Letter [Dutch anarchist solidarity with the miners strike: De Vrije]

Dear Friends,

Thanks for the addresses you’ve sent us. We’ve asked the people in Doncaster to write an article about the women’s support group for our magazine. So they’re of great use!

I think it’s not necessary to say what we think about that fucking police raid at 121 Bookshop. Here in Holland things are going quite well with solidarity to the miners. We’re involved in the same Amsterdam Support Committee as the two women who have visited you on their way to Derbyshire. The committee has managed to collect about £2,500, which was enough to pay a weeks holiday for 40 people. In fact Saturday 25 August, 32 miners children and 8 adults from Church Warsop in Derbyshire arrived! Some of them are sailing, others are at the anarchist camp in Appelscha (a month ago we’ve given some information about that camp to a guy who wanted to write an article about it for Black Flag) and others live at squats and with Dutch families for a week. We hope we’ll manage to get another group here in the autumn holiday (maybe from Silverdale where life is very hard for strikers).

The press has already given much attention to the holidays of the miners children and in some cases we even ended up with some political reports and not just the usual ‘human interest’. We are also planning a demonstration… The NUM videos are showing at many places (squatters’ cafes, etc) over the country and punk bands are giving a series of benefits.

Good luck and keep in contact.

De Vrije (The Free).

Photo: Miners kids enjoying a holiday in the Netherlands, thanks to the anarchist support network over there. photo courtesy of De Vrije.

From Black Flag Quarterly vol 07 #07 (Autumn 1984) https://libcom.org/article/black-flag-quarterly-vol-07-07-1984