mers, leader, cGahey recently said that it omen had been involved in 1926 the way they are today, then the general strike would have been won. He could well be right. But the most important thing is for the NUM not to forget what it has learned over the last months, so *Please Mr Chair, when this strike Is over can I have my wife back?
Not this one, the one I had before'.
(quoted by Bea Campbell in New Statesman)
MARY DAVIES is a member of Penrhiwceiber port group. HAZEL JONES is member of Mountain Women against Pit group. STEVI JACKSON is the Women's Officer for Cardiff Central VERA McELHONE Women's Officer for West Labour Party. Stevi and Vera are also members of Cardiff Women Against Closures.
Why do you think women have played such an important role in this strike, compared say to the 1972/74 stikes? Mary: Well in 1972 my generation had never known another heard all about 1926 of course but 1972 was my first experience of a national strike. I was involved in the strike only to the extent of writing a letter to the newspaper going on Cardiff. went picketing but not on the vast scale of today. But women didn't go. Can you say more about why you think women are coming forward so con fidently in this strike? Many of the miners wives I've met are not simolv wives. They're workers themselves. Do vou think this has ettected their setconfidence?
Mary: Yes. More women work today in the mining communities than before. They've got used to being incance ofit discusses manyaspecis of mobilisation miners' wives from South Wales. We also reprint evidence of the particularly which the miners' wives on the picket lines in an attempt to frighten them back to the kitchen sinks.
dependent. A lot have got part-time jobs mainly in factories or as school cleaners, working in the bakery or in hospitals. We husbands last time just as much as now but we didn't have as much freedom. I think women feel stronger minded today. Like the Greenham sup- women who've shown that women can do things that men can do and even some that men perhaps can't... like surAsh vive all that hardship at the camp and closures still be there...
Hazel: Yes women have shown a lead in every battle.
You seem to have here with Cardiff Women for Life on is Earth.
Cardiff Mary: Yes they regional meeting and explained about the links weapons.
Pit• you'll have a nuclear power plant openWing. Pits would be used to store nuclear waste rather than producing coal.
It was at this meeting that we made the decision to have a women's picket. Women can often be more effective in lakille acuon.
We'd brains rather than their brawn.
whole point of us going to Port Talbot was to draw attention away from the men and let them picket.
It's amazing Lure follow women whatever they do. We all The men got together and started to walk down the motorway. The police started mar ching alongside of us. know what to do and one policeman told me it takes five officers to handle one woman. After a while we decided to turn back and lo cross te road lo walk on the other side of the motorway. By then the convoys had come roaring out. They're real cowboys these firms. The lorries have their number changed and their tyres are bald.
Vera: We sat down at the beginning of DEBBIE AINSWORTH is from St Helens. Her husband Steve has been on strike since the beginning. They have two young children. The this picket.
seven women and 21 men.
VALERIE COULTAS the women with degrading way in with men. police have treated rested mn uese nunocrs.
lorries...!
all the different supported our thousands to «Commor men than the women.
backs.
made strong links ting down.
between coal and nuclear For every mine that closes mean to sit down.
convoy.
Surely by a mass They tend to use their The how the police will to disrupt that were able to They didn't adopting these tactics.
plates have is getting arrested.
you at home.
money for the children.
groups Things allyillule.
Stand the strike now.
How did you get involved?
workers.
We held them up for an hour and a halt. There were 28 arrests In some ways this action was good and in some ways it wasn't. The women were just picked up and left at the side of the road but when the miners sat down they were immediately arrested. I'm not surprised at lual. I tink te ac tions women have taken at Greenham have been very effective but you can't mechanically apply te same tactics 10 the picket line where the class conflict is so sharp between miners and police Mary: i don't think these tactics work They can't afford to be arHazel: Women are used to keeping their tempers and men are not.
Vera: You can sit down when there's not much traffic but in front of those Stevi: I think it's quite hard to unravel things. Greenham women have been arrested in blocks. There's been a lot of brutality. But I think you're right that a picket line is a different ball game. You've got to have stop the lorries. The police were being far more brutal to the difficult.
The Greenham women went relaxed. The men stiffened instinctively and Mary: the police picked the men up differently with their hands twisted behind their Hazel: That comes back to the imagery of the miners. I just can't see miners sitVera: But we could do it with women. Stevi: I think one of the problems is that Greenham women are used to get- down ting arrested and miners' wives aren't. The non-Greenham women didn't really have a chance to discuss and influence the tactics and what it would Vera: Yes but how do you stop tha picket properly organised by the NUM and the women Mary: The police lines were seven deep. I think there's a real problem here. The suffragettes had a strategy of getting individual women and groups of women meetings, smash windows and even burn property. The women get arrested and deliberately get fined, often were middie class women. It was different then and it's still different now for working their bit. class women to afford huge fines. Not all Greenham women are by any means rich, but I really can't see miners wives miners. Mary: I think the main worry women Vera: There's also the kids waiting for The said Many times the bill was bigger than the giro, and you still need to keep some support I've lost my job because I was working at weekends and if there was a rally, I went to the rally. The rally came first just same We have no family life. We can't live the same life. We don't go out true, anymore. We get a lot of stick from the neighbours because Steve is picketing. But I have learned politically. I undersBy going to the first meeting in St Helens Town Hall. It was about ten weeks ago, well into the stike. There were social, welfare, DHSS and council The discussion was incredible. All the wives wanted to know. I discovered that I did not know anything about our much now Dont tot the