Strike: An Uncivil War

The Battle of Orgreave, recounted by those who lived through it, is contextualised through the history of the British mining union and a government that was hell-bent on breaking it.

On 18 June 1984, at the height of the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike, Orgreave Coking Plant in South Yorkshire became the site of the bloodiest day of the longest and most violent industrial dispute in British history. The media subsequently appeared to lay blame for the violence at the feet of the strikers. Daniel Gordon’s comprehensive documentary doesn’t just overturn this fabrication, it portrays what took place as planned action on the part of the Thatcher government, with the Prime Minister determined to seek redress for the National Miners’ Union’s victory over the Conservative government in the early 1970s and to forever break union’s role at the heart of British working-class society. Released on the 40th anniversary of the battle, and featuring first-hand accounts and archive footage, this is a searing portrait of that tragic event.