Green imperialism in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Imperial powers control and profit from the DRC’s minerals. Ben Radley explains the history and calls for protest.
1974 – an end and a beginning
Willie Black looks back at 1974. A pivotal year both in Britain and across the world – high points of workers’ struggles, but also the beginning of five decades of neo-liberalism
The DRC bleeds because of the world’s greed
Report from a Stand with Congo demonstration in Central London on 6 April where at least a hundred protestors gathered to highlight the situation in the eastern Congo
Here We Go! Forty years on from the outbreak of the Great Strike
Forty years ago today British miners began industrial action in what became the longest and most bitter strike of the twentieth century. Here Brian Parkin, a former Research Officer for the National Union of Mineworkers, gives a brief introduction to this pivotal strike.
Tyrone O’Sullivan: the gentle giant of the last deep coal mine in South Wales
On the afternoon of 27 May Tyrone O’Sullivan of Tower Colliery died peacefully at home, in his garden, aged 77. Here Brian Parkin pays tribute to a friend and comrade, who through a combination of fire and gentle persuasion, led a community of mining families into a fight to save the last deep coal mine in South Wales.
Lützerath: solidarity with climate activists under attack
Climate activists fight to stop the destruction of a German village and the expansion of German coal.
A Kestral for a Knave: fifty years on
Barry Hines’s book A Kestrel for a Knave, which became the film Kes, was published fifty years ago this year, but it remains as relevant as ever.
“Buried alive by the National Coal Board”: the fiftieth anniversary of the Aberfan Disaster Tribunal
At 9:15am on Friday 21 October 1966, a colliery spoil tip collapsed, and slid down the mountainside onto the mining village of Aberfan in South Wales.
Orgreave June 1984: police conspiracy and repression swept under the rug
After 32 years the miners at Orgreave are being denied an inquiry by Home Secretary Amber Rudd. Brian Parkin finds that his hatred of the Tories and their police and ‘justice’ system just improves with age. Home secretary Amber Rudd, following an initial consultation in September with members of the Orgreave Truth and Justice campaign, has decided that […]
Kellingley: two days in the death of three centuries of coal mining
On Friday 18 December the last shift at the last colliery in the UK cut its last tonnes of coal. Brian Parkin, former research officer for the National Union of Mineworkers, was at the pit top at Kellingley colliery to welcome to the surface the last of the country’s miners as they ended their final […]
Miners Shot Down – remembering the Marikana Massacre
Miners Shot Down, an award-winning documentary, brilliantly reveals how government, police and big business work hand-in-glove to suppress class struggle, writes Colin Revolting.
From democracy to neoliberalism – from Poland to Ukraine
Following recent waves of labour struggles in Poland, Jan Ladzinski reflects on the contradictions of movements for democracy that result in neoliberal reforms and suggests possible lessons from the Polish experience for Ukraine. This is a year of strikes in Poland. From the very first days of January, 20% of GP practices in the country […]
Dear Love of Comrades: The politics of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners
The film Pride tells the story of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. It’s an extraordinary and inspiring achievement for a mainstream movie. For almost a year in 1984-5, over 100,000 miners were on all-out strike. The strike was the major political issue of the day, and Thatcher’s final defeat of the miners one of […]
Pride: How solidarity in struggle changed the world for British LGBT people
The new film Pride shows the solidarity between the miners and a group of lesbian and gay supporters during the strike of almost thirty years ago. Struggle can change the world in ways we never thought possible, writes Luke Evans. Full disclosure; I am neither gay nor a miner. I also feel compelled to state that I […]
Ukraine, Russia and the miners of the Donbass
Miners in the Donbass region have played a crucial role in Ukrainian politics since 1989, and are key today, argues Nick Evans The situation in eastern Ukraine is becoming more and more dangerous. It is over a week since pro-Russian forces seized government buildings in the region. Attempts by the Ukrainian government to retake control […]