One unexpected but significant outcome of the year-long miners’ strike 40 years ago was its impact on radicalising a generation of women who lived in the areas of the British coalfields. Anne Harper, who has died aged 83, then the wife of Arthur Scargill, the president of the National Union of Mineworkers, emerged from domestic obscurity in 1984 to embrace a life of political activism, and in doing so provided an inspirational role model for many thousands of others with similar backgrounds.
She was arrested twice – once during the 1984-85 strike for obstructing a police officer, leading to a strip search and being held in a cell for 14 hours; and later, in 1992, after further pit closures were announced, for chaining herself to the railings outside the Department of Trade and Industry. During the strike she led marches, drove busloads of like-minded women pickets to demonstrations and organised soup kitchens and welfare support.
