40 per cent of the nostie-looking siastically.
Argentine viewers applauding unionists, this time grim.
team set enthusiastic Action Group under Eric Varley.
have seen political discussion, the the labour movement in this town qualities, talents and abilities of a kind that sort of had alwavs been there expressed themselves."
When the Chesterfield Labour Party was already geared up.
Tom, now this Labour club where we're sitting has •When I came been a centre of the most concentrated Lauc union to be honest I community involvement I've ever seen in my life,' says Benn. "The support for Labour has increased. It must always have been there but these circumstances reicastu Il ward is a year in Chesterfield is how this can be done. not by toning things down, sharpening them up. The miners' strike I don't think we and the by-election, coming together, began an advance into moral, ideological, democratic Labour had evacuated.' women smug besuited trade union men clapping enthu- before we *Don't cheer too loud lads, you may be making a mistake, he said.
He was right. At the end of his speech, TV •i women wildly amid the same trade Johnny had described Chesterfield's real A-team, the all-women canvassing : up during the by-election to reach the wives and mothers of the town.
The women earned their label, and it stuck, because they were the most active, effective canvassing team of the whole election. At the end of the campaign they formed the Women's arrested.
Toni Bennett of Dennis Skinner's Bolsover constituency was part of the A- February this team. She explained: 'When the election was over we wanted to stick together as women. We formed the Women's Action Group and were bandying about different ideas on what we were going to do. But know throughout miners' came, 'For the last 12-14 months "Then there and ponnical achon and Day 'What we've been able to show after about organising it.
Not by electoral arrangements but by territory that could start anything, the miners' strike was on us 'We started taking soup round to the picket lines. Then came the need for food parcels. do a crous was seruo to coorol nate the different areas. We went round Derbyshire setting up WAGs. This centre now distributes food parcels to 34 other centres throughout North Derbyshire.
'Then it was a question of funds to buy the food. We had to go up and down the country telling people what we were doing and seeking their support. Apart from jumble sales and coffee mornings, you name it and we've done it. We've all been on picket lines, and some of us have been 'We've organised many events. In year, we organised the Ălive in '85 march which went round all the pits in this area over a week, and ended up on the Saturday with a big rally in Chesterfield town. The women organised it, and lots of trade unionists and men from the pits joined us. Whilst we were marching workers came out from the factories and showed their support.
We organised the march to let people the country that the There strike was still on the go, we were alive in '85. It was a morale booster. Not that morale was low, but from time to time it did us good to march out and let people Roy. know we were still there was the Interational Women's Day demonstration. Our deleate Whiteside, Who salso the chaires, to Women Against Pit Closures, WAG, came back to the group after the meeting and said, very calmly: "Guess what lassies? The International Women's going be held Chesterfield." We had five weeks to set 'We were thrilled to bits really. It was the first time we've ever been involved in anything on so big a scale. Twelve months ago, before the strike started, if anyone had suggested it we'd have thought they were crackers. But we've got fantasti women in this group, and we've had a awful lot of help from Labou controlled borough council.
This latest activitv of the Chesterfiel women has had a big impact on the part More than a week later, it was still th main topic in the Labour club bar.
Win Barker, secretary of the party women's council, has only recently joine WAG. I've become involved sinc Women's Day, she ex plained. Chesterfield Labour Party par ticipated enthusiastically the ever called by Women Against Pit Closures.
Another member of the women council, a nurse, described the popularit of the women's health stall, one of th many there. Jill Jones, a prospective c didate Chesterfield's county council elections, agreed. A sm army of women had worked hard to mak the day a success Women determined to together the formidable force of WAG Labour Party , men are equally enthi siastic. Roy Cunningham described on woman he spoke to during the strik was only one way her husba would return to work, she said, and tha was when Arthur Scargill told him to 'We are very proud of our women,' sai "They've achieved something, an it's this strike that's let them achieve it More than anyone. wome them selves realise how much the strike taught them. Toni Bennett described it •Women have politicised themselve For example, I've been talking to peopl for a long time about how blacks ar treated by the police. I don't kno whether they didn't believe me or jus weren't interested. But the comments to me during the strike were: "Now we kno blacks must feel. fee ashamed to have ignored what's be happening to them." That's through thei experiences on the picket line — the atti tude and treatment by the police
y of Labour up by the party are broad united fronts that welcome into their ranks anyone in the labour movement, party member or not, who is prepared to put their energies into mass campaigning. that reality.
Tony Benn often speaks of the 'refounding' of the Labour Party. But it took the mighty upheaval of the miners' dispute to begin to build the types of alliance that give On a local level, that is the alliance Chesterfield is trying to maintain.
The lessons are well worth • looking at. CAROL TURNER visited the constituency recently.
UNITY HOUSE, the headquarters of Chesterfield Labour Party, is just across the street from the Derbyshire NUM area offices. For the past 12 months the activity in both buldings has been for one and the same purpose: to win the miners' strike. Like areas, party has Vallins, the pićket lines with the local banner. Peter Heathfield, elected NUM general secretary only days before the strike began Socialist Action 22 March 1985 but he has pulled the support of