‘Reopen the Coal Mines’? Deindustrialisation and the Labour Party

Florence Sutcliffe‐Braithwaite

doi:10.1111/1467-923x.13000

Abstract

AbstractDifferent groups on the left have invested a variety of cultural meanings in the image of the British miner and the mining community. Tracing these over time, this article suggests that mythologised images of the solidaristic miner and the ‘traditional’ mining community flatten and simplify our understanding of the past, and of change over time in Britain's coalfields in the era of deindustrialisation since the mid‐1950s. Oral history interviews conducted in the coalfields suggest that while much has been lost—most importantly, decent jobs, strong local economies and certain community ties—there have also been gains, such as growing egalitarianism in gender roles. Finally, the article suggests that an industrial strategy, but more importantly, a raft of policies such as community wealth building and Foundational Economy strategies are needed to bring back some of what has been lost while also working with the grain of more positive social changes.

Highlights

Different groups on the left have invested a variety of cultural meanings in the image of the British miner and the mining community
The mining industry and coalfield communities have been powerful cultural symbols weaponised in political debate in a variety of ways
In this article I examine the myths that the left has constructed around the mines, and set out a more complex story of continuity and change over time in Britain’s coalfields since 1945

Summary

Corbyn and the coal mines

NEAR THE END OF 2015, Britain’s last deep coal mine, Kellingley, in North Yorkshire, saw its last shift of workers come up from underground. This history was not likely to seem like a ‘useable past’ to Corbyn’s younger and more metropolitan supporters, who tended to be deeply committed to feminism, gay rights, multiculturalism, anti-racism and environmentalism In this context, the recovery and celebration of the ways in which the miners’ strike was not just a moment of industrial militancy, and a fight which brought together the ‘old left’ with the ‘new left’ of women’s movements, lesbian and gay activists, black activists, and environmental movements has been vital. Corbynism celebrated the miners’ strike not as the apotheosis of the ‘old labour’ of combative, masculine trade unions, but as the transcendence of that tradition as trade unionists worked with a ‘rainbow coalition’ This ‘useable past’ suggests that there may be a fruitful political alliance to be built between ‘identity politics’ movements and the communities and political organisations of the coalfields. These interviews are drawn from ‘Women in the Miners’ Strike’, an Arts and Humanities Research Councilfunded oral history project I undertook with Natalie Thomlinson and Victoria Dawson from 2018 to 2020, and the ‘Deep Place’ research project I have undertaken since 2020 with John Tomaney and Lucy Natarajan; together they amount to interviews with just over 100 men and women

Deindustrialisation and mine closures

Starmer and the mines