Letter From A Mining Village

With the 1984-5 miners' strike still fresh in his mind, John Morgan looks back to his childhood in the 1930s. Growing up in a Welsh mining village, he remembers how the community withstood the after-effects of the General Strike in the previous decade. He recalls a sense of hope behind the strike that was not evident - to him, at least - in the more recent industrial action throughout the mining industry.

The General Strike of May 1926 was a move by the Trades Union Congress to support mining unions and persuade the government to improve conditions for miners and prevent reductions in their wages. Although the strike itself lasted for just ten days, the miners continued their dispute for some months. The government refused to compel the mine owners not to make reprisals against strikers and, in the following year, the Trade Disputes and Trade Union Act made sympathetic strikes and mass pickets illegal.