Catalogue Number
NMLH.2016.13.85
Object Name
card
Title
'Santa Supports the Miners'
Place
Nottingham
People
National Union of Mineworkers, Santa Claus, Margaret Thatcher
Events
1984-85 Miner's Strike
Date
1984
Description
A Christmas card showing Santa Claus and a robin on an National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) picket line. Santa's sack has books of 'Scargill's Best Speeches', a game of 'Scabs and Ladders' and a 'Dolls Soup Kitchen Set'.
The card was created to raise money for the striking miners during the 1984-85 Miner's Strike. Santa is singing Jingle Bells, with lyrics changed to say he dislikes 'scabs' - miners who didn't go out on strike. The robin is singing 'Maggie Maggie Maggie Out Out Out!' which was a popular chant during the 1984-85 Miners' Strike. Santa is wearing strike support badges including 'Coal not Dole' which was an NUM slogan insisting it would be more economically sound to keep the mines open than to pay unemployment benefits to all the miners who would lose their jobs.
The 1984-85 Miners' Strike was called when Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government announced mass closures of coal mines in the UK. The NUM, led by Arthur Scargill, campaigned to keep the pits open. Money and food donations from the public in the UK and internationally allowed mining communities to sustain themselves during the strike with community kitchens referenced in the card art. The aid provided to strike support funds enabled the strikers to stay on the picket lines for almost a year, but ultimately the strike ended and the pits were closed.
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