I've been reading How to Blow Up a Pipeline for the book club, which we'll out the post up for the discussion tomorrow.
I'm still reading The Enemy Within about the 1984-85 miners strike. I've just finished a chapter that focused on the international response to the strike. There was a big contrast between the response of the Soviet Union to the strike in the 1980s to the general strike of 1926. Back in 1926 there was a massive amount of support that came from the Russians, they'd donated more money to the strike fund than everyone else in the world combined, including the British themselves. In the 80s, however, some aid was given in the form of letting striking workers visit the SU for holidays or for education but there wasn't really much material aid despite the unions pleading for it for many months. Eventually they cam up with a £1,000,000 donation but that wasn't until the strike had ended and it was given only to an international solidarity fund rather than to the British miner's organisations directly. A big reason for this was Gorbachev getting cozy with Thatcher and not wanting to ruin the relationship by throwing his weight behind the strike effort.
In contrast, the French unions gave a massive amount of support. They organised convoys of food and clothing aid to go to the mining communities, they refused to move any coal or oil heading for Britain, they gave financial aid and helped funnel financial aid from other countries. They even went as far as getting some advice from some people who'd been in the French resistance during ww2 so they could then go out and sink some of the boats filled with coal for Britain. Really outstanding displays of solidarity that I hope we can regain someday.
I've been reading How to Blow Up a Pipeline for the book club, which we'll out the post up for the discussion tomorrow.
I'm still reading The Enemy Within about the 1984-85 miners strike. I've just finished a chapter that focused on the international response to the strike. There was a big contrast between the response of the Soviet Union to the strike in the 1980s to the general strike of 1926. Back in 1926 there was a massive amount of support that came from the Russians, they'd donated more money to the strike fund than everyone else in the world combined, including the British themselves. In the 80s, however, some aid was given in the form of letting striking workers visit the SU for holidays or for education but there wasn't really much material aid despite the unions pleading for it for many months. Eventually they cam up with a £1,000,000 donation but that wasn't until the strike had ended and it was given only to an international solidarity fund rather than to the British miner's organisations directly. A big reason for this was Gorbachev getting cozy with Thatcher and not wanting to ruin the relationship by throwing his weight behind the strike effort.
In contrast, the French unions gave a massive amount of support. They organised convoys of food and clothing aid to go to the mining communities, they refused to move any coal or oil heading for Britain, they gave financial aid and helped funnel financial aid from other countries. They even went as far as getting some advice from some people who'd been in the French resistance during ww2 so they could then go out and sink some of the boats filled with coal for Britain. Really outstanding displays of solidarity that I hope we can regain someday.