DEMANDS for a public inquiry into the police attack on striking mineworkers at Orgreave in South Yorkshire during the 1984-5 strike against pit closures are being stepped up as the 40th anniversary of the atrocity approaches.
The attack took place on June 18 1984, after police herded thousands of strikers into a field.
The miners had intended to picket a coking coal depot which supplied fuel to the steel industry.
The miners were surrounded on three sides when police cavalry charged in an unprovoked attack. The cavalry was followed by officers in riot gear. Fleeing miners were battered from behind with batons, first by cavalry and then by police on foot. The attack continued as miners fled into the nearby community.
More than 90 miners were arrested and charged with riot, which carried a sentence of up to 15 years.
The cases collapsed in court when it was revealed that police had colluded in submitting false evidence.
The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) was launched in 2012. It was inspired by the success of the Hillsborough football tragedy campaign to uncover the truth about the deaths of 96 Liverpool football fans at Hillsborough football stadium in Sheffield in 1989.
OTJC said: “An Orgreave inquiry is in the public interest in order to put the facts in the public domain and to put an end to years of lies and cover-ups by the Conservative government about the political role they played in orchestrating and managing the pit closure programme in the 1980s, directing militaristic police operations in an industrial dispute and manipulating the courts and media to manufacture a false narrative to demonise and criminalise workers fighting for their jobs and communities.
Kevin Horne, OTJC activist and ex-miner arrested at Orgreave, said: “The continuing upset and anger in ex-mining communities, government and police documents from the time of the strike hidden away from the public until at least 2066 and growing numbers who support this campaign for truth and justice, show it is necessary to hold an Orgreave inquiry to have an authoritative and full review of what happened and why we were treated so badly.
“We were only striking for the right to work.”
OTJC secretary Kate Flannery said: “The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign submitted detailed and compelling evidence to the Home Office about why an inquiry should take place into the state-sanctioned police riot at Orgreave on June 18, 1984.
“Striking miners were violently assaulted, 95 miners were arrested to be later acquitted by the court due to police lies and fabricated evidence.
“Our powerful evidence seems to have been ignored by the Home Office and they continue to rule out any kind of Orgreave inquiry.
“No-one in the police or government has ever been held to account for what the government directed and the police did.
“This is a serious threat to our already declining democracy.”
OTJC activist and ex-miner from Derbyshire John Dunn was assaulted by police and arrested during the strike.
He said: “The Tories are obviously worried about an Orgreave inquiry further exposing their scandals, corruption and attempts to stifle dissent.
“Their recent raft of punitive and draconian policing, anti-strike and anti-protest legislation is designed to criminalise us and shut us up. The right to protest and the right to strike is what we should expect in a democracy.”
The OTJC annual march and rally will be held in Sheffield in South Yorkshire on Saturday June 15.
