- 5 months ago
Striking with Pride: United at the Coalface (2024) is a documentary that follows the lives of coal miners and their communities, highlighting their dedication, resilience, and sense of unity. Through personal stories, interviews, and on-site footage, the film explores the strength of teamwork, tradition, and community bonds in challenging work environments. This inspiring documentary celebrates hard work, solidarity, and human determination.
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FunTranscript
00:00:00This programme contains very strong language that may be considered offensive.
00:00:05What were you like as a kid?
00:00:31I was very, very happy-go-lucky.
00:00:34I would never, ever take this way off.
00:00:36You would catch me running around the neighbourhood, skateboarding, in a skirt.
00:00:40It's quite rare, that, isn't it?
00:00:42Oh, definitely, yeah. I mean, not a lot of parents, you know,
00:00:47don't really want to let their kids express themselves in that kind of way.
00:00:53It's not always been easy.
00:00:54I mean, there's always got to be people who don't really like, you know, you.
00:00:58I was walking home from school one day and this woman saw me
00:01:02and I guess she really didn't like my outfit that I was wearing at the time
00:01:05and she just decided to spit at me, which is kind of rude, very rude.
00:01:10Like, I'm not harming anyone, so, you know, my parents already said, you know,
00:01:14as long as you're not hurting anybody, you can do what you want to do.
00:01:18Oh, wow. Wow.
00:01:21What do you think, Bea?
00:01:23I think I quite like it.
00:01:25It's like the yellow brick road.
00:01:26The yellow brick road.
00:01:27Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking.
00:01:28Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values
00:01:40are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay.
00:01:44Has anyone seen a drag queen before?
00:01:46Yeah.
00:01:47Yes.
00:01:48Jacob, have you ever seen a drag queen?
00:01:50No.
00:01:51They haven't.
00:01:52Never.
00:01:57What we're witnessing is an even greater obvious of division
00:02:02than that which we've witnessed previously.
00:02:05The violence and intimidation we have seen should never have happened.
00:02:09It is the work of extremists.
00:02:11It is the enemy within.
00:02:13The homosexual act is unnatural, it's perverted, and it's incredibly filthy.
00:02:19Shut it down!
00:02:24Shut it down!
00:02:25Shut it down!
00:02:26Shut it down!
00:02:27Two groups of protesters clashed outside a children's drag storytime in Forest Hill this morning.
00:02:32Some people think that what we're doing today is wrong.
00:02:35It feels like things are starting to go backwards.
00:02:38So today, I'm showing them that we will not be stopped,
00:02:41and that there's nothing to be afraid of.
00:02:43I'm going to take these kids to another world
00:02:46and tell them a story with an important lesson.
00:02:50That we're stronger together.
00:02:53Oh, oh, oh, oh!
00:02:56What is going on over here?
00:03:00Hello, hello, hello!
00:03:02Hello!
00:03:03Yes!
00:03:04Did somebody call for a drag queen?
00:03:06Yes!
00:03:07Yes!
00:03:08I got some juicy gossip for you, okay?
00:03:12Are you ready?
00:03:23If you know what a coal mine looks like,
00:03:26get a job in Britain's modern mining industry,
00:03:29and get more out of life.
00:03:31Hey, they're miners!
00:03:34Living life the way you want it to be!
00:03:37Come on, young miner!
00:03:39There's money, lots of money and security!
00:03:42Be a miner.
00:03:43Ask at your local pet or job centre in South Wales.
00:03:50Can anybody tell me what a miner is?
00:03:52Mmm, you, my lovely.
00:03:55These miners were mining coal.
00:03:57Yes!
00:03:58Well done, baby!
00:03:59Well done!
00:04:00One of the big places where coal mining happened
00:04:02was in my ends.
00:04:04Gorgeous South Wales.
00:04:06And this is where our story begins.
00:04:08Mining was hard, scary work.
00:04:11And even though there was so much risk involved,
00:04:13the men that did it loved it.
00:04:15I think I was like most people.
00:04:23I just wanted to go to work
00:04:25and do a fair day's work for a fair day's pay, really.
00:04:28Well, my father, all of my uncles,
00:04:31my grandfather, my step-grandfather,
00:04:34they all worked in the colony.
00:04:36I remember as a child sleeping in my grandmother's,
00:04:39which has got quite a steep hill outside it,
00:04:42and early in the morning,
00:04:45the colliery siren would go to call the ship.
00:04:49And I remember the hobnail boots of men
00:04:52walking down the hill, you know?
00:04:56But, you know, there was something comforting about it, really.
00:05:00One got used to the idea that they would always be there.
00:05:03Everybody knew everybody else's business.
00:05:16The land of the moving curtain.
00:05:19You know, all those lace nets were twitching away.
00:05:23I was a very happy housewife.
00:05:26As long as my mother could come and visit me
00:05:28and not find any evidence of dust.
00:05:30You know, literally,
00:05:33Oh.
00:05:35Hmm.
00:05:37You know, not a word was said.
00:05:39So I grew up in an atmosphere
00:05:41where you did your best by your neighbours
00:05:44and your neighbours did their best by you.
00:05:47And that community spirit was very, very safe.
00:05:52Without even realising it, you were absorbing a sense of community.
00:06:04You were absorbing a sense of pride.
00:06:07All the miners paid the contribution
00:06:10and we built these welfare halls.
00:06:12And they became centres of education.
00:06:15They had libraries.
00:06:16But they became centres of enjoyment
00:06:19and the focus of these communities.
00:06:21If you were a miner, everybody would have a couple of pints
00:06:36nearly every night.
00:06:38Every day you'd have a laugh.
00:06:40Every day.
00:06:41There was always banter going on.
00:06:43I could name everybody down the street.
00:06:46From the bottom to the all the way up.
00:06:48And that would be about 60 houses or more.
00:06:50Male voice choirs, they were very strong
00:07:05in those mining communities.
00:07:07The sheer joy, if you like,
00:07:09of going and listening to a male voice choir,
00:07:12that was something that pleased the community.
00:07:15Concerts happened, usually within the Welfare Hall,
00:07:19in the Welfare Hall.
00:07:42I think there was that brief period of time
00:07:44between the Second World War and Margaret Thatcher
00:07:48when there was a feeling of optimism.
00:07:51And it was in many ways an idyllic upbringing, really.
00:07:55And we did feel as though everything was possible.
00:07:59Freedom, God can rise!
00:08:05The only cloud on the horizon was Margaret Thatcher
00:08:09with her new plan for Britain.
00:08:19Where there is discord, may we bring harmony.
00:08:22And where there is despair, may we bring hope.
00:08:26The rioters came from behind the security
00:08:28of their burning barricades to lob petrol bombs.
00:08:31Over 3 million people are now claiming benefits.
00:08:36I grew up in the 30s with an unemployed father.
00:08:40He didn't riot.
00:08:41He got on his bike and looked for work,
00:08:43and he kept looking till he found them.
00:08:46What we were seeing was vast numbers of people
00:08:51in the United Kingdom being chucked on the scrap heap,
00:08:54being made redundant and put on the doorbell.
00:08:57And that motivated people at this point in time to say,
00:09:01this is our fight.
00:09:08The National Executive Committee
00:09:10declare the proposed strike action in Yorkshire and Scotland
00:09:14and in any other area which takes similar action as official.
00:09:19The miners were on strike
00:09:20because the government intended to close 20 pits
00:09:25and in that process was going to lose 20,000 jobs.
00:09:29In South Wales, everybody was on strike.
00:09:37In our particular area, I believe there were 2,500 miners on strike.
00:09:43A striking miner had no money coming in.
00:09:47Nothing.
00:09:49If you haven't got money, you can't feed yourself.
00:09:52We had £10 a week, what was then known as family allowance,
00:09:56and £10.60 a week benefit.
