MINEWORKERS DEFENCE COMMITTEE. One Year! 1984-5. [London:] Aldgate Press, [1985].

Scarce Miners' Strike poster celebrating their year-long struggle.

Offset-lithographic poster (565 x 400 mm.)

The Mineworkers Defence Committee was established at the Labour Party conference of 1984 in a Labour Briefing fringe meeting. At its head was Ken Livingstone, with other members being drawn from all sides of the Labour movement, including Socialist Action, the Socialist Workers Party and the Chartists.

The MDC held its first meeting on 2 December 1984. Proposals included a Christmas appeal fund, increasing the campaign around power stations, and organising a large labour move­ment demonstration in 1985. These were extended to: a discussion of the possibility of a general strike, on the basis of action against government changes to trades union legislation which would invalidate such strike action; the establishment of a national committee to co-ordinate regional miners' support committees; and finally, co-ordination of workers’ self-defence, with suggestions of the creation of a workers’ defence corps and organising defence of picket lines and miners’ communities.

In the event, the disparate factions involved in the creation of the MDC meant that it had little impact, although it did organise co-ordination of region miners' support committees. It also published a newsletter entitled Black Dragon, which first appeared in January 1985 and ran to six issues. Its editor was Ken Livingstone, who at the time was still Leader of the Greater London Council.