One Year! Tracing the visual legacy of the miners’ strike

“We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty.” These are the words of Margaret Thatcher – words that leave a particularly sour taste when learning they’re in reference to the miners’ strike of 1984-85, used to describe communities coming together in resistance to their decimation, the removal of their primary source of income with nothing to replace it. It is quotes like these that make you realise how important grassroots documentation is, how important photography, as a medium, can be in highlighting the truth; police violence, batch cooking for hungry families and protestors huddled outside in winter, with little more than a jacket.

A new exhibition at the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol has compiled photography from the year-long industrial action, as well as ephemera that played a role in widening awareness and showing solidarity, like badges, posters and banners. “Together, the works tell a story of the battle against Margaret Thatcher and the National Coal Board’s pit closures, but also display the imaginative ways people came together in defence of their communities and the powerful images of resistance and solidarity that live on today,” says the exhibition’s curator Isaac Blease. After collaborating with various museums, collections and individuals to source materials, the exhibition features work from a vast range of geographies and demographics, including the work of John Harris, Chris Killip, Jenny Matthews, Imogen Young and more.

For Isaac, one of the main strengths of the exhibition is how it demonstrates solidarity across communities. He highlights Brenda Price, who shot images of women in Nottinghamshire picketing, fundraising and organising food packages. Not only do they demonstrate community spirit, but the ways in which such images also countered stereotypical and reductive portrayals of women at the time. “As things get progressively more polarised today, I like to think these images remind of the importance of sticking together,” says Isaac.

In terms of uncovering various ephemera, soon into the process Isaac realised how important a role photography played in this too. John Harris’ iconic image of a police officer on horseback about to strike a photographer with a truncheon was found on badges, posters and even t-shirts. Moreover, the famous One Year! poster – after which the exhibition is named – shows a miner staring into the distance, a photo which the team realised to be one of Jenny Matthews, seen on a retrospective photo quilt featured in the exhibition. The use of photography and screen printing is likely in part down to the lack of sophisticated design techniques, but shows their resonance and power; how single images circulated and soon became symbolic of the whole movement.

On why the exhibition feels relevant now, Isaac says that issues which lay at the core of the strike still ring true today. For Isaac, the legacy of the state’s action are still felt, having resulted in a lack of organised labour, tribal politics, a weaponised media, cut social services, and a level of privatisation “that would have been unimaginable 40 years ago”, he says. But he’s also aware that the campaign to keep pits open doesn’t stand well against today’s concerns for the environment and the damage of fossil fuels. “However I think it’s important to remember Thatcher’s battle wasn’t about ecology, it was about reducing the power of trade unions,” he says. “I don’t think the use of fossil fuels dropped after the pit closures, coal was just imported for cheaper than it was to produce, from other exploited workforces, with a price dictated by the global market.”

Roger Tiley is one of many photographers featured in One Year!. Born and raised in the South Wales valleys, he comes from a long line of coal miners. His uncle was a striking miner, and he had numerous former school friends working in the local pits. Mining was the persistent backdrop to his youth. “It was a natural way of life; playing on coal tips and walking past working coal mines on the way to school,” he says. “The subject was very close to my heart when I began documenting the coal mining landscape prior to the strike.”

It’s this familiarity with the people and the locale that Roger believes gave him a unique insight; he didn’t need to gain trust, he already had it. “When the strike began, I was known by many miners and they trusted me to tell their story,” he says. “I captured the early months of the strike, photographing demonstrations, soup kitchens and NUM meetings.” And when Roger didn’t have a camera in his hand or a tight deadline to meet, he supported where he could, often helping with food parcel deliveries.

Despite Roger’s immersion in the local community, images weren’t always so easy to obtain. As the strike progressed, families became desperate. While this pushed some further into their activism, some returned to work and were labelled ‘scabs’, deemed the ultimate betrayers of their community. “To this day, a miner who returned to work during the strike will never be forgiven,” Roger says. Those returning to work were faced with heavily policed picket lines, and Roger recalls having to quite literally walk across mountains on bitter winter mornings to avoid the police presence and photograph the pickets – “by the time I arrived my hands were frozen!” says Roger. After building a relationship with those on the pickets, he would get tip offs as to where they would next be, even being invited to a few of their meetings.