00:10:01It was like a constant robbing pizza to pay Paul.
00:10:05I had two small children,
00:10:06and the ice cream man used to come round,
00:10:08and he just couldn't afford to buy them an ice cream.
00:10:11Like, bloody heartbreaking.
00:10:15The minute you went on strike,
00:10:17you were deemed to make yourself deliberately unemployed.
00:10:20So the men were not eligible for any form of benefit.
00:10:25And in some families, you might have the father on strike,
00:10:29two brothers on strike, you know?
00:10:33And so absolutely no money coming in at all.
00:10:39A couple of weeks or so into the strike,
00:10:41we decided to try and start getting food donations,
00:10:46some financial donations, to help.
00:10:52Hello, we'll collect food to support the miners and their families, please.
00:10:54We'll try to donate anything.
00:10:57Everybody did their bit,
00:11:00and my role very early on in the strike was very traditional.
00:11:03I had no worries about selling raffle tickets door-to-door,
00:11:09selling plants door-to-door,
00:11:12asking for donations.
00:11:14If that's what it took to keep us out on strike,
00:11:18I wasn't too proud to do that.
00:11:26It's all a bit of a blur, really,
00:11:27because one minute there was just this little small idea
00:11:30of gathering a few things together.
00:11:34And then we formed the Nathan District Miner Support Group
00:11:37to provide food for families of strike and miners,
00:11:41as simple as.
00:11:43Took some organising, fair play to them.
00:11:45But leave it to our women, innit?
00:11:46They'd organise it.
00:11:47I think we'd be just scrotching around,
00:11:49thinking, where'd we start?
00:11:53My wife, she was always collecting money,
00:11:56and when this came along, it was...
00:11:59He stepped into it and took over, like...
00:12:03We wanted people to have dignity
00:12:05and make decisions.
00:12:07So in our support group, it was fundraising.
00:12:10It was a big thing.
00:12:12Raise the funds,
00:12:13so then we could provide a food parcel
00:12:16every week for everybody,
00:12:19and we had between about 800 to 900 mining families to support.
00:12:23And we had to raise, you know, about £5,000 a week.
00:12:29Well, Tesco give us a load of carrier bags.
00:12:33A load for bread, milk, corned beef.
00:12:37Nothing the matter with corned beef.
00:12:38We can do a lot with corned beef.
00:12:40Corned beef stew, corned beef hash,
00:12:41corned beef pie, corned beef and chips.
00:12:44I heard somebody with a food parcel,
00:12:46they had spaghetti.
00:12:48And I think it was an announcement,
00:12:50you know, when we were in the meeting,
00:12:52for fuck's sake, don't put it in the chip pan.
00:13:02If you were calling, he was the one that was going to close,
00:13:05what happened to you?
00:13:07People would lose their jobs.
00:13:09That's coal not dough.
00:13:10I can't find another job.
00:13:12Where do you go from there?
00:13:14If my husband loses a job now,
00:13:16he will never work again.
00:13:18That's all we wanted to do is go to work.
00:13:22We wouldn't find out how to pay, right?
00:13:23We wanted a job.
00:13:25It was either we fought for our jobs
00:13:27or we laid back and said,
00:13:30you know, you can do what you want.
00:13:32One of the biggest questions I was asked was,
00:13:35why are you fighting so hard to keep these awful jobs?
00:13:40My quick answer to that was,
00:13:42what else is there for us?
00:13:46The miners and their families were really worried
00:13:48about what would happen to them.
00:13:49They felt like they were under attack.
00:13:52What do you think the miners and their families
00:13:53would have been thinking?
00:13:54The stupid Prime Minister says,
00:13:56we should close down all the mines.
00:13:57Yes.
00:13:58Well, there's actually,
00:13:59you need the mines to pay the bills,
00:14:01to have heat.
00:14:02It would be really challenging
00:14:04because you need, like, money to do a little thing, mate.
00:14:06Imagine if you were in that position,
00:14:07you'd want somebody to help you.
00:14:08Yes.
00:14:09Imagine walking a mile in someone else's shoes.
00:14:11Right.
00:14:12Now that you've met the Welsh lot,
00:14:13it's time to meet the other heroes of our story.
00:14:14They lived a long way from the valley in London.
00:14:16Oh, it's so good, it's so good, it's so good, it's so good, it's so good, it's so good, it's so good, it's so good, it's so good, it's so good.
00:14:38Beginning of 1984, I'd have been 29.
00:14:41I'd been out for 10 years by then.
00:14:45I was really, really happy and I was free,
00:14:48I was having lots of sex
00:14:50and meeting people who were similar to me,
00:14:52people who were left-wing,
00:14:54who were working class and who were gay.
00:14:57That was great.
00:15:07There was a gay bar in King's Cross called The Bell
00:15:10that became really an important venue for people to go to.
00:15:15There was very high unemployment in those days so people could come and spend the gyros at The Bell.
00:15:21I loved going to The Bell.
00:15:24It was where you did everything and where you met everyone.
00:15:28You just danced and got off with people.
00:15:32You know, I'd come to London from the home counties, from a very, you know, conservative family.
00:15:38I didn't want to be the kind of woman that I was being trained to be.
00:15:43I couldn't cope with all the nylon tights and high heels and underskirts that you had to wear.
00:15:50We all were part of creating a community of defiant resistance.
00:15:56London, as a young gay person, was the only place to be really.
00:16:12You were surrounded by people like you.
00:16:15Pride marches really were the single most important event, without a doubt.
00:16:25And it was a really exhilarating, thrilling experience just walking down the street with hundreds, thousands of other LGBT people.
00:16:35It was joyous to say we're here, we're queer, and we're not going away.
00:16:41The people who tend to go on the Pride march in those days were the more political elements of the LGBT community.
00:16:48I bumped into Mark Ashton just before the gay pride march was about to take place.
00:17:06Mark grew up in a working class seaside town in Northern Ireland.
00:17:10He was definitely in his early twenties when he became politicised.
00:17:14He joined the Communist Party.
00:17:17We were comrades, we were friends.
00:17:20Mark said, how about taking a couple of buckets to collect for the striking miners on the Pride march?
00:17:27I said, oh, that's a great idea.
00:17:29The miners' strike has been described as a civil war without guns.
00:17:34And that's exactly what it was.
00:17:36It completely split the country.
00:17:39You're either for the miners or against the miners.
00:17:42Mark and I were really...
00:17:46I was really pleasantly surprised quite how much support we got from the other people marching with us.
00:17:52I hate Thatcher, you know, gleefully putting some money in the bucket.
00:17:58They'd also be saying, my dad's a miner, my uncle's a miner, my granddad was a miner.
00:18:03And that really was the beginning of Lesbians and Gay Supporting the Miners.
00:18:09We gave birth that day.
00:18:12I already knew Mark.
00:18:14He spoke in such a vivid way that it educated you just to listen to him.
00:18:20But he was also giggly and witty and lovable.
00:18:27Now, there are three and a half million people unemployed in this country.
00:18:30Where the hell are these jobs coming from that these miners are all going to go into?
00:18:34But the point is we're going to win.
00:18:36We're going to beat these bastards.
00:18:37And we're going to beat them so far back that they'll never come back again.
00:18:40We decided that the most natural place to collect funds was outside Lesbians and Gay venues.
00:18:47So that's what we did.
00:18:48You had a big bucket.
00:18:50And it had, support the miners round it.
00:18:54And you shook it.
00:18:55Support the miners.
00:18:58Support the miners.
00:18:59Support the miners.
00:19:00Support the miners.
00:19:01Support the miners.
00:19:02I'm sorry.
00:19:03Lesbians and Gay support the miners.
00:19:05Space to change.
00:19:06Lesbians and Gay support the miners.
00:19:09Space.
00:19:10We've had great fun when we're doing collecting.
00:19:13I mean, the bell was always the favourite place for people to collect.
