Tagged with Miners Strike

No truth and justice as decision on Orgreave investigation stays secret

OrgreaveI have written to the chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) requesting an explanation of the continuing delays in determining how they will proceed in the investigation of the events at Orgreave during the miners’ strike, 30 years ago. The miners that were there, their families, campaigners and the local communities are not primarily pushing for compensation for what happened, or even an apology. They simply want the truth.

Last week the Wakefield Express newspaper reported that the IPCC had made a decision as to whether there will be a full investigation into what happened at Orgreave in 1984. However, this decision has been kept secret. Continue reading →

Pride trailer: lesbians and gays support the miners

Pride is inspired by an extraordinary true story. It’s the summer of 1984, Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers is on strike, prompting a London-based group of gay and lesbian activists to raise money to support the strikers’ families. Initially rebuffed by the union, the group identifies a tiny mining village in Wales and sets off to make their donation in person. As the strike drags on, the two groups discover that standing together makes for the strongest union of all.

Director Matthew Warchus, best known for staging theatre adaptions of Matilda, Lord of the Rings and Ghost, said it was a script he “just couldn’t say no to.” He said:

It made me laugh out loud, it surprised and delighted me at every turn, and it ultimately moved me to tears. It’s a truly affirming and inspiring story, funny, honest and moving, and by the end of it you want to punch the air and cheer.”

The film stars Bill Nighy, Paddy Considine, Imelda Staunton and Dominic West.It is in cinemas from 19 September.

We must look back with anger

Look Back in AngerMy home village was built on coal. All the local mines had shut before 1984 and open casting was the name of the game. Up until I left home you could see great mountains of slag and earth crouching on the horizon, the engines and buzzers of diggers echoing across the landscape early every morning. There were plenty of current and ex-miners living locally and yet my memory of the time during the Miners’ Strike draws a blank. As I was seven year at the time, there was only the dimmest of dim awarenesses that something called ‘a strike’ was happening with the miners. I can remember it as background noise in the nightly news, and an occasional mention on Spitting Image (when my parents let me watch it – because I thought the puppets were funny). But of the strike in the village, I don’t recall a thing. I can’t remember any collections. There were no coal not dole badges. None of my school mates appeared to be affected. This titanic struggle passed my childhood by. Some feat considering we lived a stone’s throw from south Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire: the crucible of the strike. Continue reading →

30 years of foot-dragging over Orgreave must end

OrgreaveIt is bizarre that the so-called Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has now spent 18 months dancing round the maypole trying to decide whether to launch a full inquiry into police corruption surrounding Orgreave in June 1984. With a typical establishment euphemism they are engaged in a ‘scoping inquiry’ (for which read: time-wasting) as to whether police officers fabricated statements – it is clear beyond any doubt that the police did collude in preparing testimony for the court.

After 18 months they have still not even interviewed key witnesses to the alleged corruption. The IPCC has either grievously failed in its duty to take the issue seriously or has been leaned on to spin out its deliberations an absurdly long time in order to frustrate a full public inquiry into police corruption since it has been ruled that this is shelved pending the IPCC conclusions. Continue reading →

London remembers Orgreave

Orgreave-London-PhilosophyThirty years ago in June the defining moment of the Miners Strike. Mark Perryman explains why London is due to host an anniversary truth and justice benefit concert.

Orgreave, Yorkshire, 18 June 1984. The mass picket vs the massed police. Four months into the dispute this in many ways was the Miners Strike’s defining moment. The scenes of police brutality were graphic enough, none more so than a mounted police officer with baton raised galloping down a woman. Yet the solidarity, it helped inspire in response particularly at the following Christmas from metropolitan Britain, complete with convoys of trucks, vans and carloads of supporters bringing some cheer to the beleaguered coalfield communities never ignited the political support and industrial action the miners needed to win. Continue reading →