Dave Procter
Tuesday 25 November 2025
7pm

The Miners Strike of 1984-85 was a fundamental turning point in the relationship between the State and the working populace and marked a change in the social and political landscape of the United Kingdom. The neoliberal experiment that started in the Americas in the 1970s and expanded with the election victories of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher was now to be implemented across the Atlantic Ocean with devastating results that are still being felt today.

In this talk, Värmland-based sound artist, cultural archivist and former Trades Union activist Dave Procter discusses the events that led to the start of the Miners Strike, the major events that took place during the year long dispute, the aftermath of the strike and the lessons we have learnt and need to (re)learn with the rise of far right political parties across the EU and the world.

Dave Procter is a sound artist based on Hammarö in Värmland, where he also works for ABF as an English teacher and as an academic proof reader at Karlstad University. He grew up in a mining community as a member of a mining family and this informed his social and political thinking as a teenager watching his community change as the 1980s progressed. As a university lecturer in Leeds, he became involved in Trades Union activism and this in turn fed into some of the more sociological courses he taught on in the Music Department.

The talk will be held in English.