Digging Up The Pitmen
Review of a novel by John Swain about the Doncaster pitmen
The Great Labour Unrest
Review of Lewis H Mates' book, looking at the conflicting views and ideologies arising during 1910 to 1914.
Social Democracy and Anarchism
In The International Workers Association
Review of this interesting book by Rene Berthier.
Still The Enemy Within
Dave reviews a film / documenntary about the 30th anniversary of the miners' strike.
Death's Door and The Seeberville Murders
A look at two books in which author Steve Lehto tells us of a strike which took place in Michigan over a century ago and of the tragedy which unfolded on Christmas Eve 1913.
Blackshirts in Geordieland
Gordon Stridiron, committed supporter of the British Fascist movement.
Sailing Close To The Wind
A look at Dennis Skinner's autobiographical book, Sailing Close To The Wind.
Pride
Dave Douglass reviews Pride, a film receiving rave reveiws about the strike and mining communities.
Hoyoot
Collected poems and songs by Tom Pickard
Trust, Ajay Close
Two parallel social universes, which overlap and intersect each other like ships in the night with almost subliminal consciousness of the others existence or meaning. One the embattled pit community of Faxerley Colliery as it firstly stands its ground as a private mine caught in the great struggle of 84/5, and in the subsequent years to survive the titanic changes in the power of power and class war. Dave Douglass.
30th Anniversary of the Great coal strike of 1984
To mark the 30th anniversary of the great strike at least four new books have hit the shelves. Here Dave Douglass looks at Images of the past The Miners’ Strike, by Martin Jenkinson, Mark Metcalf & Mark Harvey.
Behind The Myths
Dave Douglass looks at 'Behind The Myths, The foundations of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam' by John Pickard
Exposing Phallacy
Janice Sheldon reviews: Kate Gould, 'Exposing phallacy: flashing in contemporary culture'
Bloody Sunday, Orgreave, Hillsborough
followed by a review of Adrian Kerr's 'Free Derry; Protest and Resistance'
The Freedom to roam without fear
A review of the autobiography by the one time Hatfield Main NUM President Bryan Robson
The Great Trial
A Swaledale Lead Mining Dispute
In the Court of Exchequer
1705-1708 Edited by Tim Gates
The Rise and Fall of a Victorian Ironopolis
The remarkable rise of Middlesbrough, Britain’s foremost iron town.
The Keelmen of Tyneside
A look at the history of the Tyneside keel families
Yorkshire
People & Coal from the Picture Archives
Peter T uffrey documents Yorkshire’s long industrial history through photographs
Mosaic of struggles
Dave Douglass reviews: Still the sea rolls on: the Hartley pit calamity of 1862
From Zero to Hero
Review of Tommy Sheridan biography
The Big Meeting
A History of The Durham Miners Gala,
David Temple.
Not Jesus but Brian - Dust
Dust on tour
More than just a job
The story of Hay Royds Drift Mine
The diary of John Lowe
The 1984-85 strike in Nottingham
Doncaster' collieries
Peter Tuffrey,
Amberley Publishing'
ISBN 978-1-4456-0126-7
A thorn in their side
Dave Douglass reviews Robert Greens' A thorn in their side: the Hilda Murrell murder Rata Books, 2011
The Iron Lady
David Douglass reviews The Iron Lady (2011)
No Redemption
David Douglass reviews No Redemption The 1984/5 Miners Strike In The Durham Coalfield Keith Pattison – David Peace
Liquid research
David Douglass reviews Mike Pentelow and Peter Arkell’s ‘A pub crawl through history: the ultimate boozers’ Who’s who’ Janus, 2010
The 1926 Miners Lockout
Meanings Of Community In The Durham Coalfield Hester Barron Oxford University Press
Up close and personal
Peter Arkell reviews the third volume of Dave Douglass’s autobiography, Ghost Dancers, which covers the period of the 1984-85 miners’ strike.
Anarchist bombs and working class struggle
David Douglass reviews Louis Adamic's Dynamite: the story of class violence in America
Common words and the wandering star
David Douglass reviews Keith Armstrong's Common words and the wandering star
Unfinished Business
David Douglass reviews Peter Arkell and Ray Rising's book which contains a collection of their photographs taken during the 1984-85 strike.
Unfinished Business - an alternative review
This is an alternative review of Unfinished Business from the point of view of an ordinary striking miner.
Working class heroes
David Douglass reviews David Bell's The dirty thirty: heroes of the miners' strike Five Leaves Publications, 2009, pp108, £7.99
Marching to the fault line
Review of this book which covers "The 1984 Miners Strike And The Death of Industrial
Little monument to stoic heroism
David Douglass reviews Hywel Francis's History on our side
The Wheel's Still in Spin
The second book from Dave Douglass' trilogy, Stardust and Coaldust.This book looks at the 15 years between the end of the 60s and the coming of Thatcherism. Published by Christies. Review by Christies.
Enamel Badges Of The National Union Of Mineworkers
Review of a book by
Brian Witts which takes an in depth look at miners' strike badges
Spanish civil war and the left
David Douglass reviews Lewis H Mates's Political activism and the popular front Taurus,
Geordies � Wa Mental
Republished by Christiebooks , Dave Douglass' book 'Geordies - Wa mental' represents the first part of a trilogy containing the complete and unabridged life story under the collective title Stardust and Coaldust.
Set into song
Dave Douglass reviews a new book from Peter Cox which tells the story of Ewan MacColl,
Charles Parker,
Peggy Seeger
and The Radio Ballads
Looking Through
Stone
Award winning poet Susan Ioannou's book of geology, minerology and mining
retlated poetry.
