ORGREAVE ANNIVERSARY RALLY FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE

SATURDAY 18th JUNE 5PM

On 18th June it will be 32 years since the police brutally attacked picketing miners at the Orgreave Coking plant in South Yorkshire during the 1984/5 Miners Strike. The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) are calling on supporters to join them in a march and rally for truth and justice on Saturday 18th June at 5pm at The Old Bridge, Orgreave Lane, Sheffield S13 9NE. Supporters are encouraged to commemorate the day when 95 miners were arrested and wrongfully charged and many others were violently assaulted and wounded by a police force charging on horseback and wielding truncheons.

Barbara Jackson, Secretary of OTJC said “We are encouraging people to come along and bring placards and banners to the event to show support and put pressure on the Home Secretary Theresa May to order a Public Inquiry into the vicious and unruly policing of picketing miners, wrongful arrests and the subsequent falsification of police evidence”

“The huge public and political demand for a Public Inquiry about Orgreave since the Hillsborough verdict has been really uplifting for the OTJC but the Government are dragging their heels in reaching a decision about whether to pursue a public inquiry. We are hoping however that we will get a positive response from the Home Office before the end of this month”

Kevin Horne, a miner arrested on that day and a member of OTJC said “The experience at Orgreave was terrifying. We were only there because we were fighting for our jobs and the futures of our families and communities. We were met by a police force who literally ran riot, attacking and beating us at random with what seemed to be an intention to frighten us into submission”

“An inquiry should help us to expose the real truth of what happened on that day, achieve justice and make it easier for both the mining community and the police to move on”

Joe Rollin, Chair of OTJC will introduce the following speakers at the rally:

Margaret Aspinall, Hillsborough Family Support Group
Kevin Horne, Ex miner at Orgreave & OTJC supporter
OTJC Secretary, Barbara Jackson
General Secretary, Chris Kitchen & Yorkshire Area President, Chris Skidmore NUM
Tosh McDonald, ASLEF President
Barristers, Henrietta Hill & Mark George
Sheffield Labour MPs, Louise Haigh & Gill Furniss