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Two hundred ex-miners, families and supporters in south Wales staged a march to a cinema to see the Welsh premiere of the film Still the Enemy Within.
The film, a stunning documentary by Peter Watkins-Hughes, was shown on Friday night at Brynmawr’s Market Hall Cinema.
But instead of simply turning up, ex-mineworkers organised a march to the cinema.
Former National Union of Mineworkers branch secretary Tyrone O’Sullivan said: “We lost the strike but there were reasons why we should’ve won it.
“We wouldn’t have had the tragedy or the unemployment in the Valleys if we had won. There are lessons to be learnt from the strike — you need to stand up for yourself and fight back, do the best you can.”
Thatcher infamously branded the miners, their families and their communities as “the enemy within” during the strike against pit closures of 1984-5, when 160,000 mineworkers stayed out for a year in defence of their pits, their jobs and communities.
Today only three deep coalmines remain — and two face closure.
