On the sixtieth anniversary of Aberfan (21 October 1966): a crime of the powerful?
Dedicated to the people of Aberfan Aberfan: at 9.15 am on 21 October 1966 a coal tip slid down the valley into the village killing one-hundred-and-sixteen children and twenty-eight adults (McLean & Johnes, 2018). Their public memorials are their gravestones, and a plaque. Out of respect, and mindful of the sixtieth anniversary, this essay eschews the language of “victims” and “disasters “ to honour both the dead and living citizens of Aberfan, (King, 2025). There had been warnings: Tip Four in 1944 under the Powell Duffryn Company and Tip Seven in 1963 under the National Coal Board (NCB). Tip Seven was being used until 20 October 1966. Davies established the NCB had no clear tipping policy and managers lacked appropriate technical qualification (Davies, 1967: P33ff). Aberfan is an ontology of social-harm, a nexus where all four key indicators of Canning and Tomb’s (2021) social-harm-framework meet Sutherland’s (1940) inheritance. It was a crisis of left-wi...