Women Against Pit Closures (WAPC)
International Celebration Weekend
Wortley Hall – 1st to 3rd October 2004

'Inspirational'; 'Outstanding'; 'A weekend to remember', were just some of the superlatives used to describe the International Celebration Weekend run by Women Against Pit Closures at Wortley Hall.

It was a weekend of festival and struggle, emotive memories, and positive thoughts for the future.

Emotions ran rife when girls from Royston High School performed their play 'Cornbeef and Maggie' which was based on the real experience of Royston women in the strike. As I turned to look around the conference, a little embarrassed because I could feel tears forming, I realised I wasn't the only one affected. Even women who hadn't been around during the 1984 miner's dispute were wiping tears surreptitiously into their tissues.

When Banner Theatre performed their travelling theatre production of 'Burning Issues' – a production of music, song, and filmed interviews interwoven into an almost documentary production recording a year of struggle in the 1984/5 miner's strike, we were singing, laughing and crying in turn.

However, a retrospective of the strike years was not the only thing brought to Wortley Hall. Speaker after speaker were brought on to the platform to tell of their struggles.

Cuban women speakers struggled with the vagaries of the English language, managing to tell a tale of life in Cuba under conditions imposed by the American trade blockade. A refugee from Iran spoke of the horrors of living under a fundamentalist regime. The speaker from Palestine was unable to attend because she was unable to come to Britain from the Gaza strip as fighting had once again broken out. However, Ann Lilburn, President of Women Against Pit Closures read out a message from some of the Israeli Jewish women actively working for peace in that troubled region. Two American women mineworkers from the United Mine Workers of America told of their struggles to recruit mineworkers to their union when so many mines were being opened up to non-union labour.

There were women talking about their campaigns within the UK – the Women of the Waterfront told of their campaign when dockworkers in Liverpool were in dispute. Helen John who had spent a lot of her time at Greenham Common told of her one-woman peace camp at Menwith Hill and her ambitions to stand against the Prime Minister in the forthcoming elections. She also reminded us of the residents of Diego Garcia, families who held British passports, and their eviction from their island home to allow the building of an American bomber base used in military strikes against Afghanistan and Iraq.

There were representatives of the Fire Brigades Union who told of their recent industrial action, and a speaker from the United Campaign to repeal anti-trade union laws, so carefully put together by piecemeal legislation and designed and used to break the National Union of Mineworkers, and to dismantle the power of the trade union movement. A speaker from the Hillingdon hospital dispute, diminutive in stature but a giant in guts and resolve, spoke of how they won their fight, but standing firm and 'not going away'. Those involved in the Magnet dispute spoke of their struggle against corporation resolve to recruit non-union labour. A speaker from the 'defend the asylum seekers' campaign exposed the myths behind media presentation on the issues surrounding asylum seekers.

The keynote speaker of the weekend was Bernadette McAliskey who in a lilting, gentle Irish accent brought together all the aspects of the weekend, the international and national struggles that were represented, as well as telling us of her experiences of life during the thirty years war in Northern Ireland. With a mesmerising summation of the political, the personal and the historical, she urged everyone to remain in struggle for that was when perceptions were heightened, and also of the need to document our own history, our personal history, so that young people of the future would learn from our history.

And the films – Anne-Marie Sweeney, who was filming the conference for Women Against Pit Closures, paid tribute in film 'The women from 10 Downing Street' to the outstanding role of Asian women in trade union struggles and their fight for their rights in dispute. 'We are not defeated', a film about women's role in the 84/85 Miners' strike by the North Staffs Miners' Wives group, was shown to great support from those attending the Celebration weekend.

The music was multi-cultural – the Angel brothers had everyone dancing to the Bhangra boogie, whilst a Cuban band gave us the will to salsa, even though energy levels were sapping. Pauline Bradley, Lizzie Shirley and many others brought their own brand of songs and music to the proceedings, so that by the end of the weekend, when the boogie had to stop, we were still playing over the music in our heads as we left.

However, on a clear, cold night, the Fire Brigades Union provided the perfect night time backdrop to a brilliant weekend with their firework display 'Lighting up the Sky' which could be seen for miles around and which took everyone present to their youthful wonderment at seeing fireworks exploding into cascades of colour and noise, bringing involuntary 'ahh's and ooh's with every crackle or crash.

The weekend was rounded off with the announcement that the Women Against Pit Closures were to launch a website on International Women's Day (8th March) next year.

In summary, this was a consummate weekend of song, dance and politics, and there was not one person there who could say they were not moved emotionally and politically by their presence at a very special celebration of twenty years since women joined with their men to defend their mining communities. The theme of the weekend was that 'We were not defeated'. Judging by the enthusiasm and reception of the celebration weekend, we never will be.

Anne Suddick
Women Against Pit Closures
5th October 2004