BIG MEETINGS > 2011/12

In the 1920’s there were more than 170,000 miners in the County Durham coalfields. Those numbers gradually but steadily declined after WWII and then the election of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government in 1979 signalled the arrival of a strident monetarist agenda and a fierce determination to curb what was regarded as the excessive power of Trades Unions, even at the expense of the industry itself. Its fate was ultimately sealed by the failure of the year long miner’s strike in 1984-5 and the last pit in the North East closed in 2005. There is not a single working coal miner left and nowadays, of course, coal is regarded as the dirtiest and most dangerous means of power generation in the battle against climate change. Nevertheless, the Durham Miners Gala, known locally as the ‘Big Meeting’ is one of the largest political gatherings in Europe, annually attended by upwards of 100,000 people, many of them passionate socialists. Julian Germain has documented the communities and landscapes of former pit villages such as Chopwell, Trimdon Grange and Ferryhill, showing the local residents and brass bands as they prepare for the event. He also attended gatherings and meetings of some of the political and campaigning groups who use the Gala as a platform to promote their ideas. It’s a body of work that explores the significance of working class identity and cultural traditions and their associations with a set of political beliefs at a time when only fragments remain of the industries that framed them. While documenting both the spectacle and the spirit of the Gala, Germain is also implicitly asking questions about the nature of politics now, as capitalism appears to falter and socialist ideals are widely believed to have been marginalised by the rush to consumerism, individualism and even nationalism.

Big Meetings, DLI Museum and Woodhorn Museum 2012/13