Socialist Sonnet No. 173

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.