THE memories of two Yorkshire miners killed on picket lines during the epic strike against pit closures of 1984-5 were honoured in Barnsley on Saturday.

Two miners’ lamps burned in the historic council chamber of the Yorkshire Area of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) as more than 150 miners, their families and supporters gathered for the annual Davy Jones and Joe Green Memorial Lecture.

Wreaths were laid first at the memorial statue outside the headquarters to miners who died defending their union.

The guest speaker was Unison national president Paul Holmes, who moved the audience to a standing ovation with a speech defending socialism and opposing war and racism.

He said: “Capitalism cannot survive without the working class. But the working class can thrive without capitalism.”

He warned of the dangers facing the Labour Party following its treatment of former leader Jeremy Corbyn and its current leadership’s abandonment of the hope he had given working people.

“He gave us hope in 2017,” he said. “It did not matter that the majority of Labour MPs and Labour Party staff did not want him to win. The people wanted him to win.”

“Labour parties have collapsed in Spain, Italy and Germany, and today we are the nearest I have ever known to the collapse of the Labour Party here.”

The gathering welcomed scaffolders from British Steel’s works at Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, where more than 60 Unite members employed by contractor Actavo have been on strike over pay since October.