With Banners Held High (2015)

With Banners Held High is a short documentary film (31 minutes) that celebrates the resilience and humour of miners and women who went through the 1984/5 Miners’ Strike.

The yearlong strike was one of the most defining industrial actions in recent history. A Conservative government who labelled the miners ‘the enemy within’ planned to undermine the trade union movement and cripple an industry, decimating not only the collieries but the whole infrastructure and culture of mining communities.

The solidarity of striking miners and the emergence of a new feminist movement ‘Women Against Pit Closures’ inspired a humour and camaraderie which is apparent still today. This strength of spirit and resilience now forms an important place in the living heritage of mining communities some 30 years after the Strike.

In a series of personal interviews with ordinary people from the Strike and with the use of music, photographs, and archive material, With Banners Held High is an insightful, moving film that brings the experience of the Strike into perspective 30 years on.

You can buy the film price £12.50 inc P&P from the Campaign for Press & Broadcasting Freedom at www.cpbf.org.uk/withbannersheldhigh or by cheque made out to ‘CPBF’ from CPBF 29 Orford Road London E17
9NL.

Also, this is the piece just published in the latest issue of Cold Type, on With Banners Held High.