00:19:18And it did get a bit silly sometimes because we'd have, like, eight LGSM people shaking buckets
00:19:24on the door because we were not only collecting for the miners, we were also trying to pick
00:19:29people up at the same time.
00:19:34Lesbians and Gay support the miners.
00:19:36You know, it was a wonderful kind of community atmosphere.
00:19:39I was a very insecure person.
00:19:42So it was just seeking a kind of possibility of just being myself.
00:19:47There were a lot of people who were angry that we were collecting for this group of people.
00:19:56You know, what have they got to do with us?
00:19:58What were they giving us?
00:20:00What about all the people who were sort of, you know, living and dying from HIV AIDS?
00:20:05A lot of people will say, you know, if you're collecting that, why should we support the miners?
00:20:09Because the miners don't support us.
00:20:10I mean, what do you tell people who say that to you?
00:20:12Well, I mean, what do you mean when you say the miners don't support us?
00:20:15The miners dig coal, which creates fuel, which actually makes electricity.
00:20:20People, I mean, would you go down and mine and work?
00:20:22I wouldn't like to go down and mine and work.
00:20:24One of the reasons I support miners a lot is because they go down and do it.
00:20:27I wouldn't do it.
00:20:28It took some degree of courage to stand there.
00:20:33There was something deeply political just about being yourself.
00:20:40In the high street, it meant, hello, everybody.
00:20:44I'm gay.
00:20:45Hello, everybody.
00:20:46I'm gay.
00:20:47Hello, everybody.
00:20:48I'm gay.
00:20:49Once a guy came up to me at the bell and said, why should I?
00:20:56And as I opened my mouth to try to explain, he actually headbutted me.
00:21:06Of course, society was deeply homophobic.
00:21:10The laws reflected that.
00:21:12The opinions reflected that.
00:21:15Poof, bender, queer, gay boy, bum boy.
00:21:19You know, the list is endless.
00:21:21It was so part of the atmosphere of the landscape.
00:21:27It just was.
00:21:28What would you do if you found out your sister was a lesbian?
00:21:31Um, killer.
00:21:32I'm not used to concern about lesbian, about any chance to be a lesbian around her.
00:21:36Yeah, mate.
00:21:37Me too.
00:21:38I'm going.
00:21:39You know, there was still queer youth on the street being thrown out at 15, 16 because
00:21:45they'd come out and their father wouldn't tolerate it.
00:21:49I know my reaction.
00:21:52I couldn't believe it.
00:21:53I mean, I was a...
00:21:55a macho man.
00:21:56I come from the north.
00:21:57I was a...
00:21:58You know, we didn't have homosexuals in working-class families.
00:22:02It was only...
00:22:03They were puffs, weren't they?
00:22:04No way, they were.
00:22:05You know, we didn't father puffs.
00:22:07The people who fathered puffs were rich people or upper-class people.
00:22:11And to be honest, I thought he was a little bastard.
00:22:15And if I had to get me hands on him then, I would have killed him.
00:22:18Just being openly yourself in the street was an offence against public decency.
00:22:26You were to be stamped on.
00:22:28You were to be wiped out.
00:22:30You were to be kept hidden.
00:22:32You could choose to sort of remain, um, camouflaged.
00:22:37Or you could choose to try and live your life as you wished to and take the risks.
00:22:45I grew up on an island in Scotland, rural community.
00:22:49On my 18th birthday, I'd kind of taken a boat to the mainland,
00:22:53had been at school for my final exam, got on the boat,
00:22:55took off my school uniform and threw it in the sea.
00:22:58And I came down to London.
00:23:00You know, I was kind of living at large, as you do when you're in your 20s.
00:23:04I was a punk, whatever that means, you know.
00:23:07I had funny hairstyle.
00:23:09I remember I went shoplifting in...
00:23:12Don't quote me on this.
00:23:13I went shoplifting in Woolworths in Brixton.
00:23:15In a fur coat, red leather miniskirt, face full of makeup,
00:23:19and my, I think I was blonde-making at that stage.
00:23:22And it was interesting because, you know, people were a bit like,
00:23:26oh, OK.
00:23:27I was part of a wee gang and mad gays who didn't fit in.
00:23:33But we got through, you know.
00:23:35We lived a life.
00:23:36There's something about being under pressure that brings people together.
00:23:39And I think because of that, people, you know, were able to pull together.
00:23:44The strike had been going on for six months, far longer than anyone had ever expected.
00:23:55Almost all of the striking miners in South Wales were holding firm.
00:23:59But elsewhere in the country, that wasn't the case.
00:24:02In recent weeks, the tribal beating of police riot shields with truncheons
00:24:10has become a familiar sound on the Yorkshire picket lines.
00:24:14The South Wales miners needed to do everything they could to keep the strike strong.
00:24:19Miners travelled all over the country
00:24:21and joined what were called picket lines outside working mines.
00:24:25Sometimes, picket lines could be scary places.
00:24:28The miners were attempting to block the access road to the pit,
00:24:32and they succeeded.
00:24:37Picketing at that time was very much seen as what the men did.
00:24:41But the stories were horrendous.
00:24:43Can't believe that we were being treated like that by the police
00:24:46and the viciousness of the police.
00:24:49If you were just a few people and they were outnumbering you,
00:24:53they were quite calm about it.
00:24:55But then when a mob, as he put it, would turn up,
00:25:00their attitude would change.
00:25:02It was dog-eat-dog then, wasn't it?
00:25:09I'd grown up in a trade union family.
00:25:11You know, we knew what a picket line meant.
00:25:14That was sacrosanct.
00:25:15It was there, it was there for a purpose,
00:25:17and that everybody had to recognise that picket line
00:25:20and stand firmly behind it.
00:25:24They're determined to break a strike by any means that they can use.
00:25:28All they've got to do is look around there,
00:25:30and just have a look at all the police here,
00:25:31and half of these are soldiers anyway.
00:25:33They are just determined to break us, but no way are they going through them.
00:25:36You know, they're trying to starve us out,
00:25:38but we've counteracted that with our women's support groups,
00:25:41and the women have been great to us.
00:25:43The quickest way for an individual to feel they have to go back to work
00:25:48is that they can't put food on the table for themselves,
00:25:52but more importantly, for their children.
00:25:58We couldn't raise enough money in our communities
00:26:01to buy enough food for the families that were out on strike.
00:26:06Many people in London at that time
00:26:08couldn't have gone to a tow station
00:26:10without seeing miners with buckets
00:26:13asking for support of people in London,
00:26:15and that was very important.
00:26:17We developed a plan where we would twin
00:26:21with an organisation that wanted to lend their support for the strike.
00:26:27The miners throughout Britain were desperate for money.
00:26:32London, the capital, was a honeypot.
00:26:35Oh, yeah, right. The full total, then, is £345.85.
00:26:40After weeks of collecting,
00:26:42the gays and lesbians were raking it in.
00:26:45£95 outside the bell,
00:26:47£300 outside the gay bookshop.
00:26:50Before they knew it, they had a pot of 500 quid.
00:26:54A lot of money back then.
00:26:56But they had no idea what to do with it.
00:26:58Who would they actually send it to?
00:27:00Any other suggestions?
00:27:02So one member of the group had the idea
00:27:04of sending it to miners in South Wales.
00:27:06He came from that area.
00:27:08You couldn't think of a more remote
00:27:11and isolated mining community
00:27:13than one that we chose.
00:27:15Around there, nearly every miner was on strike,
00:27:19so we knew that they were desperately
00:27:21in need of funds to keep going.
00:27:23And I wrote a letter to say, you know,
00:27:26hello, we're a group called Lesbians Against
00:27:29to support the miners.
00:27:30I remember vividly posting that letter
00:27:33and thinking, God, I'd love to be a fly on the wall
00:27:37when that one gets opened.
