Still the Enemy Within (15)

Directed by Owen Gower

5/5

WE KNOW from government documents how far Margaret Thatcher would go to break the National Union of Mineworkers during the strike of 1984 by harnessing the full power of the state.

It wasn’t simply a revenge attack after the Tory government led by Edward Heath was defeated — war was declared on the whole working class.

The strategy was simple. 

Smash what was deemed the vanguard of the working class and others would follow suit, so opening up Milton Friedman’s road to economic exploitation.

That’s why this film is so acute.

Directed by Owen Gower, working with a sympathetic crew, it’s the story of the miners’ strike from the point of view of those involved in the mass acts of solidarity.

It shows how the vote for strike action sparked a wave of support throughout  the coalfields that forced the ruling class to split the miners and their most likely supporters.   

Apart from setting up the so-called Democratic Union of Mineworkers and a network of informers they recruited right-wing Labour while their media mates peddled their mendacity.  The notion of a national ballot was nonsense.

The response to this onslaught required inventive approaches, from circumventing  roadblocks to harnessing the power of the Women Against Pit Closures movement. 

Still the Enemy Within  is thus a most powerful documentary reminder of the strength and weaknesses of the strike. It’s captured with exceptional photography and a sympathetic soundtrack that includes the Specials, whose music is very much of the Thatcherite era.

But above all, the film is a  timely reminder that the Tories and their collaborators are the true “enemy within.” 

All the more reason, then, why we need to build the People’s Assembly.