“Victory to the Miners!” Punk and the Miners’ Strike of 1984/85 in the UK

The miners’ strike of 1984–1985 was one of the most important events of the Thatcher years and involved a particularly organised section of the British working class. Lasting almost a year, it led to violent confrontations on picket lines between striking miners and the police. The strike also generated new forms of solidarity as women, members of ethnic minorities, and sections of the LGBTQ community took action to support the miners. Musicians, including many punk performers, were also heavily involved in this process. Some, such as Billy Bragg and Chumbawamba, wrote songs about the strike, while others, including the Redskins and Crass, participated in benefit concerts to raise money. This support was not inevitable. Punk was not a completely working-class phenomenon, had had a complex relationship with trade unions and the left, and had no real connections with mining communities. Nevertheless, some trends within punk had become politicised through their involvement with Rock Against Racism in the late 1970s and anarcho-punk in the early 1980s, and they had already expressed hostility to Margaret Thatcher and her government’s policies. Punk performers’ backing of the miners can thus be seen as a continuation of this in the novel context of the strike.