This week's Hyde Park Pick
Strike: An Uncivil War
Robb Barham
40 years ago, on 18 June 1984, the Orgreave Coking Plant in South Yorkshire became the site of the bloodiest day of the longest and most violent industrial dispute in British history.
It was a pivotal moment in the miners' strike of 1984-1985, not only for the violence of the day, but as the outcome of a ruthless and duplicitous state cabal of the police, our national media and Thatcher’s Conservative government, who were determined to break the will of the miners and eradicate the power of the National Miners' Union and, by extension, exercise control of the working classes.
There is a direct and sad lineage in our society of such injustices, running throughout our social and political history, that is giving no indication of slowing down. We can evoke this with just a few words (Lawrence, Hillsborough, Brexit, Grenfell, Horizon) and on, and on. And on.
In simple terms, it’s a spiral of corruption driven by financial greed at the highest level, which, seen from an individual's point of view, seems impossible to surmount. It’s only together, as a gang, a group, a crowd, a march, that we can start to contradict, question and break down these structures. And this is where film and the collective experience of cinema can be instrumental in this change.
A perfect example of this kind of filmmaking is our pick this week. Strike: An Uncivil War is an important and clear-eyed documentary reminder of how we need to be vigilant in the face of power, how often there are opportunities for the state, institutions or business to undermine truth and, compounding this, to continue to obfuscate and deny complicity.
Campaigners still haven’t been provided with an inquiry, nor anywhere approaching the truth and the Home Office still refuses a public inquiry to this day. Which is why documentaries like this are so important.
What the film does so well is support the need for principled collective action, whilst acknowledging the strain and stress upon (but the essential importance of) community, family, comradeship, home. It’s brutally, invigoratingly honest. Something we can (and should) all aspire to.
If we’re not given the truth about these historic injustices, then it could be you, and your family, us, who are the next victims of state intrusion and violation of our civil liberties.
Strike: An Uncivil War is screening on the anniversary of the Battle of Orgreave on Tues 18 June (with a special pre-recorded Q&A). It's then on general release from Fri 21 June. Book tickets here.
If you’d like more music in your politics, we’re also screening the incendiary documentary Crass: The Sound of Free Speech on Fri 21 June + live director Q&A. Book tickets here.
If you’d like more art in your politics, you’d do well to seek out two of artist Jeremy Deller’s films:
