Socialist Sonnet No. 139

40 Years On

 

Just forty years on from the Iron Lady

Disavowing coal. Deep in the shadow

Of abundant stockpiles, the wealth below

Was to be forfeited for a shady

Deal between politics and capital,

Anathema of organised labour

Had to be vanquished, by setting neighbour

Against neighbour if at all possible,

Coalfield against coalfield, trade against trade.

Solidarity undermined, derided.

By keeping the working class divided,

The very notion of class was gainsaid.

Coal mines and the Iron Lady are long gone,

Yet nothing’s been resolved forty years on.

 

D. A.