“I am proud to say that I spent the whole year as a proud picket, and to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the strike starting I thought people might be interested in the diary I kept for recording my memories of what I went through and how it changed my whole life. The world turned upside down.”
- Norman Strike

I was born in Newcastle in 1983, and was raised in pit villages in County Durham thereafter. Although I was born too young to remember the height of the 1984-85 miners strike, the movement and the struggle of the workers has always struck a cord with me, and is one of the many reasons I am proud to call myself Northern.

Many people are drawing comparisons between the wave of strikes in the ’80s to the current workers unrest being felt at the moment, such as the Visteon factory workers occupations that have taken place very recently, and of course the massive wave of protests that hit the center of London.

Norman Strike was a picket during the time of the miners strikes, under the reign of Thatcher. These diaries offer a unique and truly fascinating insight into the life and struggles of a picket during these times, and are written onto the blog to correspond with the exact date 25 years ago. Strike is also from Durham, so the references to places and fights make me smile with pride at every mention. You can check out the blog here.

In Solidarity…

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