00:27:39We basically had a meeting every Sunday evening.
00:27:54We were all in the hall, sitting around the table.
00:27:57The tables would be laid out for a meeting.
00:28:00And I got up and he said, oh, we've got a new support group
00:28:05from London.
00:28:07And he said, the group is Lesbians and Gays Support the Minors.
00:28:11Deathly silence.
00:28:15I looked up.
00:28:19Lesbians and Gays?
00:28:21Jaw dropped.
00:28:23And then...
00:28:24Di got a bit defensive, you know,
00:28:30and he said, look, hang about now,
00:28:32these boys have been rattling buckets
00:28:34and done this, that and the other.
00:28:35I think people's attitude to gay people in Wales, right,
00:28:39was...
00:28:41It was never really spoken about, you know?
00:28:44I have no doubt whatsoever
00:28:46that there was homophobia in the valley.
00:28:49Pound to be.
00:28:52What, puffs and things like that, wouldn't they?
00:28:54Puffters and...
00:28:55Bill Gardners.
00:28:57Arse bondage for me, you know?
00:28:59I mean, more likely.
00:29:00Would you have used those words, do you think?
00:29:02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:29:04I would have, yes.
00:29:05I would have, more than likely.
00:29:07Yeah.
00:29:09Just to fit in, didn't I?
00:29:10Mm.
00:29:11Yeah.
00:29:16I got a reply within a week.
00:29:18They were sending somebody to meters.
00:29:21That we didn't expect.
00:29:27I do remember coming out of Partington Station.
00:29:31There's a ramp that comes up out of the station
00:29:34and I remember walking up there.
00:29:36You had to turn right and on the opposite side of the road
00:29:39there was a wimpy bar and we'd arranged to meet there.
00:29:42I'm not sure what they felt about meeting
00:29:46the so-called minor for the first time.
00:29:48We expected some discomfort on both sides.
00:30:00And there wasn't any.
00:30:01He seemed completely unfazed about our sexuality.
00:30:06At a very young age, I joined the Air Force
00:30:09and I was stationed overseas.
00:30:11And there was outrage one day because a young lad
00:30:15had been found out to be homosexual.
00:30:19At that time, and until very recently in the military,
00:30:23if you were gay, you know, it was a court-martial offence.
00:30:26And I remember listening then to the talk amongst all my mates then,
00:30:32isn't it?
00:30:33How, well, how awful this was.
00:30:35Not his treatment, but that he was a blooming gay bloke, you know?
00:30:40Maybe that's why I wasn't ideally suited in the Air Force.
00:30:44I didn't subscribe to the view that his sexuality
00:30:47should be something that would threaten us as individuals.
00:30:53Then we arranged for him to come to the Bell later that evening
00:30:57to collect the money from us formally.
00:31:00It was quite brave being in a group of 200 LGBT people
00:31:04who he'd never been in a situation like that before.
00:31:07And there he is on stage facing them.
00:31:10So what I hope would come out of people like you
00:31:13and myself meeting is that we can have a dialogue going between
00:31:16ourselves so that never again we'll be kept separate.
00:31:19And that your problem up in London would become part of our problem.
00:31:22So basically what we're offering you is the hand of comradeship
00:31:26and if you want to come down and visit our mining values,
00:31:30we would like to see you there.
00:31:32And we would like to see you there not only for the strike,
00:31:34but after the strike is left.
00:31:36OK, basically, that's it.
00:31:37He got lots of applause and cheers and we were beside ourselves.
00:31:46We never expected this positivity and this warmth.
00:31:52For the first time, the miners were finding out what it was like
00:31:56when the state comes for you.
00:32:00These people have been living with this.
00:32:03They took that opportunity to help us at that time.
00:32:07Despite everything they'd been attacked by,
00:32:10despite everything they were living through,
00:32:12they were wearing a T-shirt.
00:32:14And yet, do you know what they did?
00:32:16They said, these people need our help.
00:32:23A few weeks later, Di stood up and said that they'd like to come down
00:32:28and meet us.
00:32:29One minute you're talking about the food parcels for the next week
00:32:34and then Di says there's a bunch of gay people
00:32:37who want to come down and stay with us.
00:32:39Somebody said, will this mean that we will have to watch men
00:32:44dancing with each other?
00:32:46A member in the support group got up and said,
00:32:48hey, hold on a minute now, boys.
00:32:50What the hell's going on here?
00:32:52I made it quite clear where our loyalties should lay
00:32:55and that we should be supporting people that were prepared to support us.
00:32:58We did have reservations before they came down.
00:33:02To be quite honest with you,
00:33:04we flipped a coin to see whether we would have lesbians or gays.
00:33:08You know, it sounds an awful thing to say,
00:33:10but we didn't know what to expect.
00:33:11I just went home and said,
00:33:13Stuart, do you know that gay lot that's been supporting us?
00:33:16Yes, well, they're coming down to visit us.
00:33:18And I said we put some people up.
00:33:20I didn't ask him, do you think, do you mind whatever they just told him.
00:33:25I'm really happy about that, to be honest.
00:33:27Because you have told so many things about them.
00:33:30They're all like yes and all this nonsense.
00:33:33They put a betrayal like that.
00:33:35They go, remember Larry Grayson on a telly?
00:33:37You know, he used to get it.
00:33:39And all that bloody terrible.
00:33:41I remember one of my neighbours complaining
00:33:45that she might get AIDS from using the telephone box.
00:33:49You know, they were very ignorant.
00:33:51The only thing they knew about gay people,
00:33:54and the only thing they knew about AIDS, as we called it then,
00:33:58was what they were reading in the tabloid press.
00:34:01This notion that somehow you are dirty, you are diseased,
00:34:06eventually that kind of does get to you and it makes me cross.
00:34:11I was diagnosed in October 1982.
00:34:15It was an incredibly lonely, isolating time.
00:34:21One felt like a modern day leper.
00:34:24You know?
00:34:26I think one hoped to be accepted.
00:34:31But maybe this has been some huge mistake
00:34:35and that actually people are not going to want us,
00:34:40not going to accept us.
00:34:42I didn't go down to Wales during the strike.
00:34:54I really had had very bad experiences of rejection from my family.
00:35:01My mum had said to me she wasn't sure she wanted to be my mother anymore.
00:35:06My father said that nobody in the wider family should know
00:35:11and it should be kept a secret.
00:35:13It was my normal to feel like I was a monster.
00:35:17I revolted people.
00:35:21Shame eats the soul.
00:35:24And I wish, actually, that I just said,
00:35:27I'll tell you what, I'm going to go and live my own life.
00:35:30Give us a ring if you change your mind.
00:35:33But I'm off.
00:35:36I wish I had done that.
00:35:39It's sad, isn't it?
00:35:40It's a common thing.
00:35:41It happens all the time.
00:35:42Like, you know, I even have friends.
00:35:44Literally their parents don't speak to them.
00:35:46Their parents kick them out.
00:35:48And they're from like a young age, from like 13, 14.
00:35:51So why would, like, her parents just kick her out?
00:35:55Um, well, that's the craziest thing, like, what I've seen today.
00:36:01I think that's very sad because no mother, no father should disown their child
00:36:06because they are different.
00:36:08Mm-hmm.
00:36:09And they should follow their own path
00:36:12because it's their job to take care of them.
00:36:15It's not their job to tell them what's right and what's not right.
00:36:18Sure, the miners had never done anything for us.
00:36:29And we ourselves were aware that we might get rejected.
00:36:33You know, we weren't naive.
00:36:38Where I grew up, it was classic northern industrial working class.
00:36:45Although I am proud of that kind of working class heritage
00:36:50and the values that I was taught,
00:36:53the bit that I'm not proud of is the widespread homophobia.
00:36:58Because I came from that kind of background,
00:37:01I mean, there was a coal mine in the town I grew up in
00:37:04when I was a young lad.
