The Miners' Campaign Video Tapes: Not Just Tea and Sandwiches

In 1984 a group of independent film and video makers decided to show their support for the miners' strike using the tools they had available: their cameras. On the picket lines, at the marches and in the soup kitchens, they recorded the testimonies of the striking miners, their wives and supporters, in a fight against anti-strike propaganda dominating the mainstream media. A testament to solidarity and activism, the tapes tackle issues which continue to occupy us today: the right to demonstrate, police tactics, political double-speak, the role of the media. They are a crucial document of a cataclysmic episode of British history.