Forty Years On
Forty years on from the colliers’ last stand,
When the Blues were so determined to break
Workers’ solidarity: what to make
Of it now? Was it no more than a grand
Gesture, final knockings of working class
Militancy, an end of defiance
Before a general, grudging compliance
With capitals’ world order coming to pass?
The Greens, who supported the miners then,
Would now surely campaign to close the mines,
While Red influence continues to decline
And reform proves a busted flush again.
Hope refracted through politics’ prism
Needs refocusing on socialism.
D. A.