00:37:05When I was in my late teens,
00:37:07I'd go to working men's clubs with my family.
00:37:10So I knew what to expect that weekend.
00:37:13We were going to the miners' welfare hall,
00:37:15which is essentially a working men's club.
00:37:17What was utterly new is
00:37:20it would be the first time I'd walk into one of those places
00:37:24proudly out as a gay man.
00:37:27That was a new experience for me.
00:37:33We were preparing to walk into the lion's mouth.
00:37:43When we walked into the miners' welfare hall,
00:37:46the place was packed.
00:37:5127 of us, young, charity shop chic,
00:37:57we walk in single file.
00:38:01Suddenly this was real.
00:38:04What the fuck are we doing here?
00:38:05This is just crazy.
00:38:08That's pretty terrifying.
00:38:10There was absolute silence.
00:38:19What the fuck?
00:38:21And then somebody started clapping.
00:38:25And suddenly the whole room just erupted in applause
00:38:29and we thought, it's alright, we're home.
00:38:31And we're looking round at each other going,
00:38:34God, fuck, what's this?
00:38:38My God, I didn't expect this.
00:38:42It's just overwhelming, really.
00:38:43Are you ready for the time of your life?
00:38:47Stand to stand up and fight.
00:38:50It's alright, it's alright.
00:38:54The hair was standing up on my body.
00:38:57And you couldn't stop us after that.
00:39:00We were just like, yeah.
00:39:02Fantastic.
00:39:03Every woman, every man, join the caravan of love.
00:39:10Stand up, stand up, stand up.
00:39:14Everybody take a stand.
00:39:17Join the caravan of love.
00:39:21Stand up, stand up, stand up.
00:39:25We'd all fled to London because of the widespread homophobia
00:39:29that there was in our communities
00:39:31and we didn't expect a Welsh mining community
00:39:33to be any different.
00:39:35All I wanted was to be accepted.
00:39:38That's all we ever wanted.
00:39:41In those few seconds in a miners' hole in Wales,
00:39:44I was just given that absolute acceptance.
00:39:48Are you ready? Don't worry.
00:39:50You better get ready, don't worry.
00:39:52You better get ready, but the caravan.
00:40:02The few steps from that door to here, my life changed.
00:40:13You know, the local kids. They're cheeky.
00:40:16One of them went and said, are you a poof, mister?
00:40:18And I said, I said, yes, I'm a poof.
00:40:19Yes, I'm a poof, and all your visitors this weekend are poofs too.
00:40:22And he'd kind of laugh, he said, oh.
00:40:24When I had that sort of honesty, it made me sort of think,
00:40:27this is going to go all right.
00:40:29Well, I think we were more curious.
00:40:31Do they have two heads?
00:40:33Have they got green noses? You know, I mean...
00:40:35It was Saturday night, you know, let's have a party,
00:40:38let's have a drink and just relax and have fun.
00:40:41You were having conversations with people
00:40:43that you would never have had with people in your own community.
00:40:47What's Papa saying?
00:40:48Oh, what's a cock ring?
00:40:51Oh, I'm going to try that.
00:40:53Ooh!
00:40:54I got in conversation with a minor at the bar,
00:40:57and he went and said, oh, have you got anywhere to stay?
00:40:58I said, yes, I have.
00:40:59He said, oh, that's a shame, you could have come and stayed with me.
00:41:01I must have met my little heart went.
00:41:07One of the boys said, we're vegetarians.
00:41:10Oh.
00:41:11I could feed gay people, but I didn't know what to do with vegetarians.
00:41:15Egg and chips, egg, beans and chips, egg and beans, beans and chips.
00:41:22Combinations thereof.
00:41:24I was too busy trying to pick up a minor to be a joke.
00:41:28They were nice people, like?
00:41:29Yeah.
00:41:30Breath of fresh air, nice people.
00:41:31Yeah, they were.
00:41:32Yeah, they were.
00:41:33Yeah.
00:41:34Genuine people.
00:41:35When the lesbians and gays came down, my brain was just absolutely whirring.
00:41:39I had no idea what was going to come.
00:41:40I actually had no idea what that impact would be.
00:41:42Yeah.
00:41:43I got emotional.
00:41:44I just turned 16.
00:41:45I was a bit of an outcast, to be fair.
00:41:46I didn't like living in the village.
00:41:51I had some girls who used to pick on me.
00:41:52They called me Patch, because I had, like, I've got the birthmark here on my face.
00:41:54Patch, you're a lesbian.
00:41:58There was this group of young people.
00:41:59They were very tactile and huggy.
00:42:00So that wasn't something that we were used to.
00:42:01Nobody hugged you.
00:42:02Nobody had that feeling.
00:42:03It was a bit of an outcast, to be fair.
00:42:04It was a bit of an outcast, to be fair.
00:42:05I didn't like living in the village.
00:42:06I had some girls who used to pick on me.
00:42:07They called me Patch, because I had, like, I've got the birthmark here on my face.
00:42:12Patch, you're a lesbian.
00:42:13There was this group of young people.
00:42:19They were very tactile and huggy.
00:42:23So that wasn't something that we were used to.
00:42:25Nobody hugged you.
00:42:26Nobody had that, you know, that they never...
00:42:29Nobody showed that outward affection.
00:42:31I'll let you do that, because I feel safe enough for you to do that with me.
00:42:35So I felt embraced by them.
00:42:37I felt safe with them.
00:42:41That photograph of me clapping my hands with joy, I mean, it's lovely.
00:42:47Just so full of life.
00:42:50If you notice Cliff, he's the only other man that's dancing.
00:42:55apart from all we gay men.
00:42:58You know, he's up there having a ball.
00:43:01Cliff was just a darling.
00:43:03He was really sort of gentle, very naughty,
00:43:08and so happy to kind of sort of, um, to have us boys there.
00:43:14The lesbian and gays has been super duper, and I mean that sincerely.
00:43:24There's no other words I can explain it.
00:43:27Jonathan said, we've found the gay one.
00:43:30And we all went, no!
00:43:34He came out to us, and he didn't hold back.
00:43:37He told us everything.
00:43:39He told us about the sex he had in the pits.
00:43:42And Cliff had many enjoyable times down these pits with these men.
00:43:49If I should stay, I would only be alone.
00:44:00And at the end of the night, you have slow dances, right?
00:44:02And people get, you know, it's like a slushy dance.
00:44:04And two of the men, two of the gay men, got together
00:44:06and did a slow dance together.
00:44:08And it just made me think, oh, God, they feel comfortable enough.
00:44:11Not just to be, hello, I'm a gay, political gay.
00:44:13It's like they just had that moment, that private moment,
00:44:16where they just wanted to be schmoochy, you know?
00:44:19And I will always...
00:44:26For a lot of the gay men, I got the sense
00:44:28that that was really the first time they had been out and proud
00:44:32in our community, similar to the ones they'd grown up in,
00:44:36where that didn't feel possible.
00:44:41Did you manage to pull them under that night?
00:44:44What a thing to be asking somebody!
00:44:47Yeah.
00:44:51I don't want to come across as cheap,
00:44:53but we shared a bed and we shared more than that.
00:44:57We shared sexual intimacy, you know, we did that night.
00:45:04And can I just sort of say, it wasn't about pulling a minor.
00:45:06Let's be really clear about that, yeah?
00:45:09Oh!
00:45:10Oh!
00:45:15If lesbian and gay support the minors was important in our community,
00:45:19particularly for working-class people,
00:45:22lesbian and gay support the minors in a working-class community
00:45:26was hugely important for queer people like Cliff.
00:45:30I moved 500 miles to express my sexuality, you know?
00:45:34And that meant giving up an awful lot.
00:45:36He hadn't done that.
00:45:38He was trying to live that life there.
