Camden Trades Council and its largest affiliate, Camden UNISON, are pleased to host a public event on Thursday 20 February at 7pm at Camden Town Hall to mark the 30th anniversary of the start of the year-long strike by tens of thousands of miners against the Thatcher government’s ruthless pursuit of a massive pit closure.
The subsequent 12 months witnessed one of the most intense industrial and political conflicts seen not only in Britain, but in Europe since the Second World War. The strike itself and its eventual outcome continue to shape the contours of British policitics and Britain’s labour movement 30 years on.
The evening’s speaker, Mike Jackson, most recently an activist in the shopworkers’ union USDAW and a Camden Trades Council delegate, brings a distinct take on the events of three decades ago. During the 1984-85 strike Mike co-founded and acted as secretary of Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners (LGSM). Mike will be sharing his memories of the strike and reflecting on the role of LGSM in delivering an unforeseen soliadarity as well as challenging deep-rooted homophobic prejudice.
The event will also feature footage from the forthcoming documentary, ‘Still the Enemy Within’, to be released later this year. The public component of the evening will start at 7.00 PM in Committee Room 4 on the first floor of the Old Town Hall in Judd Street, WC1 (nearest Tube: King’s Cross/St Pancras; Buses: 10, 17, 30, 45, 46, 63, 73, 205, 214, 390 and 476).