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Celebrating the women of the coalfields
Banners will be raised in Durham on Saturday to celebrate the Women Against Pit Closures movement. PETER LAZENBY reports
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WOMEN from Europe, the United States and across Britain will gather in Durham on Saturday to celebrate the Women Against Pit Closures movement (WAPC).
The movement, which was founded in Barnsley in South Yorkshire in 1984 during the miners’ strike against pit closures, is credited with prolonging the year-long strike for at least four months through its fundraising and political campaigning.
Thousands of women from pit communities mobilised. For many, the strike changed their lives for ever.
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Women gathered in Durham on Saturday March 2 to celebrate their role in the miners’ strike of 1984-5 – and what a celebration it was, writes Morning Star northern reporter PETER LAZENBY
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As hundreds of women gather in Durham today to celebrate their role in fighting pit closures 40 years ago, HEATHER WOOD reflects on experiences in her own mining community, Easington in County Durham