine months, that the strength of the women could be so strong. I think the rank-and-file membership of the NUM will be the first to admit that without the women’s support there would be a lot more cracks in the membership than there is.
We could never go back, never; we couldn’t turn the clock back nine months to being just housewives and working women, because nearly all the miner’s wives are working women: now our goal is forward. The thing I do say to people when we’re asked about this political thing is that what we’ve learnt is by meeting other people. To say that the strike has opened our eyes is an understatement. I didn’t think myself that I’d ever become so involved, but we have all become so much more politically aware.
In fact more wives started coming to the meetings when the scabs went to work; people didn’t like the idea that they were living in a police state, especially the women - their husbands were getting beaten, arrested and no charges being made, and their husbands and sons being locked up.
What has been the experience of picket line violence in this area?
We’re absolutely horrified about it. We had a case the other day at Tilmanstone. A girl of 16, whose father is a miner at Tilmanstone and who’s been on a picket line for many weeks: the police caused a bit of a shove and got their batons out and started laying into the lads and she got pushed over. One policeman held her by the arms and another hit her over the head. The lads weren’t prepared to stand by and see that young girl hit. Really and truthfully the violence is caused by the police.
You see the police with helmets on, riot shields and boots - there is no comparison. No-one is going to stand on a street corner and let 15 or 20 police get out of a van and knock hell out of us without defending ourselves in some way. They wouldn’t think twice about doing it to women or children - if they’re going to arrest you and take you away to give you a good hiding, they’ll do it to the women and the children. Even murderers and rapists get treated better than our lads.
With the advance of the strike, we have seen increasingly planned tactics by the pickets to prevent scabs and lorries getting through. For example, recently we saw a case where an earth mover had been placed across a bridge and when the police went to remove it they were forced to retreat by a barrage of bricks being hurled at them. What is your opinion of that? Some people have shrunk away from such organised protection of their picket lines.
Well, the key to an effective picket line is organisation, and like any form of defence you have a strategy and a plan. Now the scabs have had a very cushy time of it - in and out, and that’s you’re lot - and we don’t like them living in our communities and laughing at our men, with police protection.
So would you say that whatever these lads do in defence of their picket lines is justified?
Of course it’s justified. It’s justified what any of us do, including the women. It’s justified in protecting what belongs to us and what we’re fighting for. The tactics are that you put pressure on them by standing on a picket line and watching them cower and run for the bus hiding their faces.
How are the scabs going to live in these communities after the strike?
Well, they’ve made their decision and after this strike there will be a committee set up which will deal with them: they’ll have to pay the penalty.
What about the future of the women’s support groups? We’ve argued that these groups should remain after the strike, and that they should participate in other strikes and struggles, particularly those concerning women workers and a woman’s right to work.
That’s right. As a national group of women’s support groups, I can assure you that all groups will stay together after the strike - that has been agreed. The first priority is obviously women in struggle: we must support those that have supported us.
Notes
1. The DHSS was a government department that operated from 1968 to 1988 and, after a number of different manifestations, morphed into the department for work and pensions in 2001.
2. Neil Kinnock was the leader of the Labour Party and of the parliamentary opposition from 1983 to 1992. He was a thoroughly traitorous scab during the miners’ strike (See Weekly Worker January 15).