Dick Gaughan
Come gather round my people and I'll sing to you a song
About a famous battle that went on for so long
It's a talk of grief and courage, of pain and bravery
One of the finest pages written in our history
We all know songs that tell of workers' struggles long ago
Of U.C.S., Tolpuddle, Shrewsbury, Pentonville, and so
I'm here to sing to you the praises of the women and the men
Who dared the might of Tory spite the future to defend.
'Twas in March of nineteen eighty-four the gauntlet was thrown down
When MacGregor told the NUM, These pits are closing down
Och, get on your - bike, MacGregor, the miners' answer came
We fought the Board in seventy-four and we'll fight you once again
From South Wales across to Yorkshire, from Scotland down to Kent
The miners showed the NCB that what they said they meant
Except the scabs who sold the future out to Thatcher and her gang
And turned traitors to their class, their names forever damned.
And in Fleet Street and in Downing Street a wondrous sight was seen
New-found converts to democracy soon all began to scream
You can't strike without a ballot, well-fed mouths were heard to bleat
You won't ballot us out of our jobs, we're voting with our feet
Soon armies of blue uniforms were marching through the land
With horses, dogs and riot shields and truncheons in both hands
But the miners took on everything the government could throw
And went back again to battle on with shouts of, Here we go!
And the battle wasn't only by courageous mining men
For the women joined the struggle fighting side by side with them
In every area of battle women hurried to the fight
At rallies and at meetings and out on the picket lines
And in support groups up and down the land our comrades rallied round
The cry went up, They shall not starve, and cash and food were found
To keep the miners and their families in solidarity
And show the world the working class would never bow their knee.
Let's pause here to remember the men who gave their lives
Joe Green and Davey Jones were killed in fighting for their rights
But their courage and their sacrifice we never will forget
And we won't forget the reason, too, they met an early death
For the strike-breakers in uniform were many thousand strong
And any picket who was in their way was battered to the ground
With police vans driving into them and truncheons on their heads
It's just a bloody miracle that hundreds more aren't dead.
So here's to Arthur Scargill, Heathfield and McGahey too
Who led the fight together in defence of me and you
And Malcolm Pitt and Davey Hamilton and the rest of them as well
Who were torn from home and family and locked in prison cells
But the battle will go on until the working class has won
For the right to work and decent lives belongs to everyone
So it's forward now in unity, let's share the miners' load
There can only be one answer - Socialism, here we go!