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Muriel Browning

Never give in now

(January 1985)


From Militant, No. 730, 4 January 1985, p. 5.
Transcribed by Iain Dalton.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).



WHILST COUNTING out tea bags for the food parcels, Isobel Knight, wife of a striking miner in Cynheidre pit, described some of the effects of the strike:

“It is now getting hard, the worst part is trying to keep my family warm – we have only had one lot of coal since the strike started. So every Saturday we spend most of the day scavenging for wood. There isn’t one dead tree left in our area, we’ve had the lot.

“The struggle has brought our family very close together. The kids understand the need to economise in everything. They don’t refuse to help with the scavenging and the older boys are always ready to help their father doing support work.

“Christmas is not the same this year, but I managed to save 50p a week for a turkey and presents for the younger children. Dick (her husband, a winder) has said ‘no way will I wind for scabs’. I fully support him, we will never give in now to the scabs or the Coal Board.”


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