The Orgreave Stations
On the 40th anniversary of the 1984/5 Miners’ Strike, William Hershaw has used the series of Christian images of the Stations of the Cross (Christ’s journey to his crucifixion) as a imaginative framework for a series of poems about the Strike, and particularly the Battle of Orgreave on the18th June, 1984.
Hershaw’s Jesus is an individual who stands up to protect communities under threat and who believes in building a caring, sharing society. The poems are a timely reminder not just of a state-inflicted injustice but of a turning point in political and social history that still resonates at every level of UK life – and far beyond the coal mining communities that the Thatcher Government targeted so viciously.
It is a commemoration of the bravery, compassion and activism of the striking miners and all those who supported them, and a challenge to those who would prefer not to remember what happened. It records the genesis of our present world of foodbanks, homelessness, poverty, political corruption and deceit, and continual restrictions of individual and workers’ rights.
Hershaw’s lyrical, vernacular poems are beautifully illustrated by Les McConnell’s vivid images.
The Orgreave Stations, Poems by William Hershaw with Images by Les McConnell, ISBN 978-1-912710-67-6, £10 plus p. and p., is available here.