00:45:40And that was to be admired as far as I was concerned.
00:45:43You never realise that you...
00:45:46Minors could have been gay.
00:45:48He could have been working with a bloke.
00:45:50He wasn't going to tell you, was he?
00:45:52He'd be too frightened though, wasn't he?
00:45:54By the way, I'm gay.
00:45:55You know, he's not going to tell you that, is he?
00:45:57He was opening himself up for a real ribbon.
00:46:01Ribbon.
00:46:02So, no.
00:46:04I don't know if I knew if Cliff was gay.
00:46:09I don't think I remembered if I knew that.
00:46:12I just knew that there was a difference in him after they'd been.
00:46:16It sounds like the visit from the lesbians and gays
00:46:19was pretty important to Cliff.
00:46:21Isn't it nice he was finally able to be himself?
00:46:24Like, basically, he probably felt desolate
00:46:27and, like, really isolated that he couldn't tell anyone.
00:46:30Yeah.
00:46:31But once he probably told people, he probably felt free,
00:46:34like he escaped from it.
00:46:36Wasn't the relief.
00:46:37You know that deep down inside, you need to let it go at some point,
00:46:41otherwise you'll explode and, like, you just want to let your emotions out
00:46:46and do what you want to do?
00:46:49Yes.
00:46:50It was a life-changing trip for the gays and lesbians.
00:46:53They'd made incredible friendships
00:46:55and now they really understood what mining meant to these communities.
00:47:01But for Nicola, it was bittersweet.
00:47:05I used to feel ashamed that I hadn't gone
00:47:07and everybody would say,
00:47:08what was it like going to the miners' welfare
00:47:11and you were all dancing together and I didn't go?
00:47:14Was it all wonderful?
00:47:16I mean, I think it was very difficult for women who came along,
00:47:21you know, lesbian and gay supporting the miners.
00:47:23Well, where are the lesbians?
00:47:25I bet I wasn't the only one who sort of was part of it
00:47:31but kind of not quite in the centre of it.
00:47:35Some of the women felt that the men were sexist.
00:47:41Women, lesbians, didn't get much of a look in.
00:47:46Well, I mean, within the group itself, it's been really shit
00:47:48because, like, we have, and when I say we, I mean the men, right,
00:47:53get that really guilty look on the face.
00:47:55I've totally monopolised this group
00:47:57and women have been excluded and it's a fact.
00:47:59So what some of the women in the group and I did
00:48:09was formed a lesbian group called Lesbians Against Pit Closures.
00:48:13You know, I was led by the heart, I suppose.
00:48:16I kind of felt more comfortable in the women-only group.
00:48:20That young person was a very, very lonely
00:48:24and frightened young person
00:48:27who was desperately looking for community and belonging.
00:48:32The good thing about Lesbians Against Pit Closures
00:48:35is that they raised money as well.
00:48:38Isn't it great that Nicola finally found her voice
00:48:41and a group she could raise money with?
00:48:43It was needed more than ever.
00:48:46For the South Wales miners and the gays in London,
00:48:49it really felt like everyone was against them.
00:48:51There were some rough times ahead.
00:48:56Dawn at the Point of Air colliery in North Wales,
00:48:59the start of another week in the miners' dispute.
00:49:02And for the first time in the union's history,
00:49:04miners decided to cross picket lines, manned by fellow miners.
00:49:09What about the NUM men who are going into work?
00:49:11What's your view of the...?
00:49:13My view. I think they're scams.
00:49:15Shut up the...
00:49:16They're all...
00:49:18A trickle of people start to return to work.
00:49:23Yeah.
00:49:24So we'd had to picket locally.
00:49:27Oh, I'd rather be a picket than a star.
00:49:31Oh, I'd rather be a picket.
00:49:33I'd rather be a picket.
00:49:35I'd rather be a picket than a star.
00:49:39At different points in the strike,
00:49:41women started to become more confident
00:49:45about what they could do and what they wanted to do.
00:49:48And that led to the women deciding that they were going to take part in the picket lines.
00:49:54It's made a lot of women aware that they're capable of doing things
00:49:57that they didn't realise they were capable of doing before.
00:50:00It's a changed sort of attitude in the home, you know,
00:50:03because they're out at meetings and they're out on the picket line.
00:50:07We were starting to step up to the plate a little bit more.
00:50:10We were stepping out of that traditional role of fundraising, nurturing.
00:50:15There was a growing awareness that the backbone of the strike were the women.
00:50:21First time we had to picket our colliery, Abernant Colliery,
00:50:28who was the one person we would have all put money on him going back in.
00:50:31But...
00:50:32Who was it?
00:50:33Oh, I'm not going to name him,
00:50:35because his family are terribly, terribly ashamed of him.
00:50:40We were so angry we went up to picket the colliery
00:50:43to try and stop him going in.
00:50:48And then the bus trundles up and the door opened
00:50:52and you could hear the driver saying,
00:50:55right, F off out.
00:50:58Yeah, he's never going to come out of that bus.
00:51:01The coward, he's never going to come out of that bus.
00:51:04And he got out of the bus.
00:51:06Everybody went nuts.
00:51:09That's when all hell broke loose.
00:51:11And I could hear this shout and I can hear it now.
00:51:13Sean Hall turned back, appealing to him as a neighbour.
00:51:17The police had to snatch him in through the gates
00:51:20and they started bonking people on heads
00:51:24and dragging people away.
00:51:28It was unbelievable.
00:51:29I suppose it's an emotional thing.
00:51:32It's anger, I suppose.
00:51:34What were you angry about?
00:51:36Being undermined.
00:51:38Well, the people that should have been fighting alongside us.
00:51:42We wanted them to know
00:51:44that we were ostracising them for a reason.
00:51:47Despise is a strong word, but, you know,
00:51:50but we had forsaken them.
00:51:51They weren't any longer part of our community.
00:51:58I mean, there's 22,000 miners in South Wales.
00:52:00There's 140 of them in work.
00:52:02Well, personally, I think that's such an issue point for Scalvin in South Wales now.
00:52:08This afternoon, Joy Watson was driving her husband into work.
00:52:13The women were waiting.
00:52:14Paint and oil were thrown over the windscreen.
00:52:17Inside the plant, Paul Watson cleared the windscreen
00:52:20before leaving his wife to run the gauntlet again.
00:52:23This time, the reception was even more violent.
00:52:28A stone smashed through the window, hitting the driver.
00:52:34The traffic forced the car to stop.
00:52:40The women took advantage.
00:52:42It's unbelievable. It really is.
00:52:54I don't know, I just think they want blood.
00:52:57They want blood before they're finished.
00:52:59But I say to Mrs Watson and any other potential scab
00:53:03in that community or in any other part of South Wales,
00:53:07you go back to work, you break the solidarity in that community,
00:53:11and I'll tell you something, and this isn't an idle threat.
00:53:14There is no place for you in that community now or in the future.
00:53:20You know, in one respect, violence cannot be condoned,
00:53:24but you're fighting for your way of life,
00:53:27and you're fighting for your families,
00:53:30and you're fighting for food on the table for your kids.
00:53:34Ah, but you're on strike.
00:53:35If you went back to work, you'd have had money, yeah, but for how long?
00:53:41This was the sort of tragedy that police, the coal board,
00:53:46and miners' leaders had forecast and feared.
00:53:49Early this morning, 35-year-old David Wilkie
00:53:51was driving to Merthyrvale Colliery in the village of Abervan.
00:53:55In the cab with him was Di Williams,
00:53:57one of two working miners at the pit.
00:53:59But at this point, a three-foot concrete post dropped from the bridge,
00:54:03smashed through the windscreen of the Cortina estate car,
00:54:06killing Mr Wilkie instantly.
00:54:08No, I'm not going to talk about that.
00:54:10Didn't happen in our area.
