CAMPAIGNERS REITERATE NEED FOR ORGREAVE INQUIRY TO START SOON
The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) held a positive meeting at the Home Office with the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper to discuss the Labour Government’s commitment to an Orgreave Inquiry / Investigation and the options and format of the inquiry. Arrested miners, their wives and supporters impressed upon the Home Secretary why an Orgreave inquiry needs to start as a matter of urgency to ensure it happens in their lifetime. Since the October 2024 meeting, the Home Secretary has met with a number of people, including politicians, lawyers and the National Union of Mineworkers, to discuss plans for an inquiry.
Last week the Home Secretary sent the OTJC a letter indicating that they were considering the appropriate next steps for setting up an investigation or inquiry and would contact us again in the coming weeks with more information.
Previous Conservative Home Secretaries refused to hold any kind of Orgreave inquiry. For the last 9 years the Labour Party have committed to hold some kind of Orgreave inquiry as a manifesto pledge. We feel closer than ever that at last some kind of inquiry may be held.
Kevin Horne, miner arrested at Orgreave said:
“It’s over 41 years since the miners’ strike started. We were fighting for our jobs and communities and for all our futures. For that, we were attacked and arrested by a state organised paramilitary police force for picketing the Orgreave coking plant during the strike. Many miners are now dead and those of us left, our families and the British public need to understand what the government planned and what the police did to us.”
95 striking miners were arrested at Orgreave on 18 June 1984 after police in full riot gear with truncheons, dogs and charging horses, brutally attacked the many miners gathering at a National Union of Mineworkers picket at the Orgreave coking plant. Those 95 miners were later charged with either riot or unlawful assembly, offences that could carry a sentence of life imprisonment. Almost a year later when the cases went to trial in May 1985, it became clear that the police evidence was unreliable and untruthful. The trial collapsed after 48 days when the Prosecution abandoned the case, resulting in the acquittal of all the 95 miners.
Kate Flannery, Secretary of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) said:
“Our latest OTJC report, distributed to politicians and circulated widely, describes the Conservative Government’s political interference and involvement in the 1984/5 miners’ strike and how they used the courts, violent policing and the media to give the police the confidence to behave with impunity throughout that strike. The 1985 Orgreave ‘show trial’ started to reveal lies and the violent behaviour of the police, and the prosecution had no option but to abandon the trial and acquit all the 95 miners arrested. Neither the police or government has ever been held to account”
John Dunn, miner attacked by the police and arrested during the strike said:
“Police at Orgreave, and on picket lines throughout the strike, were out of control. Many of us are still traumatised by what they did to us. It has taken a toll on many of us miners and our families. Many miners have died or are elderly and ill. After 41 years we need an Inquiry to be conducted quickly. Thank you to all our supporters during and since the strike, throughout Britain and throughout the world for the wonderful solidarity we received, then and now”
Plenty of information exists and has already been obtained to give an inquiry a substantial head start to deliver truth and justice. The OTJC does not demand an expensive, overly-long Inquiry.
- The Inquiry must have the power to require all the relevant information and evidence to be produced to it.
- Those who have an interest in the Inquiry must be able to fully participate in order to lend their experience, knowledge and understanding to the process.
- The panel conducting the inquiry / investigation must include a range of skills so that people can have confidence it will fully understand the issues and be independent and objective in its approach.
- The Inquiry must be transparent, open and accessible and its conclusions publicly explained in an authoritative way.
Many local, national and regional politicians, local councils, trade unions, religious leaders and community activists are amongst thousands of supporters who want to see an Orgreave inquiry started quickly.
ORGREAVE ANNIVERSARY MARCH AND RALLY
Saturday 14 June 2025
Assemble 1pm, City Hall, Barkers Pool, Sheffield, S1 2JA
Commemorating the 41st anniversary of the police riot at Orgreave and celebrating the great Miners’ Strike of 1984/5.
Led by the Unite Brass Band, campaigners will march through Sheffield to call for an inquiry for truth and justice for striking miners brutalised by the state at the Orgreave Coking plant on 18 June 1984.
Speakers:
- Watty Watson – Arrested and youngest sacked Scottish Miner
- Lois Austin – Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance
- Michael Mansfield KC – Lawyer for Orgreave miners
- Maria Vasquez-Aguilar – Chile Solidarity Network
- Chris Skidmore – Yorkshire Area NUM Chair and Orgreave Veteran
- Kate Flannery – Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign
- Dave Smith – Blacklist Support Group
Compères
Chris Peace and Joe Rollin
Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign
ENDS
What we expect from an Orgreave inquiry
https://otjc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ORGREAVE_Leaflet_2022.pdf
Orgreave Report
Orgreave March and Rally 14th June 2025
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