A project exploring the archive at the Bishops-gate Institute. I zoned in on the LESBIAN AND GAY MEN SUPPORT THE MINERS archive, which includes material from during the 1984-85 miners strike in the UK. The LGSM is an organisation founded in July 1984 by Mark Ashton and Mike Jackson in ‘Gay’s the word’ bookshop. Initially starting as a bucket collection outside of the shop to raise much needed funds for the miners and their families, the organisation grew in the queer community in London and formed solidarity links with the Dulais mining Village in the Swansea Valley in South Wales. 

Dating back to the pre-Roman British Iron age, Wales has a rich history in mining. Coal, iron, copper, lead and silver, gold, slate and metal are among the materials mined, with Swansea   being the worlds biggest exporter of natural resources in the 19th and 20th centuries, and was known as Copperopolis. 

Mining was the biggest industry in Wales, being the source of employment for almost 300,000 people. This was until around the 1960s, following the Aberfan coillery disaster, the safety of mining was questioned. The miners in Wales were some of the hardest hit by the decline of the coal industry. Many lost their jobs as mines closed down, and those who were able to keep their jobs often had to take significant pay cuts. Many miners also had to deal with the health problems that came with working in the mines, including black lung disease. In early 1984, the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher announced plans to close 20 coal pits; she    believed that the excessive costs of increasingly inefficient collieries had to end in order to grow the economy. But at what cost to the miners and their valuable skills?