Barnsley Women Against Pit Closures

Betty Cook talks about women’s liberation activists and Women Against Pit Closures giving solidarity to each other, and coming to an understanding that they were all part of the same women’s movement.

Women Against Pit Closures

A group of women from Barnsley set up Women Against Pit Closures (WAPC) to support miners and their families during the 1984–5 miners’ strike. Feminist ideas empowered many of these women to take up public roles for the first time. The WAPC Barnsley group spawned a movement of local groups campaigning against pit closures across the country. You can see Michele Ryan talking about filming Welsh women activists against pit closures in Changing Cultures and the Arts.

WAPC used many methods to communicate their message, including adopting some of the creative tactics of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, such as holding sit-ins in mine shafts, and sending miners’ pit lamps around the country as iconic objects of inspiration. They travelled the country to speak and raise funds. Two large conferences were also held, and WAPC sought associate membership of the National Union of Mineworkers, which it received in December 1984.

What do you think miners’ attitudes towards WAPC might have been? Why?

Do you think that women can campaign about issues in a male-dominated industry such as mining? Listen to the men's audio clips in Who We Were, Who We Are and compare these ideas to your own thoughts on whether men can campaign about issues affecting women.

Image details

Women in Action miners strike mug, © Mary Evans Picture Library / The Women’s Library, photographed by Bob Pullen

A tribute to the women of the coalfields mug, © Mary Evans Picture Library / The Women’s Library, photographed by Bob Pullen

Women Against Pit Closures lamp, © Mary Evans Picture Library / The Women’s Library, photographed by Bob Pullen

Derbyshire women marching in support of the miners, Chesterfield, 19 January 1985 photograph © Morning Star Photographic Archive, Bishopsgate Institute

Save Our Pits photograph © Getty Images