Michael Kerstgens

The Enemy Within: The Miners' Strike 1984/85 Michael Kerstgens

On March 6th, 1984 miners at Cortonwood Colliery in Yorkshire went on strike. Six days later, on March 12th, NUM President, Arthur Scargill, made the strike official across Britain. And so began the UK s biggest strike since the General Strike of 1928.

It ran for almost a year until March 1985 a year of bitter conflict between the miners and Margaret Thatcher and her government and marked the end of the mining era in Britain. 24 year old Michael Kerstgens was studying photography in Germany at the time. But he had strong links with South Wales having been born in Llanelli and spending his early years there.

His father had also spent twelve years working in South Wales for an engineering company involved with the mining industry. As a sixteen year old Gerstgens took a summer job at the company s Swansea office. He also experienced the underground life of the miners at Cynheidre Colliery.

It s not surprising therefore that once Kerstgens heard about the strike he went to South Wales t