Durham Miners’ Gala is an annual event that has been held in Durham every year since 1871. It is a celebration of mining in the area and the associated trade unionism. Many people attend the “big meeting”, which includes a parade through the city with brass band accompaniment. It culminates on the racecourse, where political speeches are held. The event skews heavily left, given the association between trade unionism and the Labour Party, although it also has a carnival atmosphere and is a good family day out.
I come from good mining stock myself, in West Yorkshire. My grandad was a miner and I’ve grown up among men for whom the 1984 miners’ strike was a turning point in their lives. My partner is from Durham and used to regularly attend the Gala as a kid; some members of his family still attend. I didn’t know there was a film coming out until my friend mentioned it, so we met up in Huddersfield to watch it.
The Big Meeting follows three women on their journeys throughout the Gala. We meet a trumpet player with one of the brass bands and see her throughout the parade taking her place among a ton of musicians, and learn about the connection between mining and brass bands.
Traditionally, each mine would have its own brass band, and galas and competitions were plentiful. As the mines have shut, bands have folded and players are welcome from all walks of life. The songs they play are both traditional and modern, and all sound gorgeous in a marching band. We meet MP Angela Rayner who is an attendee at the Gala and who has been involved in the making of a banner to commemorate a hundred years of some women getting the vote. The banner has been handmade in the suffragette colours of green, white, and purple, and looks stunning. Finally, we meet Charlotte, a young Labour Party member who was galvanised by the election of Jeremy Corbyn as party leader. She works in a radical bookshop in Durham and is taking some stock to the Gala for a pop-up stall there. Her enthusiasm is infectious and really captures the feeling that Corbynism gave to youth voters.
There’s also a plethora of talking heads featured, talking about the history of the Gala and the history of trade unionism within mining. Many of these are locals, including Durham MP Ian Lavery, and many are recognisable figures within Labour and socialist movements. The history of the Gala and of Durham’s place in that history, and the history of the County Hotel, was all incredibly interesting.
And then there are the banners. Mining banners are a uniquely beautiful art and I found this part extremely moving. Each “lodge” of the National Union of Mineworkers has its own banner, reflecting its own pit and the members of the Union there. Many banners are religious in nature, many of them are also socialist or explicitly communist. The calibre of the artwork is stunning and the number of artists is reducing. Two women artists, a mother and daughter, are featured in the film and their work is just breath-taking. The women’s banner receives its dedication in Durham Cathedral, an event that clearly meant a lot for all involved.
Recent years have seen the rise of right-wing thinking and schisms among the British Labour movement, meaning that many of us on the left often feel hopeless and set adrift. The film gave me a huge feeling of hope, a hope in the politics I believe in and the future for it, a feeling of pride in my past, in Britain’s socialist past, and a trust that future generations aren’t going to let the legacy of thousands of us who marched before go to waste.
Image credits: Cul 9 and Jared Parnell