STRIKING STUFF

By Jean A. Gittins

First published by 1 in 12 Publications Collective

1986

ISBN 0 948994 00 2

All proceeds from the book went to The NUM Solidarity Fund.

Why mam, why? (May 1984)
The battle for the NUM (June 1984)
A sad tale of a striker's bride (June 1984)
Destiny - scrapheap (June 1984)
Picket's prayer (July 1984)
The Yorkshire picket song (Aug 1984)
To a former friend (Sept 1984)
Thi say (Dec 1984) / Libelled / In conclusion (Feb 1985)
March back (Mar 1985)
5th March return (Mar 1985)
What next (Mar 1985)
To whom it may concern (Apr 1985)
Lest we forget (Aug 1985)
Five poems (Oct 1985)
Pity the Dodo (Oct 1985)
The day I learned to hate (Nov 1985)
Ledston Luck run out (Nov 1985)
God knows (Dec 1985)

[Jean Gittins]

Born in 1936, married at the age of eighteen, Jean Gittins spent the past 30 years (until her divorce) looking after her home and family.

Brought up in a Socialist home, it was inevitable that she should be involved in the recent dispute in the mining industry, alongside her two youngest sons, who work at Ledston Luck Colliery.

The poems in this little collection were written as a direct result of her experiences in the strike, and (unlike much of her previous work, which she wrote, then discarded), were read at money raising 'benefits' around the coalfield, and were used in a BBC 2 documentary at the end of 1985.

Still an active member of North Yorkshire Women Against Pit Closures, Jean is now writing mainly on the problems of a woman of a 'certain' age, coping in a modern world.

Cover design by Wendy Culverwell, Bradford Printshop
Photos courtesy Leeds Other Paper, Cathy Lloyd, and Graham Dodd
Cartoons by Janis Goodman
Original typeset by Bryan Williamson, Swinton, Berwickshire
Original printed by Tony Ward at the Arc & Throstle Press, The Old Fire Station, Rochadale Road, Todmorden
The original book was financed entirely by donation
Thanks to: 1 in 12 Club; SOGAT members at Bradford Printshop; Workers at Bradford Resource Centre; Yorkshire Women Against Pit Closures; Equity members of Leeds Playhouse Theatre in Education; Leeds Postcards; T & GWU (ACTSS) 9/988 Branch; Leeds Women Against Pit Closures; Bradford Women's Centre; and others.

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