Catalogue Number
NMLH.2025.34.3
Object Name
Newspaper
Title
The DURHAM STRIKER
Place
Durham
Events
Miners' Strike 1984-1985
Date
1985
Description
Newspaper, 'The Durham Striker', the joint newspaper of Durham Miners and Mechanics, No.5 March 1985. The newspaper is four pages, discussing news of the 1984-1985 Miners' Strike. This edition is examining the end of the strike, and the actions of the Coal Board after men had returned to work. The main theme of the newspaper is "WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?" and encourages striking workers need to look to the future. There is an article detailing the meeting which ended the strike, as well as a discussion of the 'Striking Statistics'.
Other headlines throughout the paper include "INQUIRY CALL AFTER POLICE WRECK MARCH", "PICKET LINE VICTIM: NO REGRETS", "WESTOE MEN SACKED FOR NO REASON", examining police brutality, and how some men were still facing repercussions.
The 1984-85 Miners' Strike was called after the government announced plans to close 20 pits, at a cost of twenty thousand miners jobs, which the miners accurately saw as the beginning of the closure of all the pits in the UK. The strike lasted for over a year before ending unsuccessfully in March 1985. While letters from the NCB to strikers claimed that it was "absolutely untrue" that the government planned to ultimately close 85 pits, the NUM's speculation was correct. A second round of closures was announced in 1992 closing almost all the mines in the UK, leaving former pit towns with extremely high rates of unemployment and deprivation that last to this day.
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