I can only vaguely remember the strike, the only thing I can really remember is my Dad being home from work a lot more than normal. It is only in the years since the strike that I began to understand what happened. What it did to people in this area. And it wasn't just during the strike, it is still continuing.</p> My dad was 'only' unemployed for a year or two, and since then has had several jobs, but nothing really like a career. Thats what was taken, the chance of a decent job for life. Or even any job for some people. Yes the mines might have been unpleasant, and the health risks were pretty bad. But thats not why they were closed. If if that is the case, why did the scabs go back to work, they should have been happy at getting out of the mines. And other heavy industry has adapted to the health safety world we live in, so am sure mining could have too.</p> So to the people who say the kids chanting scabs don't know what it is because they weren't there. Well some maybe don't and are just doing it to join in. But a great many will. They will be living in areas where hardly any men over a certain age have jobs, and haven't had in their lifetime. Where they will have never known their dad to have a job. And they will be more than aware the part that scabs played in that. Whether they were alive at the time or not.</p> And if other teams can call us backwards, miners, flat caps, whippets etc. I am proud of where I came from, it helped make me who I am, and the football club who it is. Well why shouldn't we remind forest exactly who they are, and where they came from! </p>
Free Images Imagine the scene you are sunbathing playing cards with your mates. then wallop.... Maggies Army... fueled by the encouragement gained from the SCABS in Nottingham..Attack....I still have nightmares of the sound of trunchoens on peoples heads and backs...I was lucky I was 19 and could run.....some salt of the earth people couldnt.... they can still show you the physical scars today...let alone the psycological scars..... Some can forgive and forget.... they probably didnt suffer like others.......
My dad went picketing all over and was arrested at Orgreave. He thinks the chants are pathetic and should be left in the past.
And he is entitled to his opinion, and respect to him .... ..... for fighting for the cause, but I think you will find he is in a minority in this area. The majority of miners who were on strike for 12 months (like my dad), and their children who lived through it with them (like me), will NEVER forgive and forget. The miners were sold down the river by the scabs (and by the TUC) and branded 'the enemy within' by Thatcher and her cronies, for fighting for their jobs and their communities, and because of that it will never be left in the past. My dad died at the young age of 64, just 8 years after the strike ended, but I will shout scab on his behalf at every given opportunity, and will continue to do so until I take my last breath and I will also celebrate Thatcher's death, hopefully quite soon, I suspect it will be quite a party around these parts
RE: And he is entitled to his opinion, and respect to him .... I was only 4 at the time so I only vaugely remember the strike. I think the thing my Dad hates the most is all the brainless chavs who chant scab with no idea why they're chanting it at all. Agree with you about Thatcher though. Rotten to the core.
question?? would the miners have won the strike if the nottinghamshire miners had supported them? and would the mining industry have remained in place? On both counts I very much doubt it. Thatcher had already proven her determination and willingness to use the full power of the state to win her arguments and would have continued destroying the industry regardless. The Notts miners just made it a bit easier for her.
I think if... the Notts miners had stayed out and more importantly had NACODS come out on strike, the strike would have been successful and that would have undermined Thatcher and her so called economic reforms
