Ballad Of '84 Lyrics

Come gather round me people and I'll sing to you a song About a famous battle that went on for so long It's a tale 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 UCS, 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 1984 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 74 and we'll fight you once again" From S 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 their future out to Thatcher and her gang And turned traitor to their class, their names forever damned 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!" The battle wasn't only 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 the knee Let's pause here to remember the men who gave their lives Joe Green and David 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 strikebreakers in uniforms were many thousand strong And any picket who was in the way was battered to the ground With police vans driving into them and truncheons on the head 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 strike together in defence of me and you And Malcolm Pitt and Davie 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 We'll go forward now in unity, let's share the miners' load There can only be one answer - socialism, here we go!