I 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 […]
Posts Tagged ‘NUM’
No truth and justice as decision on Orgreave investigation stays secret
Apr 16th, 2015 by Jon Trickett.Pride trailer: lesbians and gays support the miners
Sep 1st, 2014 by Newsdesk.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 […]
Standing on the shoulders of giants
Jul 16th, 2014 by Grahame Morris.This year’s 130th Durham Miners Gala was a huge success. The weather was perfect, there were over 60 banners from former coalfields across the region and the festival atmosphere was complete with superb brass bands playing everything from miners classics to modern standards. The Gala remains the UK’s largest annual trade union gathering despite the closure of […]
London remembers Orgreave
May 1st, 2014 by Mark Perryman.Thirty 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 […]
Political Scandal and Indifference
Jan 4th, 2014 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Let’s look at what you would’ve won. No more privatisations. No market fundamentalism. An extension of trade union rights. A thriving mining industry using the most advanced technology in the world. A joined up approach to finance and industry. A strong labour movement. Communities proud of their history. All under three successive Labour governments, dating […]
Support the heroes of Orgreave
Sep 16th, 2013 by Grahame Morris.The pictures will be forever ingrained on our minds. They were so powerful that in 1984 the late Jo Richardson MP held up one of them in front of the Labour Party Conference, and the World’s media. It showed a mounted policeman, baton raised, charging a woman whose only defence was to raise her arm […]
Farmers for Action: hail the new NUM
Jul 24th, 2012 by David Osler.My great-grandfather was a pig dealer. I revealed this fact to me oldest daughter recently and she instantly replied in what was – I hope – all innocence: ‘Is that like a drugs dealer?’ Generations of Oslers past relied on agriculture for their livings, perhaps for hundreds of years back, as far as I can […]
Labour leaders and strikes: the lesson of Wilson and the Miners
Jul 12th, 2011 by Andy Newman.Ed Miliband’s lack of backing for trade unions on strike on 30th June disappointed some, but in fact no Labour leader has ever backed strikes. It is worth looking at how Harold Wilson handled the miners’ strike of 1974, where Labour won a general election against all expectations. Wilson was a politician with extraordinary talent, who won […]