In the 40 years that have passed since the Miners’ Strike ended in March 1985, the disparities between the right-of-centre politics of so many of the nationals which, with their resources and circulation, largely drowned out the journalism of the left have become increasingly apparent.
The TV images, especially of picket line violence, may have been most immediately powerful but a dedicated group of cartoonists also “challenged the considerable dominance of the pro-Thatcher press” at the time, according to former BBC industrial correspondent Nick Jones.
Since retiring, Nick has dedicated much of his time to researching, writing about and speaking about the news industry and the strike – and his latest book, focusing on the work of the cartoonists, is to be launched in Leeds on Saturday March 1, the anniversary of the last week of the strike.
The book – The Art of Class War; Newspaper Cartoonists and the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike – is being published by CPBF North, producers of the Media North newsletter. Nick has long been a champion of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom.
Reviewing a collection of work by Alan Hardman, one of the cartoonists whose work he has considered for the book in the January edition of Media North, Nick wrote: “In the pre-digital age, imaginative artwork was essential for effective trade union campaigning.
“Hardman’s cartoons and caricatures from the weekly newspaper Militant were often republished within days in literature and publicity material handed round at strike meetings and on picket lines.”
Writing a foreword to his own book before he died in 2023, Hardman thought his drawings were still relevant.
“As a political cartoonist for a socialist newspaper, there was nothing holding me back,” he wrote. “Other cartoonists who worked for the capitalist press were not able to do that.”
Nick points out that Hardman’s father, uncles and grandfather were all Yorkshire miners, two of whom lost their lives down the pit.
Media North editor Granville Williams says: “Looking back at that strike through the imagery of news cartoonists this book offers a vivid interpretation of an industrial dispute which tore the country apart.
“From opposing perspectives of right and left, their graphic portrayal of a confrontation which traumatised the mining communities is like an angry, unfolding tapestry.
“Gripped by the challenge of relating illustrations and punchlines created by cartoonists to the drama of the strike, Jones assesses their motives and examines the pressures which they faced in contributing to the wider commentary about events which dominated the news for months on end.”
Nick Jones and former Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell, who wrote a foreword to The Art of Class War; Newspaper Cartoonists and the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike, will be speaking at the launch in the City Room at Leeds Playhouse between 2-4pm on Saturday March 1.
- Nick Jones’s review of Need Not Greed by Alan Hardman is online in the January 2025 edition of Media North at https://medianorth.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/MediaNorthJan2025WEB.pdf
- Tickets for the launch – costing £5.01 – can be bought online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launch-the-art-of-class-war-tickets-1125228762519