"History on Our Side" is an account of the great miners' strike of 1984-85 as it happened in the Welsh coalfields, written by a well-known historian of the miners who was also an active participant in the strike. As chair of both the Neath, Dulais, Swansea Valleys' Miners' Support Group and also the Wales Congress in Support of Mining Communities, Hywel Francis had a unique insight into the way the way in which the struggles for jobs and communities broadened into a powerful national movement in Wales, involving trades unions, political parties, churches, the Welsh Language Society, community, peace, lesbian and gay groups. The study, in particular, highlights the very special role played by women's support groups. The strategy of a broad democratic alliance across Wales is analysed as is the experience of defeat and renewal after 1985. The author contends that the seering experiences of the year-long struggle was a major contributory factor in the founding of the National Assembly for Wales with the slogans 'the NUM fights for Wales' and 'Cau Pwll, Lladd Cymuned' (Close a Pit, Kill a Community), symptomatic of that wider, national struggle and identity.
This very personal history explains why the South Wales valleys were the strongest and most loyal of all the British coalfields is based on the author's personal diaries, his articles and essays in several Welsh and British journals including "Barn", "Llafur", "Marxism Today" and "The New Statesman". This is a story of the individual and collective courage and pain of Welsh miners, their families and their communities; this study will be seen as an important contribution to our understanding of a defining moment in modern Welsh history.