St Patrick's Night Newcastle
Upon Tyne 17th March.
St Pat's night on Tyneside generally is becoming something of a mini
New Years Eve, with the Toon immersing itself full bodied into the festivities
An
unsubstantiated sloppy mish-mash
Weekly Worker 661. David Douglass reviews Ian Hernon's Riot (Pluto Press,
2006, pp320, £19.99)
Let No Wheels Turn
The Wrecking Of The Flying Scotsman.
Margaret Hutcherson.
Queen Coal - Women Of The Miners
Strike
Triona Holden
Hardback £20
Published by Sutton Publishing
The Night Shift
The Night Shift is a collection of six episodes of sit-com from Ian Newton.
It is about the hard and gritty humour of working people who live and
work in the real world, their particular world being the night shift.
Centenary
of struggle
(Opens in a new window)
Paul Buhle and Nicole Schulman (eds) Wobblies! A graphic history of the
Industrial Workers of the World Verso, 2005.
Reviewed by Dave Douglass and published in Weekly Worker 592 Thursday
September 15 2005
Strike, not the end
of the story
Dave's latest literary work was researched and written in conjuntion with
an exhibition being added at the National Coal Mining Museum of England.
Starting from the18th century, Dave discusses the major strikes that have
involved mineworkers and their families, culminating with the destruction
of the mining industry and the miners' union at the hands of Thatcher's
Tory party.
Billy Elliot
- The Musical
Dave Douglass, Ian Lavery, (the national president of the National Union
of Mineworkers), along with Keith Stanley, (the president of the Nottingham
area of the NUM and national vice-president of the NUM) made a visit to
the stage musical version of Billy Elliott. Could there be three individuals
that would be harder to impress?
Faith - BBC Drama
Filmed at Hatfield Colliery, Stainforth, Thorne, Moorends, Dunscroft &
Doncaster
Granny Made Me An Anarchist. General Franco, The Angry Brigade, and ME
Dave reviews this book by Stuart Christie which he received this Christmas
A Civil War Without Guns
- 20 years on
From Socialist Publications - Review by Dave Douglass
Interview
with John Summers
This was pointed out to us and we decided it is great interview and well
worth reading.
55° North
Nil Degrees Northern - There is clearly something wrong with the collective
perception of BBC TV programme makers
Fahrenheit 9/11
Dave reviews the film that it is claimed is "exposing the government--and
the Bush crew that runs it"
Britain In Old Photographs
series
The Yorkshire Miners- Brian Elliott
Digging
for inspiration
Weekly Worker 521 Thursday March 25 2004
Mines of information
Review of our Links Page - Weekly Worker 520 Thursday March 18 2004
Recharging
the batteries
Banner Theatre’s national tour - Weekly Worker 519 Thursday March
11 2004
Out of the pits
Review of this web site - Weekly Worker 519 Thursday March 11 2004
Strategic
confrontation in the making
In the first of a series of articles Ian Donovan examines the background
to the miners’ Great Strike - Weekly Worker 519 Thursday March 11
2004
Courageous
class fighters
Phil Hamilton looks at class fighters and the internet - Weekly Worker
518 Thursday March 4 2004
THE MINERS
STRIKE 1984-85
SOCIALIST WORKER SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY ISSUE.
Class
war and damned lies
20th anniversary of the miners’ Great Strike - Two TV programmes
about the strike of 84
The Workers
and The Law
Butterworth's Employment Law Handbook (11 th edition)
Children
of the Dark
Life and death underground in Victoria's England.
The Key
BBC Two's forthcoming working class drama to be
shown this month (Sept 03), in three parts.
True Spies
A belated review of this very strange series - BBC 2 Oct/Nov 2002
Weekly Worker
487 Thursday July 3 2003
Dave reviews Martyn Waites, 'Born under punches'
The English Civil
War Part II
The re-enactment of The Battle of Orgreave
History
of a Southeastern Kentucky Coal Miner
A story from Karlin Ann Eversole-DiMarcello
Veggie World Co. Ltd
Dave gets enthusiastic about this fleshless-fare filled food emporium
Lamps Forever Lit
Bernie Jaworsky chronicles the deaths of 310 men in Kirkland Lake and
area mines from 1914 to 1996
No Logo - "The earth is
not dying it is being killed."
This is taken from first sentence of chapter fourteen of the book No
Logo written by Naomi Klein
Bands and Banners - No.7
A review of this Durham Area National Union of Mineworkers magazine
Pits & Pitmen of
Barnsley
The sad and touching story of the Barnsley coalfield
Durham Miners Millennium
Book
A review of David Temple's book about the story of the Durham miners
Miner's daughters and
miner's sons? - Billy Elliot
Dave Douglass looks at the social, political and sexual values surrounding
real life would-be Billy Elliots and gives us his own thoughts in this,
his review of the film.
Coal was our life
a tight study on a pit town in West Yorkshire, the folk, their aspirations
their lives.
Message Of Despair - Billy
Elliot
Review of Billy Elliot, a film about a 12 year old boy who discovers a
talent for ballet by accident.
Reprinted from Weekly Worker Nov. 23 rd 2000.
Bands and Banners - Summer
2000 - No.6 - £1.95
A review of this Durham Area National Union of Mineworkers magazine
Late Late review
Reviewed by Dave Douglass - Scargill: The Unauthorised Biography, Paul
Routledge
Contact Us
If you have a story or would like us to review a particular item - here's
how you get in touch with us at Miner's Advice
[email protected]
David Douglass BA. MA
Mining Community Advice Centre
St. John's Hall
Emerson Avenue
Stainforth
Doncaster
Telephone: 01302 841 365 for information on office opening times.