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Orgreave: when miners faced the full weight of the state
Thatcher’s administration said it was an innocent bystander in a dispute between the NUM and the Coal Board — but the truth is that it was involved at the highest level in state repression against ordinary workers, writes IAN LAVERY
Ranks of police face the picketing line outside Orgreave Coking Plant near Rotherham

JUNE 18 1984 is a date that will long live in the memories of coalmining communities.

It was on that day 37 years ago that the full brutality of the state was unleashed on striking miners and in the aftermath used to cover it up.

The battle of Orgreave, as it became known, and the truth and justice campaign it inspired are marked today.

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