The death of Thatcher: the view of a miner

Amongst the victims of Thatcherism include the miners in Britain, who fought a long battle against the Tory government of the 1980s. Here we present a letter from John Dunn of the Justice for Mineworkers campaign, who gives a personal view of hearing the news about Thatcher's death. The letter is entitled: "The day Margaret Thatcher died and ruined my internal decor".

April 8th 2013 will go down as the happiest day of my life, the day Margaret Thatcher died! It’s not all good news, though, as, unfortunately she died peacefully, unlike the industries and communities she murdered on the altar of monetarism.

Even in death she managed to cause me a problem, sick of the crap on TV about how great she was (have they forgotten she was sacked by her own party as she was so hated throughout the land?), I decided it would be more  fun watching paint dry so I started to paint a bedroom, only to be constantly interrupted by friends and comrades ringing me to share their joy - even two local businessmen I know rang me! So my walls are going to dry all  streaky thanks to her! Talk about the legacy of Thatcher!

Sickeningly I see that the Labour Party is ‘suspending’ campaigning in the local elections as a mark of respect, not that I had noticed much campaigning anyway. Why don’t they organise massive parties to celebrate her death,  like thousands of people are? I have never been invited to so many parties since I gave up being a male stripper (due to a lack of bookings!). If they did, the Labour Party would win councils by the barrow load. There should be no ‘respect’ for a woman who destroyed the lives of millions of decent hard working people, who criminalised trade unionists fighting for jobs, who presided over the destruction of proud working class communities; a woman who harboured mass murdering fascists like Pinochet and who even stole milk from innocent children.

So let’s celebrate her death by all means, but let’s remember the murdered pickets Dave Jones and Joe Green and the death of industrial Britain, that ultimately led to the financial mess we are now (not all) in.

I have mixed emotions today: I am glad she has gone; her policies might have destroyed my industry, but this left me with great lifelong friends and comrades. I will let one of them have the last say as printed on the Daily Express web page:

The death of the Baroness has been named a "great day" for coal miners, David Hopper, general secretary of the Durham Miners' Association said today.

The ex-miner, who turned 70 today, spent all of his working life at Wearmouth Colliery.

He said: "It looks like one of the best birthdays I have ever had.

"There's no sympathy from me for what she did to our community. She destroyed our community, our villages and our people.

"For the union this could not come soon enough and I'm pleased that I have outlived her.

"It's a great day for all the miners, I imagine we will have a counter demonstration when they
have her funeral.

"Our children have got no jobs and the community is full of problems. There's no work and no money and it's very sad the legacy she has left behind.

"She absolutely hated working people and I have got very bitter memories of what she did. She turned all the nation against us and the violence that was meted out on us was terrible.

"I would say to those people who want to mourn her that they're lucky she did not treat them like she treated us."

Well said Davey, what a great birthday present!

In fact that’s not the last word, we might be celebrating, but who’s going to re-paint that bedroom for me? It will not be me any time soon - I’m busy partying!

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