EX-MINERS and hundreds of supporters from all over Britain gathered in Sheffield this weekend to celebrate the 41st anniversary of the 1984-85 miners’ strike and commemorate the police brutally attacking and arresting striking miners picketing the Orgreave coking plant on June 18 1984. 

The crowd heard an update from Kate Flannery, secretary of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC), that Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has sent the OTJC a letter earlier this month indicating that the government is considering the appropriate next steps for setting up an investigation or inquiry and would be in contact with the campaign again in the coming weeks with more information. 

Among the crowds packing Barkers Pool, the area where miners gathered for National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) rallies in Sheffield during the strike in 1984-85, was a wonderful display of miners’ banners as well as banners representing a number of trade unions, campaigns and strikes.

Previous Conservative home secretaries refused to hold any kind of Orgreave inquiry. For the last nine years, the Labour Party has committed to holding some kind of inquiry as a manifesto pledge.

Organised by the OTJC and led by the Unite brass band, and supported by the PCS samba band, campaigners held their lively and optimistic march through sunny Sheffield and heard speeches from: Yorkshire Area NUM chair and Orgreave Veteran Chris Skidmore; Kate Flannery of Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign; arrested and youngest sacked Scottish miner Watty Watson; Lois Austin of Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance; Mike Jackson of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners; Maria Vasquez-Aguilar of Chile Solidarity Network; Dave Smith of the Blacklist Support Group. The rally was compered by OTJC activists Chris Peace and Joe Rollin.

One of the main organisers of the march and rally, Peace, said: “We feel closer than ever to some kind of Orgreave inquiry being held. It was an incredibly uplifting march and rally with fantastic speakers and supportive messages, and people meeting up with comrades and friends, some of whom have known each other for over 40 years.

“Many of these people have been supporting our campaign for justice for the miners since our campaign started 13 years ago but it was so heartening to see so many young people and other trade unionists joining us who understand that the struggles they now face are similar to the ones the miners faced in the 1980s.”

Kevin Horne, who was a miner arrested at Orgreave, said: “It’s over 41 years this Wednesday since I was arrested at Orgreave. 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.”

Ninety-five striking miners were arrested at Orgreave on June 18 1984, after police in full riot gear with truncheons, dogs and charging horses, brutally attacked the many miners gathering at a NUM 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 95 miners. 

The OTJC had a positive meeting with the Home Secretary and her team to discuss the Labour government’s commitment to an Orgreave 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 NUM, to discuss plans for an inquiry. 

Flannery said: “We feel very positive about the latest communication from the Home Secretary. However, we are not complacent and we know we have to keep up the pressure for the inquiry to start soon.

“Our latest OTJC report, distributed to politicians and circulated widely, describes the Conservative government’s political interference and involvement in the 1984-85 miners’ strike and how they used the courts, violent policing and the media to demonise and criminalise the miners and give the police the confidence to behave with impunity throughout that strike.

“The 1985 Orgreave ‘show trial’ started to reveal lies and the police violence, and the prosecution had no option but to abandon the trial and acquit all the 95 miners arrested. Neither the police nor the government have ever been held to account.”

John Dunn, a miner attacked by the police and arrested in Derbyshire 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.

“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. Many local, national and regional politicians, local councils, trade unions, religious leaders and community activists are among thousands of supporters who want to see an Orgreave inquiry started quickly.