Title: Striking women: communities and coal
Photographer(s): Izabela Jedrzejczyk, Raissa Page, Brenda Prince, Imogen Young
Writer(s): Siân James, Angela V.John
Designer(s): Roger Huddle
Publisher(s): Pluto Press,London, England
Year: 1986
Print run:
Language(s): English
Pages: 96
Size: 19,5 x 21 cm
Binding: Softcover
Edition:
Print: BAS Printers Limited, Stockbridge, England
Nation(s) and year(s) of Protest: England,1984-1985
ISBN: 9780745301549
Four women photographers were commissioned by the Gallery to document the changing role of women within the mining communities during the year-long strike 1984/1985. Each photographer was chosen because of her long term involvement with women from different mining areas. The aim of the exhibition is to represent an aspect of the strike which the media largely failed to acknowledge. The photographs show not only four individual perspectives of the experiences of mining families, but also present an articulate feminist photography, showing working women in a positive and non-stereotypical way. The strike was not just about male picket-line violence and confrontations with the police, as so often shown by the media. It was about families and particularly women who fought to keep not only their home lives intact but also provided their men with crucial support by fundraising through all women support groups, managing food distribution and organising soup kitchens and also helping in non-violent picket duties. Through their numerous activities many women arrived at a political consciousness that developed ties with Greenham women’s struggle and women from racial minorities.
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