Margaret Thatcher & pop culture
It has been astonishing to note the admiration being expressed by young women on the passing of Margaret Thatcher.
The Thatcher-Reagan years were bleak times for all of us who were young, idealistic feminists.
One iconic song that is still relevant is Sting’s ‘We work the black seam’. It remains relevant to Australia as conservative governments re-open uranium mines & expand coal production. Two evils when we could prosper without either.
We Work The Black Seam
This place has changed for good
Your economic theory said it would
It’s hard for us to understand
We can’t give up our jobs the way we should
Our blood has stained the coal
We tunneled deep inside the nation’s soul
We matter more than pounds and pence
Your economic theory makes no sense
One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can’t control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
Deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
The seam lies underground
Three million years of pressure packed it down
We walk through ancient forest lands
And light a thousand cities with our hands
Your dark satanic mills
Have made redundant all our mining skills
You can’t exchange a six inch band
For all the poisoned streams in Cumberland
Your economic theory makes no sense
One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can’t control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
Deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
Should the children weep
The turning world will sing their souls to sleep
When you have sunk without a trace
The universe will suck me into place
One day in a nuclear age
They may understand our rage
They build machines that they can’t control
And bury the waste in a great big hole
Power was to become cheap and clean
Grimy faces were never seen
But deadly for twelve thousand years is carbon fourteen
We work the black seam together
We work the black seam together
Wonderful to see the regional press reminding us of this event and publicising the ongoing dangers.
Abbot Point terminal expansion has not yet been given final approvals but the local fishering industry is already being pressured to agree to and propose a site to dump all the spoil from planned dredging. 
