Goldthorpe miners anniversary march, April 2014, photo A Tice

Goldthorpe miners anniversary march, April 2014, photo A Tice   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Goldthorpe: Hundreds show anger at Thatcher’s destruction of mining

One year ago, the ex-mining village of Goldthorpe in South Yorkshire hit the headlines because the street party to celebrate Thatcher’s death burned an effigy of her in front of the TV cameras.

Goldthorpe miners anniversary march, April 2014, photo by A Tice

Goldthorpe miners anniversary march, April 2014, photo by A Tice   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

This year, the local authorities didn’t want a repeat of that because they “don’t want to give the village a bad name and frighten off investment”. But on Saturday that didn’t stop 600-700 local people demonstrating their working class anger against Thatcher and the Tories who are really responsible for the destruction of the local community.

Goldthorpe miners anniversary march, April 2014, photo by A Tice

Goldthorpe miners anniversary march, April 2014, photo by A Tice   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Chants of “here we go, here we go” and “the workers united will never be defeated” rang loud as the march to celebrate the miners’ strike poured out of the Comrades Club. It was led by a symbolic cow representing the Milk Snatcher – Thatcher – and by the new banner of the “30th anniversary of the miners’ strike” Facebook page. Ex-miners and supporters were joined by a delegation of Care UK strikers.

Alistair Tice

This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 14 April 2014 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.