00:54:12It was dreadful. It should never have happened.
00:54:14No, no, sorry, no.
00:54:16No, we don't know... We...
00:54:18Nothing to do with us. Nothing to do with us.
00:54:20It's a different area, anyway.
00:54:22It's a different area, and it's nothing to do with us.
00:54:24Mr Wilkie was a volunteer, as are all the city centre cabmen,
00:54:28who've driven working miners through picket lines.
00:54:31Earlier this week, a concrete block
00:54:33was dropped onto the bonnet of one taxi.
00:54:35This isn't industrial action.
00:54:38This isn't picketing.
00:54:40This is murder.
00:54:42This terrible thing had happened,
00:54:44which was unforgivable,
00:54:46but we still had a job to do.
00:54:48We had to get on.
00:54:50Um, passions run high, um, people do things,
00:54:54and, you know, they do the wrong thing,
00:54:58and that's what happened in that case of the taxi driver.
00:55:03It was awful.
00:55:04And a few days later,
00:55:07there's Les Mis Gay Support the Miners in London
00:55:10collecting for the miners,
00:55:12and a member of the public just walks past
00:55:15and shouts at us, murderers!
00:55:19The strike had been dragging on and on and on.
00:55:25Christmas was looming.
00:55:27Winter was closing in.
00:55:29It means that picketing will be cold and difficult.
00:55:33It's the last thing we needed, really.
00:55:35Yeah.
00:55:36Obviously, any acts of violence against people,
00:55:39no matter how much they are in opposition to you,
00:55:41is not acceptable.
00:55:43But the violence I was witnessing was where, um,
00:55:47police were cracking skulls.
00:55:50Police horses were trampling.
00:55:52Um...
00:55:56It was the bloody face of miners that had been, uh...
00:56:01I found it really triggering to talk about violence.
00:56:08Because, of course, it's my life, too.
00:56:14I've been on receipt of violence through my life,
00:56:19and...
00:56:20I'm aware of its consequence,
00:56:25and how much it's pushed me in different places.
00:56:30We knew what the state could do.
00:56:33We were forever being harassed, hassled.
00:56:37It was grim.
00:56:38It was really, really awful.
00:56:40The British police are the best in the world.
00:56:54I don't believe one of these stories I've heard
00:56:58about them raiding our pups for no reason at all.
00:57:02Lining the customers up by the wall.
00:57:06I had a friend who was gentle and short.
00:57:10He was lonely one evening.
00:57:12He went for a walk.
00:57:14Queerbashers caught him, kicked in his teeth.
00:57:18He was only hospitalised for a week.
00:57:24And he still bears the scars.
00:57:27Sing if you're glad to be gay.
00:57:31Sing if you're happy that way.
00:57:34Hey!
00:57:35Sing if you're glad to be gay.
00:57:39Sing if you're happy that way.
00:57:43Sing if you're happy that way.
00:58:10be gay. Sing if you're happy that way. Hey! Sing if you're glad to be gay. Sing if you're
00:58:21happy that way.
00:58:27As Christmas was approaching, the strike was entering a new phase. Miners were being offered a lot of money to come back to work before Christmas. After months of living without pay, for some, it was just all too much.
00:58:57Eight heavily protected buses, each carrying 40 or so working miners, rumble past the pickets at Shirebrook.
00:59:04Seventy-four men abandoned the strike and came to work here for the first time today.
00:59:10In-depth. Mortgages running up. Had to come back to rake.
00:59:16Do you think that you at this pit now are showing the way back?
00:59:20Definitely, yes.
00:59:21Yes.
00:59:22There's to be hope so. Men suffered enough. How much more can they suffer?
00:59:27How much more can they suffer? How much more can the families take?
00:59:31We were in for the duration and, you know, when that change came, that hardening in the attitude of the government, the police, people were tired of the story, you know, on their TVs all the time.
00:59:44You have to step up and do more.
00:59:50When it was December and Christmas was looming, so I was looking at what are we now going to do to be able to put food on the table on Christmas Day for every single mining family, put a present in a stocking for every single miner's child.
01:00:05The lesbians and gays were determined not to let their friends down when they needed help the most. But collecting money on the street wasn't going to be enough.
01:00:14They had to come up with something massive.
01:00:17Mark Ashton was a personal friend of Jimmy Somerville, who was a singer with Bronski Beat.
01:00:23Someone had an idea. If we were good at partying, why not just have a massive party and sell tickets and raise money that way? And that was it.
01:00:33It's the bits and perverts ball.
01:00:43There was an invitation to attend the event if you wanted to. It was a great group of people who travelled in hope.
01:00:51CHOIR SINGS
01:01:07We took them to the Tower of London. Di Donovan's son, Owen, was with us. He put his hands on his hips as a four-year-old and walked up to his big feeder and just said,
01:01:24You're a scabby piggy, you are. You're a scabby piggy. You want to lock my daddy up. Scabby piggy, scabby piggy.
01:01:31CHOIR SINGS
01:01:32I do not believe that it was restricted to gay people, but there were an awful lot of gay people there.
01:01:41Very avant-garde in the way they dressed. It wasn't like a local club in South Wales, you know.
01:01:48I think Jimmy Somerville bought me a pint. I remember that. Fantastic night. Really good night.
01:01:54It was a joyful moment and we raised lots of money and that was great and that was the purpose.
01:02:01All I'd like to say in conclusion is victory to the minors, victory to the lesbians and gays, victory to the old, victory to the young, victory to the sick and victory to the working class. Thank you.
01:02:15I gave a speech at Pits and Perva, that exciting night, where I said, you have worn our badge, now we will wear yours.
01:02:25First event that I'd ever been to, first nightclub, first concert like that that I'd ever been to.
01:02:31A lot of firsts happened in 84-85 for me. Absolutely, yeah.
01:02:36I'd known Mark from day one. He kind of took me under his wing. So, you know, that's why he said, come on, come on up, stay with us. And they took me to heaven.
01:02:44So, here I am, 17 years old now, walking into a gay nightclub that I'd never ever been to in London.
01:02:55Didn't expect what I saw. Absolutely blew my head off. Sex everywhere, just openly. It was just, yeah, I kind of had my eyes open to all sorts of things.
01:03:07I wanted to be part of it, but I didn't know how. This is a different life completely.
01:03:13The Pits and Perverts ball raised £5,500 that night, which was a quarter of what we'd raised the entire year elsewhere on street corners.
01:03:28So it was a very successful event.
01:03:31We were determined every family would have a turkey and every kid would have a Christmas present, and we did it.
01:03:37It's quite simple, really. If we hadn't had support over that period of time, we wouldn't have been able to sustain the strike.
01:03:46In total, I would say that LGSM raised in excess of £20,000. They came in and supported us when we were starting to run out of options.
01:03:59We've still got to stress to our members. You may not be a dirty scabber. You're still a scabber to go back after ten months now.
01:04:12Boys, we've still got to stick it out.
01:04:14With division and hardship intensifying, the South Wales miners were struggling to keep going.
01:04:21Times was so desperate. I even heard about one family who cooked and ate their pet rabbit because there was literally nothing else to eat.
01:04:28The breaking point of individuals is different. And when you think that men have been out for 11 months or up to their neck in debt, lots of men throughout the British coal field are on breaking point. And you've got to recognise it.
01:04:49I just broke down in tears one day after work. It was obviously the stress that upset my system. I cried then. But I suppose you're only sleeves up and you get on with it.
01:05:08Somebody once asked me what would happen if my husband said he was going back to work. And I said I'd shoot him in the back. I haven't come through 11 months of this strike to give up now.
01:05:28Now, will you not negotiate with them ever?
01:05:31I will never negotiate with people who use coercion and violence to achieve their objective. They are the enemies of democracy. They are not interested in the future of democracy. They are trying to kill democracy for their own purposes.
