“We had no choice but to go on strike over Cortonwood and I would say now that it was nothing at all to do with economics or whether the coal was good, bad or indifferent. It was to do with a group of people that had proved from 1980 onwards that they were gonna stand up and fight.” – Miner, South Wales

“Most of the coal communities are run down, decimated, rotten with anti-social crime, heroin addiction and, worst of all, they’ve lost the vision of the future.” – Miner, South Yorkshire

“You ask any of ‘em miners, they don’t think that they were wrong. They’re proud to ‘ave bin part of this struggle. And a lot of them don’t think that they were defeated because we stood up and fought, and we stood up and we were counted. And I’ll tell you something: if the rest of the trade union movement ‘ad ‘ave stood up by us, there’d ‘ave been a different situation in this country today than what there is.” – Miner’s wife, South Wales
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In March 2004 it will be twenty years since the year-long Miners Strike of 1984/5 began.

To mark this momentous event in recent British history, Banner Theatre has been back to the coalfield communities of Britain to see what the legacy of the strike is and to look at what has happened in Britain’s former mining communities. The company has spoken to ex-miners and their families and friends and uses their own words in this hard-hitting new production about the assault on some of Britain’s longest established working-class communities.

Burning Issues records the mixture of emotions and attitudes which the strike and the subsequent pit closure programme continue to evoke:
“We were fightin’ for us jobs, us communities, us factories, and us kids and the future. So ‘ow wrong’s that? It i’n’t wrong. I mean, I’m just that proud I was involved.” – Miner’s wife, Stoke-on-Trent

“When the strike started and mi dad seen police rioting around, clubbing people down, occupying pit villages and those scenes, you know, up in the North East with scab buses . . . forcing their way through, battering people on the roads, mi dad felt he’d been betrayed and his whole generation had been betrayed.” – Miner, Doncaster

“I put all mi work clothes in mi bag, all mi boots, mi helmets, . . . slung it over mi shoulder, walked down to the pit camp and broke mi heart. It was mi life, you know. I’d done like nearly 37 years and it was all gone, all gone like that.” – Miner, Lancashire

Burning Issues recreates the experiences of working-class communities in struggle, fighting for their livelihoods. Using drama, video, music and song, the show combines contemporary newsreel with in-depth interviews to re-tell the stories of those who were involved and what they were fighting for.


COMMENT:
The accompanying photographs were taken from Martin Shakeshaft’s website below, take a look at the pictures.

 http://www.strike84.co.uk/

If you find theatre somewhat up-itself (as I do in general) then make an effort to see this play, I saw one of Banner Theatre's play in Kirkby back in 2002 and I found it more of a documentary type play, with photographs, music and taped quotes from people involved in the play's subject it was regarding the murder of a Catholic farmer in Ireland, it was something of an emotional rollcoaster but very inspiring. There are two opportunities on Merseyside in St.Helens Citadel (a great venue) and at the Trade Union Centre Hardman Street. This is an ideal opportunity to get a feel for the 1984/85 miners strike, an historical event in the lives of the British working class the political consequences of which we're still suffering from, a real antidote to the recent media's coverage.