CHESTERFIELD, Derbyshire's second largest town, is described in the tourist guide as 'the gateway to the Peaks'. But it is better known as a place that was rock-solid in support of the The local chamber of commerce reckons that retail trading has dropped 25 per cent in the last year, just one indication of how the strike has affected the town. But Chesterfield isn't simply a mining community. Its industrial base is chemicals, steel, and a lot of light industry.
The miners union does have strong roots in the local labour movement though. During the past 12 months they have been tremendously strengthened, was used as a stepping stone to (WAG) was encouraged similar organisations, many months old.
Now there of a different kind kitchen-sink sort of woman'.
At Labour Party September, NUM delegation. especially with the Labour Party.
Chesterfield hit the headlines when the local Labour Party chose Tony Benn as its candidate in the now-famous by-election. This fight change.
CHESTERFIELD WOMEN have played a massive part in the miners' strike. Their Women's Action Group the first support group in the country. They women nearby Barnsley and Doncaster to set up as well spawning dozens of groups throughout Derbyshire before the strike was women's support groups up and down the land. Out of the strike has been born a women's movement - drawing in working class women who didn't consider 'politics' their province, but who will never return to being what Toni Bennett describes as 'a This new movement began with the women of Chesterfield Labour Party.
On 21 November 1983, a local newspaper carried a report that Labour sends in the A-team. Referring to Walworth Road's campaign strategy unit, the so-called 'crack team of national officials formed to fight the Chesterfield byelection', the Star's headline writer never dreamt how prophetic his words were.
_conference last Chesterfield Labour Party president Johnny Burrows was part of the When the Action Committee approached the union to speak in support of their resolutions, Johnny volunteered. He was the only man to speak in the debate. It took him three nervous hours to compose his speech.
As he walked to the rostrum TV cameras scanned the hall. The view was of transforming the local party - and not just around elections. The massive solidarity with the miners' strike has been the height of that Now the party is attempting to International Women's Day in Chesterfield: a small army of women worked hard to organise the forces that emerged during the miners' strike, to keep them together for the battles to come. The Women's Action Group, the Community Defence Campaign, and other structures se