01:05:47The conference recommends that the nationally organised return to work should take place on Tuesday, March 5th without an agreement.
01:06:05Britain's longest running national strike is over. Amongst scenes of bitterness and anger, NUM delegates voted narrowly for an organised return to work on Tuesday.
01:06:15You were fighting tough to name for something you believe in. And that's hard to deal with. It really is hard to deal with. Anger is the best word to use.
01:06:33It was the feeling that we'd lost. That's the thing. That we'd lost the strike. It felt awful.
01:06:41She took our livelihoods from us eventually. As soon as the 84 strike was over, the writing was on the wall for us. She had it in her head that she was going to defeat us, and she defeated us. In the end. Not a nice feeling. It was a sad day, but you know what? You just got to take her on the chin and fight another day.
01:07:09Quite another day. Yeah.
01:07:13Yeah.
01:07:14We were there in South Wales when that was announced. So we were all heartbroken. All that sacrifice had come to nothing. And there's nothing you can say. I mean, we tried our best. And we hadn't won. It's as simple as that.
01:07:40Fair play to them. Fair play to them. They tried to buck us up. You know, and it's all right. Like, it'd be all right and all this. But we knew that it wouldn't be all right.
01:07:52Fair play.
01:07:53Well, I think every man that was here this morning felt exactly the same. There's a lump in the stomach going through these gates.
01:07:55Fair play.
01:08:12I remember how we marched.
01:08:16I think every man that was here this morning felt exactly the same.
01:08:19They had a lump in their stomach going in through these gates.
01:08:23We want a livelihood.
01:08:25We want to earn our own livelihood.
01:08:27And we want to look after our families and bring up our families.
01:08:32The way we've been brought up ourselves, the dignity.
01:08:35And we want to go to work every morning.
01:08:37Even though it's down that pit there and it's a stinking horrible place to work.
01:08:41We want to go there with dignity.
01:08:49You know, I broke my heart.
01:08:52Every step that he took was like a knife in his heart.
01:09:05It will be the last struggle of the working class.
01:09:09The fight between the things that we'd known and lived all of our lives
01:09:15and the things that were ahead of us that were unknown and very frightening.
01:09:21Mark Ashton.
01:09:23Phenomenal man.
01:09:24He would have...
01:09:25I never cried the way I cried over you
01:09:33As I put down the tent...
01:09:35Changed the world.
01:09:38And the world...
01:09:39If he'd survived.
01:09:41Somewhere else...
01:09:43Oh, God.
01:09:47Yeah.
01:09:48Many of my contemporaries didn't survive because of AIDS.
01:09:54And the world was deprived.
01:09:58And it's my view.
01:09:59Mark was a fine example of that.
01:10:01As I watched the sun go down
01:10:05Marching on the way on our way
01:10:08All the memories of you
01:10:11Come rushing back to me
01:10:14We lost quite a few people within Lesbos Against Sport and Miners to AIDS.
01:10:19Yeah.
01:10:20And fortunately, we didn't lose Jonathan,
01:10:22who miraculously lived through it.
01:10:25And so glad, because Jonathan's still here and he's still dancing.
01:10:31As I watched the sun go down
01:10:33I'm one of the lucky ones
01:10:35joining Lesbians and Gay Men Support the Miners.
01:10:38It was brilliant displacement activity.
01:10:41Kiss, kiss you once, goodbye
01:10:43I was quite close to Mark.
01:10:47It was just devastating.
01:10:50There's such a powerful guy like him.
01:10:52I never let this story stop
01:10:56And I never let this story die
01:10:58And I told this story
01:11:01I've told this story forever
01:11:03The Gay Pride March in 1985 was a very, very special one.
01:11:19The lesbians and gays had invited their new friends
01:11:22from South Wales
01:11:22to come to march with them
01:11:24But they weren't sure anyone would actually come.
01:11:27By now, we've got very deep personal friendships
01:11:30with the mining community.
01:11:32In Wales, they've been up to visit us in London
01:11:34twice at least during the strike.
01:11:37So there was no doubt that we would invite them
01:11:40to come on the Pride March in 1985.
01:11:43I think one hoped that they would come
01:11:46because we were a community.
01:11:49As they were waiting for the march to start
01:11:51the miners started to arrive in huge numbers.
01:11:55Normally, you wouldn't even get any straight people at Pride
01:11:57never mind hundreds of miners.
01:11:59The crowd grew and grew and grew
01:12:07until one of the Pride organisers came up to us and said,
01:12:11you're going to have to be the ones who take us out of the park.
01:12:14There were thousands of people walking behind lesbians and gays
01:12:19support the miners banner.
01:12:20It was history being made.
01:12:22It was fantastic.
01:12:24Amazing.
01:12:25There was all sorts of people there.
01:12:27A real carnival atmosphere then.
01:12:31Well, it was a sort of a thank you to the gay community.
01:12:35What they've done for us is still with us.
01:12:38Even 40 years on, it's still with us.
01:12:40I'm very proud that my friends that I made are still my friends.
01:12:46You don't often get that in life, you know.
01:12:48It's not about two people who fell in love.
01:12:51It's about two communities that fell in love.
01:12:54Solidarity, solidarity.
01:12:56Solidarity forever.
01:12:57You know, the women that came from the mining valleys
01:13:15who were marching had had their lives transformed.
01:13:19You know, their lives were never the same again.
01:13:22I spoke to a lot of women.
01:13:24They're not going to be little housewives anymore.
01:13:25Oh, no. Oh, no. No way.
01:13:26I mean, we have decided that after this,
01:13:29we'm joining everything that's going.
01:13:31I mean, and I never went outside my friend door.
01:13:34I was very afraid that I would be pushed back
01:13:37into that traditional, original role
01:13:39that I had been quite happy with.
01:13:42Fortunately, I discovered a route through further education
01:13:45and going to university fulfilled all those hopes and desires
01:13:50that I had developed during the strike.
01:13:56I got to a point in my life where I thought,
01:14:03that this is enough now.
01:14:05And I'd already met my now wife, Emily,
01:14:09and it wasn't until after she declared that she loved me,
01:14:14here I am getting upset again.
01:14:16It's taken me a long time,
01:14:19but I can only thank the Lesbians Against London
01:14:23for allowing me to realise that I can do that.
01:14:27Albeit 30 years later, I can still do that.
01:14:31If I met 16-year-old Jane now,
01:14:33I would say,
01:14:34you should just be you
01:14:36and just one day,
01:14:39you know, you will be you.
01:14:41Yeah.
01:14:43Just about Christmas time,
01:14:45I was walking down the street in Cardiff
01:14:48and coming towards me were two young women
01:14:51and they were hand in hand walking towards me.
01:14:54In my mind,
01:14:56that, that,
01:14:57in my mind,
01:15:00that's what I thought we should have.
01:15:02Solidarity! Solidarity! Solidarity forever!
01:15:08All for one and one for all!
01:15:10Solidarity forever!
01:15:12Solidarity! Solidarity! Solidarity forever!
01:15:17All for one and one for all!
01:15:19Solidarity forever!
01:15:22The support the minors went on to show the gay community
01:15:25was so important.
01:15:27The rights queer people enjoy today
01:15:28were kick-started by this amazing act of solidarity.
01:15:31So what's the lesson of this story?
01:15:34If you think something isn't right,
01:15:36go out there and do something about it.
01:15:38Be loud.
01:15:39Be noisy.
01:15:41Be active.
01:15:42Stand in solidarity with others who need help
01:15:44and you can really make a difference.
01:15:47beyond community
01:15:51oh
01:15:59!
01:16:00Solidarity! Solidarity. Solidarity forever!
01:16:03All for one and one for all!
01:16:06Solidarity forever!
01:16:11Solidarity. Solidarity. Solidarity forever!
01:16:13All for one and one for all, solidarity forever.
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