Speakers and singers will launch miners' strlke 40th anniversary exhibition in Chesterfield

Veterans of the dispute will be among invited guests at the launch in the Market Hall Assembly Rooms, Chesterfield on Thursday, March 7 at 12 noon.

Carmel O’Toole, who supported the miners’ cause during the strike by singing at fundraising events, will join forces with Andy Hoult to perform some of the iconic songs penned during that dispute.

Speeches from John Burrows and Alderman Steve Brunt, who are former mineworkers and Kate Alvey (Chesterfield Women’s Action Group) will be followed by Carmel singing the anthem from the strike ‘Women of the Working Class’.

The exhibition, which runs in Chesterfield until March 27 then tours towns and parishes in north Derbyshire, gives the perspective of those men and women who took action in defence of their jobs and communities. The month’s events will also include film shows, talks and lectures, as well as music and songs from the strike.

Colin Hampton of the Derbyshire Unemployed Workers’ Centres, who are staging the exhibition, claims that no other community could have sustained a strike for a year other than those in the mining areas. He said: “Outside of the Second World War and the Covid pandemic, the miners’ strike is possibly the biggest single event involving so many local people. It is for that reason that the 40th anniversary is important for all in our community.”

He got the idea of staging the display on a visit to the Chesterfield During Lockdown exhibition last spring. Colin said: "Early last year, Janet Wilson and Kate Alvey contacted me to see if it would be possible to stage something that would fully place on record the incredible efforts of local women in sustaining the miners’ strike in Derbyshire for a whole year.

"Women across North Derbyshire set up 24 strike centres, but they didn't just feed the families: they joined picket lines, they demonstrated, and travelled the length and breadth of the country raising money and addressing meetings. This exhibition is a tribute to all who took part, but especially the women who gave their all.”

Colin said: “The miners’ strike is part of our history: North Derbyshire towns and villages grew on the back of the mining industry. I hope our exhibition gives people the opportunity to remember and reflect. I hope it also gives inspiration to those fighting for their jobs and better terms and conditions today.

"Ten years after the strike, all the main pits in Derbyshire were closed and on the sites of many are now the modern day sweatshops reliant on agency labour and zero or minimum hours contracts. Unionisation in these workplaces is difficult, and consequently working conditions are poor with little opportunity for grievances to be aired for fear of the sack or being seen as a troublemaker.“We have all been affected by the miners’ strike, even if it is not immediately recognised. At DUWC we have had to deal with the redundancies at the pits and complementary industries. Wages have stagnated and for many have plummeted, with opportunities for young people limited, leading to an exodus of talent. Many young people cannot earn the money to leave the family home, and mortgages are out of reach without a secure job with a contract.”

DUWC will be offering help and support to all attending, making sure that they are maximising their incomes during the present cost of living crisis. * The Derbyshire Times published a submitted interview last week which stated that “only four miners in the village of Arkwright stood solid to the end of the strike.” We have been asked to point out that 96 miners at Arkwright Colliery stayed out on strike – and four miners in the village of Arkwright.