WHEN 37 shipyard workers from Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead were sent to a high-security prison in 1984, their only crime was fighting for their jobs, the survival of their sector and their communities. They were trade unionists who had occupied their workplaces and peacefully protested against the managed decline of the shipyards. Forty years on, we are still fighting for justice.

I grew up under Thatcherism in Liverpool. Her policies of managed decline left Liverpool with unemployment rates of as high as 50 per cent, a time of great difficulty for our city — but one which shaped our fighting spirit and unshakable sense of justice.

I remember watching the miners at Orgreave being beaten by police, followed by lies and cover-ups by politicians and the media. The 1981 L8 uprising, mirrored across black inner city communities from London to Bradford, in Liverpool, was primarily a response to the economic decline in the city, though it was triggered by racist police brutality.

The great People’s March for Jobs, organised by the TUC, began in Liverpool, where nearly 300 people marched over 500 miles to London to protest against high levels of unemployment and closing industries.

Against this backdrop, I remember the Cammell Laird occupation, and the huge support across Merseyside for the workers’ struggle — not just against their bosses, but against the government intent on destroying their communities and jobs for future generations in the shipyards.

These struggles helped to spark my consciousness and formed the start of my journey into Parliament. And I’m proud to now support this fight for justice, alongside my friend and former colleague Mick Whitley, who is leading the renewed efforts to clear the names of the Cammell Laird 37, including his own brother. The tireless campaigning by the GMB union has also been invaluable in supporting these workers from the very beginning.

The Justice for the Cammell Laird 37 campaign, like so many union campaigns of the time, goes to the very heart of how the British state responded to workers who dared to stand up for themselves.

In 1984, faced with sweeping redundancies and the decline of the shipbuilding industry, workers at Cammell Laird occupied their workplaces, including a gas rig and a Royal Navy destroyer, to resist job losses and defend their livelihoods.

Management’s response — backed by the government — was swift and heavy-handed. The workers were threatened with dismissal, the loss of redundancy payments, and police involvement, against the background of the brutality seen at Orgreave.

When the 37 refused to attend a court hearing, management escalated the dispute by pursuing legal action to repossess the yard. The workers were arrested, convicted in their absence, and sent to a Category A prison — the highest security level in the country, typically reserved for serious criminals and violent offenders.

It was and remains a major miscarriage of justice. The only crime these men committed was the peaceful occupation of their workplaces to defy the government’s strategy of managed industrial decline, to defend jobs and the future of the shipyards.

As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on miscarriages of justice, I’ve seen the strength and dedication it takes to achieve justice against the odds. But while the road can be long and difficult, it is possible. The recent tabling of the Hillsborough Law — decades after the tragedy — is proof that perseverance can pay off.

This law, if passed in full as currently promised, would impose a statutory duty of candour on public authorities, backed by criminal sanctions. It would rebalance the scales of justice away from powerful institutions and incentivise truth and transparency when tragedies occur.

This recent movement on the Hillsborough justice campaign has renewed hopes for many fighting historic miscarriages of justice, and has boosted the energy behind the Cammell Laird 37.

Their case echoes that of the Shrewsbury 24, another group of trade unionists wrongly convicted in the 1970s for their industrial action. It took the best part of 50 years for their convictions to be quashed, but eventually, with huge efforts, they managed to clear their names.

The legal avenues now being explored for the Cammell Laird 37 seek a similar settlement — formal recognition that their imprisonment was wrong, unjust and politically motivated.

The costs of industrial decline run deep. We have lived with them here in Liverpool, across the north west and across former manufacturing and mining heartlands for decades.

We have lived too with the scars of the struggles against this decline, and the injustices and brutality at the hands of the state and successive governments hell bent on pushing through economic strategies that destroyed our communities for successive generations.

Clearing the names of the Cammell Laird 37 will not undo the injustice of their imprisonment. Some have now died without receiving justice; time is of the essence, and we need to do everything we can to exonerate the 37 so they get the recognition they all deserve.

Join the campaign fringe at Labour conference this year to hear from some of the survivors and campaigners and to join the fight for justice for the Cammell Laird 37.

Kim Johnsons is MP for Liverpool Riverside. Visit justiceforcammelllairds37.com for more information on the campaign and come to the Justice for Cammell Laird 37 fringe meeting, Tuesday September 30, 6pm at the Casa, 29 Hope St, Liverpool L1 9BP.