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MINERS, ex-miners, their families and supporters marched through the streets of Barnsley on Saturday to mark the 30th anniversary of the miners’ strike against pit closures.
With pit union branch banners proudly aloft, the marchers wound through the town centre to the historic headquarters of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) for a well-attended rally.
There were moving and barnstorming speeches which had the packed audience on its feet. They included calls for the re-opening of Britain’s deep coalmining industry as Britain’s only indigenous source of energy.
There was a warm welcome for George Arthur, one of two campaigning pensioners arrested on Monday last week during a rally in Sheffield protesting at the axing of concessionary travel for pensioners.
Mr Arthur, 64, gave a graphic account of his arrest and that of 65-year-old Tony Nuttall.
The two are leading figures in the South Yorkshire Freedom Riders, who since March have every week boarded a train from Barnsley to Sheffield, refusing to pay their fares.
More than 50 pensioners and disabled people regularly make the protest.
Last week they were “kettled” by British Transport Police at Sheffield railway station.
Mr Arthur referred to the police “riot” as they moved in on the protesters, knocking over a blind woman and other disabled people. Two protesters needed hospital treatment.
The police action put a national spotlight on the Freedom Riders’ campaign.
The South Yorkshire campaigners hope groups will be established in other regions where transport concessions face cuts.
A demonstration is planned at Sheffield magistrates’ court when the two campaigners appear there on Monday July 7 at 9.45am.
Betty Cook of Women Against Pit Closures received a rousing reception.
“We are still here. We are still shouting. We are still protesting,” she said.
Unite national officer Kevin Coyne called for a commitment from Labour to invest in clean coal technology and a renewed British coalmining industry when elected.
And NUM president Nicky Wilson said millions of tons of coal are being imported while Britain’s own reserves lie abandoned — all because the Tories wanted to smash the NUM.
