A Century of Service and Solidarity

Dave Hopper writes:

On Saturday November 20 1869, a small group of delegates from several mines met in the Market Hotel in Durham City and established the Durham Miners’ Mutual Association.

This was not the first miners’ union to be established in the coalfield, but the first that would endure.

A further meeting was held in the same venue on December 18 that year when 19 delegates met, representing 1,964 miners.

On August 12 1871 the first Durham Miners’ Gala was held in Wharton Park, Durham, attracting 5,000 miners and their families.

The following year it was estimated that between 50,000 and 70,000 marched through Durham and on to the racecourse at Old Elvet, much to the discomfort of the genteel residents of Durham City.

By 1876 the new union was well established, boasting a membership of 50,000, and had amassed sufficient funds to expend £6,000 on a new purpose-built hall and offices in North Road, Durham, opened by miners’ agent John Forman on June 3 1876.

This fine Gothic building with its hall capable of holding 300 was a firm statement that the union had arrived.

By the time the current Miners’ Hall was opened by newly elected general secretary Thomas H Cann on October 23 1915, the membership had swollen to 120,000 miners organised in 200 lodges.

If the North Road hall was a statement that the new union had arrived, this new hall, set in its own grounds and resembling a coal owner’s country estate, was an expression of permanence, power and prosperity.

However the miners’ agents were unaware that the Durham coalfield was already in decline, having reached its peak of production some three years earlier in 1912.

The first time I visited Miners’ Hall at Red Hill, as a young coal miner, the splendour of the architecture, the records, the memorabilia and the history fascinated me — I am still fascinated today.

In those days it was unusual for a miner who wasn’t a lodge official to be given permission to visit.

For most miners, “Redhills,” as it was always known, was a foreign place and the agents who represented them were distant and aloof.

A Durham miner’s life revolved around his local lodge, his welfare hall and his union committee.

When local disputes arose many lodges would complain that their Durham agents were too conciliatory, too eager to see the management’s side and were always opposed to any kind of militant action.

General secretary Peter Lee, who did much good work as chairman of the county council by bringing basic sanitation and fresh water into the villages of Durham, was in total conflict with his members during the great strike of 1926.

But despite his opposition Durham miners fought on against the savage wage reduction and the lengthening of their working hours and defied Lee by remaining on strike a month after all the other areas had returned to work.

Even then they never voted to return to work but failed to achieve a two-thirds majority required by the Miners’ Federation Board to continue the strike.

However, the most controversial leader was Sam Watson.

Watson rose to prominence in the coalfield as secretary of the militant Boldon Miners’ Lodge. He was particularly active in the unemployed movement and the fight against the hated means test.

In the late 1930s he supported the campaign for unity between the Communist and Labour Parties in the fight against fascism. Elected as an agent in 1936, he rose through the ranks to become general secretary in 1945.

Once in control Watson became the most influential right-wing, anti-communist trade union leader in the labour movement.

He conspired with Hugh Gaitskell to have fellow miner Nye Bevan expelled from the Labour Party and became the unofficial ambassador for the newly formed state of Israel.

[Watson was also a CIA agent, and there is a room named after him in the Knesset building, which is not the kind of honour that is conferred on a casual acquaintance.]

In the Durham coalfield he collaborated with the National Coal Board in closing pits, opposed all local strikes and instructed local officials to support management in sacking men for absenteeism.

As a result it was not long before Durham miners were the lowest paid in the country. Only the strikes of 1972 and ’74 restored wage parity throughout the coalfields and restored some dignity and credibility to our lodges.

I was elected general secretary in 1985 in the aftermath of the year-long strike against pit closures, alongside the late Dave Guy who became president.

We were determined that Redhills would no longer be a forbidden place for Durham miners.

Rank and file members were encouraged to drop in and have a look around and be inspired by the history of the building their forebears financed.

We organised brass band concerts and exhibitions in the council chamber and encouraged other unions to use the building as a meeting venue.

Redhills’s finest hour was in 1990, when it was our turn to host the National Union of Mineworkers’ annual conference.

Rather than pay for a seaside venue we brought the conference to Redhills. It was an acclaimed success and made me proud to be a Durham miner.

Whatever the future holds in these uncertain times, we are determined that this magnificent building will remain a facility for the use of the labour movement and the people of Durham.

It is our heritage and we must cherish it.

Dave Hopper is general secretary of the Durham Miners’ Association.