Durham Miners' Association

Pictured: Dave Hopper, DMA Secretary addresses the 131st Durham Big Meeting, 11th July 2015.

It is my privilege, once again, to welcome all miners, their families and supporters from the wider trade union and labour movement to the 131st Durham Miners’ Gala. 

Despite all the attempts by the Tory press and media to write us out of history, we are still here in massive numbers to celebrate our community spirit and carry our socialist message on behalf of the working class. 

Pictured: Clement Attlee addressing the Big Meeting in 1936

In 2008, the world financial system failed, creating a crisis, economists tell us, far more dangerous than the crisis of 1929. Consequently, the economy of the advanced capitalist countries has entered the longest period of stagnation for a century and the Greek economy is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, threatening to pull down the whole of the European economy with it. In this article, Dave Temple revisits the 1929 crisis and looks how the Labour Party then dealt with the question of austerity. (Published in the official Gala brochure, 2015)

Pictured: Alun Armstrong and Dave Hopper at Marras launch event

Ahead of the 131st Durham Miners' Gala, the Durham Miners Association have called on all our friends to show their support for the Gala by becoming a marra of the Big Meeting.

At the inivitation of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM), the DMA joined with other trade unions on the TUC contingent at this year's London Pride march.

Pictured: DMA President Alan Cummings addressing the Big Meeting

DMA President Alan Cummings slams the current Work Capability Assessment (WCA) programme and calls on Labour to demand that it is scrapped.

On February 28, the DMA Executive Committee joined over 3,000 anti-racist marchers in Newcastle to protest against a 200-strong PEGIDA demonstration – the first to be organised in Britain.

The Durham Miners’ Association is totally opposed to underground coal gasification (UCG) on the North East Coast.

Previous tests have proved that underground UCG is dangerous and highly toxic to both people and the environment and has never been successfully implemented anywhere in the world on a commercial scale despite nearly a 100 years of test projects.

UCG is dangerous because it involves setting fire to underground coal reserves and piping the hot gases produced to the surface. These underground fires have proved difficult to control and are prone to explosions of such force that they can blow back to the surface causing large-scale pollution.

All those who were eagerly waiting for a typical barnstorming Skinner speech were not disappointed.

The Durham Miners' Association has been shocked and saddened at the news last week of the death of three stalwarts of the socialist and labour movement, Tony Benn, Bob Crow and Stan Pearce. Our deepest sympathy and condolences go out to the family, friends and comrades of all of these three remarkable men.

Every pit village in the Durham coalfield has a tribute to the miners who lost their lives fighting fascism. Their names are on cenotaphs, listed alongside all those other brave souls who fell saving Britain from Hitler and Mussolini during the Second World War. So many colliers put down picks and shovels to pick up rifles, joining in their droves the Durham Light Infantry in particular, the government was forced to stop them leaving the Durham mines in 1941 because coal was needed to fuel the war effort.