Women at war

Mar 5 2009 by Michael Kelly, Evening Chronicle

The miners’ strike would not have lasted for 12 months if it had not been for the backing of their secret weapon – their wives. Their role in the dispute changed many of their lives altogether, as MIKE KELLY reports.

MAUREEN Potts candidly admits that before the strike the place of the wives of miners was traditionally in the home raising the family and putting meals on the table.

Over the course of the 12-month dispute that was to change forever.

They became the engine on which the dispute was run, providing food parcels, running soup kitchens, organising rallies and demonstrations, even taking their place on the picket line.

It was to give them a world view and a political attitude that lives with them to this day.

Maureen, who was born and bred and still lives in West Pelton, County Durham, said: “Before the strike the women didn’t really do anything. They stayed at home and brought the family up, like me.

“I knew only about my own village. I knew nothing of the outside world. But that was to change.

“The strike made me politically aware of what was happening in the country, in the world.”

Maureen, 56, now an active local councillor, recalls the strike with mixed emotions.

“It was a good time and it was a bad time.

“It was hard to see a lot of people struggle but in our area we helped as much as we could. We wouldn’t see anyone go without.”