Christopher Hitchens on Unemployment and Television - Viewer Call-In Part 9 (1990)

June 18, 1990 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww....

Watch the full program: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/08/christopher-hitchens-and-richard....

The UK Miners' Strike was a major industrial action affecting the British coal industry. It was a defining moment in British industrial relations, and its defeat significantly weakened the British trades union movement. It was also seen as a major political and ideological victory for Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party.

The strike became a symbolic struggle, since the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was if not the strongest then one of the strongest in the country, viewed by many, including Conservatives in power, as having brought down the Heath government in its 1974 strike. The strike ended with the miners' defeat and the Thatcher government able to consolidate its free market programme. The political power of the NUM was broken permanently. The dispute exposed deep divisions in British society and caused considerable bitterness, especially in Northern England and in South Wales. Ten deaths resulted from events around the strike: six pickets, three teenagers searching for coal, and a taxi driver taking a non-striking miner to work.

The strike has been the subject of songs by many music groups. Of the more well known are the Manic Street Preachers' "A Design for Life", and "1985", from the album Lifeblood; Pulp's "Last day of the miners' strike"; Funeral for a Friend's "History", and Ewan MacColl's "Daddy, What did you do in the strike?". Newcastle native Sting recorded a song about the strike called "We Work the Black Seam" for his first solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles, in 1985. Billy Bragg's version of "Which Side Are You On?," neatly encapsulated the strikers' feeling of betrayal by the perceived indifference of wider elements within British society. Also in 1985, English punk group The Mekons portrayed the miners' situation in the song "Abernant 1984/5" on the album Fear and Whiskey.

The folk song "The Ballad of '84" contains the view that David Jones and Joe Green died as a result of the police's handling of events. U2's song "Red Hill Mining Town" from their Joshua Tree album is about the strike, according to lead singer Bono. On 7 July 1984 the anarcho-punk band Crass played their final show in Aberdare, Wales at a benefit for striking miners.

Chumbawamba recorded several pieces in support of the miners. These include the cassette only "Common Ground", recorded as a benefit for the miners. They also recorded a song called "Fitzwilliam", which described the Yorkshire village of that name after the strike. Fitzwilliam eventually saw around a third of its housing stock demolished due to the dominance of derelict properties. They also made a song called "Frickley" about the football club Frickley Athletic, which referenced the continued distrust of the police by those in mining areas after the strike.

Chris Cutler, Tim Hodgkinson and Lindsay Cooper from Henry Cow, along with Robert Wyatt and poet Adrian Mitchell recorded The Last Nightingale in October 1984 to raise money for the striking coal miners and their families.

Dire Straits' "Iron Hand", from their 1991 album "On Every Street", refers to the Battle of Orgreave. Folk singer John Tams' "Harry Stone-Hearts of Coal" which featured on his 2001 album Unity and which won "Best Original Song" at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards is set against the backdrop of the Battle of Orgreave.

Banner Theatre recorded two cassettes - "Here We Go" in 1985 and "Saltley Gate" in 1993, with many songs from the pen of Dave Rogers. The best known are "Saltley Gate" about the mass Birmingham picket, "Maerdy, the Last Pit in the Rhondda" and "Busking for the Miners" which celebrates how Birmingham people supported the miners' struggle. "Monday Morning Rain" was written for Banner's 1989 show "In the Reign of Pig's Pudding" and is a poignant song about the effects of unemployment after pit closures - it is included in the album "Elixir of Life". Rogers also wrote songs for the New Vic Theatre production "Nice Girls", relating to the protest camps set up outside threatened pits by women from all over Britain in 1993. Banner toured these camps and created the song "Women on the Line" - this was later included in their video ballad "Burning Issues" which marked the twentieth anniversary of the 1984/5 Miners Strike and was developed with former mining communities in Yorkshire, Lancashire, the Midlands and South Wales.

The strike also inspired two entire albums. Freq, recorded in 1984 by ex-Hawkwind singer and lyricist Robert Calvert. Alternating with songs such as "All the machines are quiet" and "Work song" are five short tracks taken from speeches and demonstrations recorded amongst the miners themselves.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Christopher
• Hitchens
• unemployment
• Britain
• miner's
• strike
• union
• British
• workers
• coal
• oil
• ambulance
• vocabulary
• language
• politics
• tv
• news
• newspapers
• cable
• sky
• television
• bsb
• satellite
• brits
• rupert
• murdoch
• bbc
• analysis
• documentary
• conspiracy
• television show
• health
• speech
• discussion
• environment
• vlog
• commentary
• educational
• spirituality
• economy
• communism

[setmedic]

I squirm every time i hear Hitchens cough now...

[StephenFryphile]

He looks extremely gorgeous here!

[xxxMarzikinnsxxx]

@StephenFryphile

YEP.

[Blindastronomer]

Never "Chris".

[gwangjuboy1]

@chinahands100 I paid for his books, and I'm glad I did. The UK is becoming a moral and intellectual cesspit and I am going to miss Hitchens reminding us.

[rocher0901]

I adore the look on Christopher's face when the caller compliments him, d'awwww...I miss you, you beautiful bastard.

[mistersmith6000]

On Hitchens : Interesting he doesn't mention the precipitous closure and decline of coal mining in the UK following the strike, instead jumping to prospectors and North Sea oil. This 6 years after the strike!

Other guy: On language in the US; English, Says geography is the culprit, the UK is homogeneous and compact thus, thus..Brits would disagree. Australia is big and wide, and yet far more homogenous than Britain. Most Brits feel 'the north' 'the midlands' (of England) are distinct and unique

[chinahands100]

hahah nice to see hitchens didnt live in the uk..but could make cash bitching at us.

[HamIsDie]

Oh, and... ending is like wtf?

[HamIsDie]

He is soo sexy. If I was gay, I'd hope he'd be the one to penetrate my virgin asshole.

[dibaterman]

@cbarrett34

It did, just not the ones that mattered.

[moroney1]

The youngest looking 42 year old!