CHRISTMAS 1984 was potentially a desperate time for the families of miners who had been on strike against pit closures for nine months. It turned out to be the opposite for many striking mining communities.
 
France’s communist-led union group CGT sent a convoy of 30 lorries, driven by volunteers and packed with food and toys, across the Channel. The union had mounted a “toy drive” among its members, and thousands had flooded in.
 
The convoy arrived at Dover, and the lorries journeyed to struggling mining communities in Wales and northern England.
 
Hundreds of miners’ support groups across the country redoubled their solidarity efforts — and the public responded generously.
 
The result for many striking miners and their families was the best Christmas they had ever had. And the solidarity is remembered today across the former coalfields.
 
In the north-east, Ian Lavery, now Labour MP for Blyth and Ashington, was a 20-year-old miner at Ellington Colliery in Northumberland. He lived with his parents and siblings. His father was a striking miner, as were two of his three brothers.
 
He told the Morning Star: “It was one of the best times of my life.
 
“At Christmas time 1984, none of us had a ha’penny — no money at all. But one thing about miners and working-class people is that they will do anything to make sure the kids have a good Christmas. Whatever the situation — on strike for seven or eight months — we would not let the kids down.
 
“It was fabulous to see the juggernauts arriving from France. They provided every striking miner’s kid with a toy at Christmas. Honestly, there was juggernaut after juggernaut come all the way from France. Absolutely amazing. Then there were the chickens and the turkeys. They were on the Christmas table of every striking miner. It was just fabulous.
 
“There were Christmas parties in every village and community.
 
“I was living with my parents. I was on strike, my dad was on strike, two of my three brothers were on strike, and we didn’t have a ha’penny. But we did have homebrew parties. We were all making homebrew, and it was lethal. It was absolutely awful, but it was lethal, and it was all we had, and we’d go to each other’s houses to drink it.
 
“I’d love to go through all that again. I’ve had lots of good Christmases with my wife and family and my brothers since then, but it does stand out. It showed you didn’t have to have money for friendship and solidarity.”
 
Most miners in the north-west coalfield in Lancashire and Greater Manchester scabbed during the strike, but there were still hundreds of loyal NUM members who came out and were still out at Christmas 1984.
 
Paul Kelly was one of them. He was a young miner at Agecroft Colliery at Salford in Greater Manchester.
 
“Terry Lewis, the local Labour MP, organised a big Christmas party for the kids, and he played Father Christmas,” he said. “There was a big meal.
 
“All the kids got presents. A lot of it came from France.”
 
He said that as Christmas approached, the National Coal Board (NCB) had launched a cynical drive to “bribe” striking miners back to work. The NCB was well aware of the emotional pressure Christmas placed on them, and its strike-busting ploy was widely supported in the establishment media.
 
“They knew there was Christmas and the kids,” said Kelly. “They dangled money in front of us, £1,000 and back pay to go back. It was an onslaught, trying to get us back to work just before Christmas.”
 
It didn’t work. Kelly stayed out for the duration of the strike, even staying out a few extra days when it ended.
 
After Agecroft closed in 1991 after 151 years of coal production, Kelly went on to found the Irwell Valley Mining Project, whose role includes teaching new generations of young people about the Lancashire coalfield and the traditions of its mining communities.
 
He also wrote a book, The Last Pit in the Valley, about his working life at Agecroft.
 
At Doncaster in South Yorkshire, Mick Lanaghan was on strike at Hatfield Colliery, which had claimed to be the most militant pit in the most militant coal mining area. He was in his early 20s.
 
“There’s a lot of families will say that Christmas, 1984, was their hardest. But many, if not more, will say it was their best,” he said.
 
“We had a kids’ Christmas party at the miners’ welfare and more in other communities. It was something special. Someone had the bright idea of giving all the kids those party blowers. My ears were still ringing on New Year’s Eve. It was bedlam — but lovely bedlam.”
 
Solidarity with the Hatfield miners came from engineering union workers in Bradford.
 
“They made sure every kid had a Christmas present,” he said. “We also had a lot of support from Hull dockers. It was pretty breathtaking. You didn’t realise the depth of support until it got near Christmas, and it all kicked in. It was getting close to Christmas, and people were saying, ‘How are we going to manage this?’ It was the most memorable Christmas.”
 
Chris Kitchen, general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers, was an 18-year-old miner at Wheldale Colliery at Castleford in Yorkshire during the strike. He lived at home with his parents and three school-age siblings. His father was a striking miner.
 
“We got a lot of stuff through from other unions from all over. Mainly, it was a social Christmas, all of us together. It wasn’t about how many presents you got or how big the presents were but about how you got together and made your entertainment,” he said.
 
“All the kids went up to the miners’ welfare. Someone was playing Santa. We made the best of it like we did all the way through.
 
“I don’t remember getting a turkey,” he said. “I think we got a chicken. I was a single lad living at home, so I didn’t get anything.
 
“My dad was on strike, and there were two brothers and a sister all at school.
 
“It was the kind of Christmas I associate with now, not about presents and partying.”
 
Kent had one of the smallest coalfields in Britain. It had five coal mines, compared to Yorkshire’s 56.
 
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in Kent was communist-led. It was the NUM in Kent which, in the earlier miners’ strikes of 1972 and 1974, had built strong links of solidarity with the CGT in Nord-Pas-de-Calais across the Channel.
 
The surge in international support from France and other countries was matched at the local level, where across Britain, hundreds of miners’ support groups had been established, many of them twinned with individual pits.
 
Sheffield in South Yorkshire was a hive of activity. The city had seen the establishment of miners’ support groups by political party branches, union branches, workplace groups and a thriving branch of Women Against Pit Closures.
 
Brian Clark worked at Shardlow’s engineering factory in Sheffield, where 2,000 workers produced automobile crankshafts for Rolls Royce, Ford, Vauxhall and other companies.
 
“Shardlows was really well-organised, a closed shop,” he said. “The Joint Shop Stewards’ Committee passed a resolution that everyone should donate something like 50p a week.
 
“That Christmas, we put up a Christmas tree in the works canteen and asked people to bring presents.”
 
Sheffield Trade Union Council was at the heart of the city’s solidarity activities.
 
Kate Flannery, who is today secretary of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, was involved in miners’ support at several levels, including as a delegate to Sheffield TUC, with Sheffield Women Against Pit Closures and in her workplace in social services with Sheffield Council.
 
Her father was Sheffield’s Labour MP Martin Flannery, a respected socialist who, with his wife Blanche, was a strong supporter of the miners and their families.
 
“The Trades Council collected every single day in Fargate right in the city centre during the strike,” she said. “The support and solidarity from the public before Christmas was phenomenal. People were so generous.
 
“Shops were donating food. People were donating food and toys as well as money.
 
“My dad was in touch with Arthur Scargill and asked how he could help at Christmas. Arthur said, ‘Join us on the picket line.’ So my dad and my mum spent Christmas Day on the picket line at Ferrybridge power station with Anne and Arthur Scargill.”
 
Sheffield City Council funded a Christmas food parcel for every miner living within the city boundaries.
 
Sheffield’s solidarity activities were mirrored by support groups in communities across Britain.
 
The huge international and local solidarity shown for the miners at Christmas 1984 went largely unreported by Britain’s establishment media. But it will never be forgotten in Britain’s former coal mining communities.