ABSTRACT
There were some striking photographs published during the 1984-1985 miners’ strike, but this wasn’t one of them. It had no people in, for a start, just cardboard boxes containing assorted tins of beans, tomatoes, corned beef and the like. At the top was a box on which someone had written in giant felt tip pen: ‘Food for miners – donate in this box.’ It also sported a glued-on masthead from the weekly alternative newspaper in whose scruffy city centre office the box had been filled by contributors and readers alike: Leeds Other Paper (LOP). The picture was published in the 15 June 1984 issue of the paper, captioned: ‘Food collected in Leeds at Kellingley strike HQ. (Your LOP photographer freely admits he fiddled the arrangement of boxes so one was prominent!)’ It was a bit amateurish and more than a bit anarchic, which was pretty much the
spirit of the alternative local papers that flowered across the UK from the late 1960s to the 1980s. Such alternative media did not pretend to be disinterested bystanders or objective observers of the miners’ strike. LOP was openly on the side of the strikers. That did not mean peddling lies. The truth was on our side, after all. Nor did it
mean lecturing the National Union of Mineworkers on tactics; there was more than enough hectoring to be found in papers produced by assorted left-wing parties. Instead, it meant reporting from the miners’ side of the picket lines and beyond. It also meant doing something about it by becoming part of the collective effort by trade unionists and other supporters to offer practical help; hence the boxes of food. The alternative local press became more than a means by which readers could find
out what was happening in the coalfield communities, it offered a way for observers to become actors. When LOP launched a column for striking miners to appeal for the donation of larger items, the first Wanted notice read: ‘For family in Pontefract: pram, cot, nappies, babyclothes for baby expected in early July.’ I wonder if
that strike baby grew up to hear of the community self-help that helped nurture him or her.
