Aberdare still says Coal not Dole
Today as Tony Blair signals his new-found enthusiasm for more nuclear power stations being built across the UK, one wonders why Cynon Valley’s MP does not speak-up in favour of our local coal industry ?In the 1990s Ann Clwyd MP was happy to take part in an underground protest and latch-on to the miner’s campaign. I interviewed the late Glyn Roberts in the mid nineties… he was one of the people who joined Ann Clwyd MP in her underground protest. His son and grandson who both bear the same name still work at Tower Colliery.
Although Glyn Roberts was familiar with the deep-rooted corruption in the local Labour Party – he had long left the Party – I am sure he would be very disappointed by Clwyd’s current lack of public support for coal.
Perhaps it is time Ann Clwyd found her old miner’s lamp, visited her constituents and gave them some moral support when it matters.
For those with no understanding of the history surrounding Tower Colliery, here is a fair account of the Miner’s Strike of 1984 and subsequent events, from a book called Cynon Coal – History of a Mining Valley published by Cynon Valley History Society (Published 2001, Gomer Press, ISBN 0 95310 760 4) :
“In March 1984 there began the strike in the nation’s coal industry which was probably the most costly in British industrial history. One estimate of the cost came to £3.25 billion and this did not include the estimated loss to each miner of £9,000 and the loss arising from the 38 working faces out of a total of 490 which did not reopen. The leader of the NUM, Arthur Scargill, called on all members of the union to withhold their labour. In the resulting pit-head ballots only ten of the twenty-eight mines in South Wales voted to comply with the request. Nevertheless the strike went ahead. Many weary and impoverished months later the men marched back to their mine, defeated but not dismayed. But in the eighteen months since the strike ended twelve of the pits of the South Wales coalfield had closed including Maerdy, and, as Dr John Davies has remarked, at the end of the 1980s there were more Welshmen working in banks than in pits. The strike was stated above to have been the most expensive in British industrial history. Certainly it was one of the most important if only because the number of pit closures which occurred after the strike caused a decrease in the number of employed in mines which permanently diminished the status and power of the union.
In 1992 the last round of pit closures began and by April 1994 Tower Colliery was conspicuous for beign the last deep mine in South Wales and, though allegedly profitable, the necessary steps were being taken to close it down.
A public campaign began for the purpose of reversing the decision to close the pit, which succeeded in its purpose. However, British Coal hung on to their intention and the pit finally closed on the 23rd April 1994.
The actions which then followed to prepare and put into being a workers’ buy-out caught the attention and, indeed, the approval of people of all political persuasions up and down the country. Apart from valuable support from the Local Authority and the Wales Co-Operative Centre, enormous public backing was received from all those who had benefitted from Tower’s solidarity in the pasdt. But most significantly, £2 million was raised by the 239 miners who had pledged £8,000 each from their redundancy payments. On the 23rd December 1994 ownership of the colliery passed into the hands of Goitre Tower Anthracite Ltd. On the 2nd of January 1995 the Tower miners marched back into their pit and took possession of it.
The mine is owned by the above-mentioned company the shares of which are owned by the company’s employees equally. There are no other shareholders. The workforce are all highly trained and experienced in their duties, and most of them are doing the jobs they were doing previously under British Coal. The present working coalface is 600 meterse below ground and 3 miles from pit bottom and from this the colliery produces 500,000 tons of Anthracite a year, 75% of which is sold to Aberthaw Power Station. Two new faces are in preparation for mining reserves when the need arises. 290 persons are directly employed and a further 85 are employed by contractors underground and on the surface”.
A ‘Coal not Dole’ badge from the Miner’s Strike in the eighties. The sentiment still rings true today.
