“I CAN’T understand why anyone wouldn’t be in a union, but I was brought up in a culture of trade unionism. Kids today are not. You’ve got zero-hour contracts, you’ve got workplaces that are not the same as they used to be in the pits or the shipyards, where industrial communities used to socialise together.

“We need to get back to the grassroots and explain why we’re stronger together. If you’re not in a union, join a union — rise up!”

Rise up is a very appropriate theme for this weekend’s Durham Miners’ Gala, which barring world wars and pandemics, has hit the streets of the city in England’s north-east every 12 months for more than 150 years.

2023’s meet-up comes as the biggest strike wave to sweep the country since the 1980s shows no signs of abating. Teachers, lecturers, doctors, train drivers and guards, refuse collectors, even British Museum staff — they’re all warning they can’t take much more Tory austerity. 

What better time to roll out the gala, described by its host the Durham Miners’ Association (DMA) as a “unique and inspiring spectacle of the world’s greatest celebration of community, international solidarity and working-class culture.” 

DMA general secretary Alan Mardghum is busy getting ready to welcome an expected 200,000 people, but he generously finds time to speak to the Morning Star.

He stresses that this year’s event is all about “showing solidarity with all workers in struggle and on strike.

“Workers who are fighting against poverty wages, continuing attacks on living standards, rising energy prices and everything else. It’s dedicated to workers throughout the country and the world.”

Indeed, the international element is very important to the ex-miner. He tells me the gala has enjoyed visitors from as far afield as California, Australia and Chile in recent years. “It’s great to see that internationalism, friendship and camaraderie.

“And, perhaps most importantly, showing common purpose. Working people coming together and saying, ‘this is our day, you’re not gonna wreck us.’ It’s about community and social justice.”

Key workers from across public services were invited to address the crowds at 2022’s event, the first in three years due to Covid-19 disruption.

Bakers’ Union leader Sarah Woolley, PCS president Fran Heathcote and Labour’s Coventry South MP Zarah Sultana are the pick of the leftwingers scheduled to appear this time.

Having a slate of socialist speakers, which was not the norm prior to the 1980s, is “something we try to keep hold of,” Mardghum says.

“I’ve been actively involved since 1977. I went a couple of times as a kid, I just jumped on the train with some mates, but you don’t take it as seriously when you’re 13, 14.

“It’s changed massively over time. When I first starting going, there were big crowds, but in the ’90s it started to wane and we were in danger of losing it.

“Due to the efforts of people like [former DMA head] Davy Hopper and [ex-president] Davy Guy who put the feelers out to find philanthropists, it’s now back to its former glory — it’s massive.

“It’s a marvellous sight, and it’s not just miners’ banners now, you see the full array of unions present.”

He describes today’s gala as still “vitally important” to the modern labour movement as it is a “rallying call for people. It’s about recharging the batteries for the fight that will continue.

“There’s nothing else like it — we’ve got other marches and rallies, like Tolpuddle and With Banners Held High in Wakefield, but the gala is at the top of that. It’s vitally important that support for it continues.”

This year’s meet-up — the 137^th since 1871 — will be the first ever to offer British Sign Language interpretation for the keynote speeches.

Mardghum warns that “trying to cover everything is very difficult, but we’re trying to make it more inclusive. As trade unionists and socialists, we’re doing what we can — it’s all about inclusivity, brotherhood, sisterhood.”

He soon turns his attention to the “negative attitude” of Sir Keir Starmer’s increasingly right-wing Labour Party, which, with its left-wing purges and aversion to strikes, is anything but inclusive.

“Instructing frontbenchers not to stand on picket lines — if that’s not the job of Labour leaders and MPs, I don’t know what is,” he warns. 

“They’re forgetting who they represent. The leadership is trying to get into office but they’re offering no difference from the Tories in lots of ways — it’s absolutely horrendous.

“Then we’ve got the debacle of them expelling people from the party or withdrawing the whip from people like Jeremy Corbyn on the grounds that he’s anti-semitic. Anyone who knows Corbyn knows that he hasn’t got a discriminatory bone in his body.

“[Film director] Ken Loach, who’s done more than most to battle injustice throughout his life via film, to say he’s anti-semitic, that’s absolutely appalling. It’s poisonous, it’s toxic and it doesn’t bode well for the future.”

But away from the bad news, the general secretary stresses the massive successes over the past year, with bumper pay rises won by various unions across many industries.

“The labour movement needs to be better at promoting ourselves, not just personalities,” he argues.

“That’s part of the theme of the gala this year — rise up. If you’re not in a union, join a union. We’re stronger together than individually.

“We need to get back to the grassroots and explain why we’re stronger together. Labour are not helping that cause at all which is an absolute shame as our forefathers gave birth to the party.

“We’ve gotta do it on our own. The bosses aren’t gonna look after us. That’s why they’ve got their employer organisations and the Tory Party in their pocket — they know they’re stronger together and that’s what we need.”