Recollections of the Miners’ Strike

Forty years on Hilary Cave offers her Recollections of the 1984 Miners Strike from her exceptionally privileged position then as a member of the National Union of Minerworkers headquarters staff. Her official responsibilities as head of education (above) vanished as she assumed all manner of organisational tasks including the organisation of mass rallies and demonstrations throughout the country.

The opening chapter recounts a confrontation between the author, accompanied by NUM chief executive Roger Windsor, on the way to a meeting with a police operations chief, and a police road block intent on stopping miners from moving around the county. Characteristically she refused to bow to police intimidation, or let them know she was on her way to meet their boss, challenged them to arrest her and forced them to abandon their pretence and let her pass.

Her account is shot through with an  unwavering commitment to the miners' cause, a strong class consciousness and her communist politics.

She displays a keen and sympathetic view of the great human qualities and frailties of her colleagues including the main figures in the union and in politics and the way this shapes the strike.

Hilary Cave combines a compelling honesty with sharp insight into the politics of this turning point in class struggle. The book is written with a compelling sense of the period, with dialogue creatively delivered to convey a sense of the tensions and humour and with remarkable detail.

Generous but sharply perceptive with her judgements she brings into the narrative the experiences and recollections not only of her role but her colleagues, and with a strong appreciations of the remarkable role of the women of the coalfields.

It is a book that will stir the memories of many miners and their families and supporters and recalls a critical period when the sinews of the capitalist state were laid bare to reveal the class realities that still exist today.