THE Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) is delighted to be attending the Durham Miners’ Gala again this year. It is a fantastic celebration of mining communities and a great day for reaffirming the significance of solidarity and dedication to class struggle.
This 40th anniversary year of the miners’ strike has given us all another opportunity to remember and reflect on the importance of that great National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) strike and to celebrate the incredible strength of resistance and comradery.
Miners striking to defend an industry, jobs, trade unions and communities were fighting for all our futures. We will be forever in their debt for their commitment to that year-long struggle that changed all our lives forever.
As we celebrate, so too do we continue to campaign against the injustices meted out against workers by the state. It is so important that we establish the truth through an Orgreave inquiry so that the 1980s Conservative government and subsequent governments are held to account for their actions at Orgreave on June 18 1984 and their political role in orchestrating and managing the pit closure programme and directing militaristic police operations throughout the strike.
June 18 is particularly significant because it will help us to reveal what was going on throughout Britain every day of the year-long strike and expose the state-planned and state-sanctioned police violence used against strikers.
On June 18 2024 the OTJC delivered our most recent report to the Home Office and major political parties. The report is a comprehensive piece of work and you can read it on our website. It highlights what happened at Orgreave and why the case for an inquiry is incontrovertible and in the public interest.