My friend Terry Butkeraitis, who has died of cancer aged 63, became a miner at the age of 15, and by the time of the 1984-85 strike was branch president at Whitwell colliery, near Worksop, Derbyshire, picketing, campaigning and organising morale-boosting events. He was repeatedly arrested, and his bail conditions eventually demanded he live away from any area connected to the industry. He stayed with supporters in Brixton, south-west London, starting a journey out of Worksop that took him to Glastonbury, Lithuania, west Africa and a new life.
With friends from Battersea & Wandsworth TUC, in 1986 Terry formed the Workers' Beer Company (its slogan "Thirst Among Equals"), quickly establishing it as a key player on the festival scene while raising millions for the labour movement, running bars at events such as Glastonbury and Reading.
He also formed Clause IV, a social enterprise working alongside the Workers' Beer Company, setting up its bars and huge infrastructure at festivals and promoting events. Terry recreated the comradeship of the pits that was central to his political and personal philosophy, and was accompanied by family members, ex-miners and their families, financing their local organisations back home as they went from festival to festival.
With the GMB trade union, Terry and Clause IV enacted numerous political stunts, infamously hounding the British Gas chief executive Cedric Brown with Cedric the Pig and dressing in city-slicker suits to mock highly paid bankers. Back in Worksop he did youth work, taking local children on exchange visits to Lithuania.
Terry formed close relationships with festival promoters such as Michael Eavis, Vince Power and Melvin Benn. And while there was always something of the artful dodger about him, beneath his bluff exterior he had great vision and considerable skills as a negotiator and facilitator. Nonetheless, when the financial crash of 2007-08 transformed festival economics, Terry wouldn't compromise on terms and conditions for his workers. Ultimately, it led to him leaving the festival scene.
Terry was born in Clowne, Derbyshire, son of Jonas and Brenda, and went to the local comprehensive school. His father, a former refugee from Lithuania, was a miner; Terry and his brother, John, both went down the local pit. In 1970, Terry married Chris, his childhood sweetheart. When asked later if Terry was ever a run-of-the-mill husband, Chris gave a rueful laugh and answered: "No. Never. Once he got his teeth into something, he had to see it through. And he always had his teeth into something."
In 2007, holidaying in the Gambia, they visited an isolated village, with no water, the village school empty and the medical centre unused. With ex-miners and friends from the WBC, Terry and Chris raised the money to equip the school with furniture, books and computers, even installing solar panels.
Terry described his later years as among the happiest of his life, spending time with Chris and watching his children's families grow. He is survived by Chris, their sons Shane and Neil, and daughter, Lisa.