The Durham Miners' Gala is the strangest and biggest anachronism of the British workers' movement — a massive celebration of the workers of an industry long since felled by Thatcher and capital, it still attracts hundreds of thousands of people to the North of England to honor those who built the world.
Last year, the gala was serious-minded but joyous and truly optimistic. Corbyn took the stage to give his address and was met with wild cheers. This year, the mood was different — a bit tired, a bit apprehensive. The crowd looked nearly the same, save for one notable increase in a previously rare specimen, the bellowing European Union activist. As if out of nowhere, Durham had broken out in a suspicious rash of EU flags, conspicuously out of place in the heavily pro-Brexit city (particularly given Europe's indirect role in crushing the 1980s Miners' Strike).
Read Full Article »