This book collects two pamphlets, For as long as it takes! Cowie Miners in the Strike, 1984-85, originally published in 1985, and One Year On; Sacked Polmaise Miners Speak Out, published in 1986. For as long as it takes! was written by Steve McGrail and Vicky Patterson, who partners at the time. One Year On was edited by Steve. Vicky died in 2003 and Steve died in 2016. The book is published jointly by Sue Harley, Steve’s widow, and the Scottish Labour History Society. The pamphlets are reproduced in the original sequence of their publication, with an afterword by Jim O’Hare, one of the sacked men whose testimony was not included at the time.
In her foreword Sue Harley writes: “In September 2016, the government considered holding an enquiry into police brutality at the 1984 miners’ picket in Orgreave. But when, October of the same year, they decided against it, I made a decision to re-publish Steve’s account of the miners’ strike. It would provide a lasting tribute to him, and one of which he would be justifiably proud.”
A5: 146 pages, plus cover; illustrated