Tagged with NUM

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.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

Tony Benn at Durham Miners GalaThis 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 the surrounding coalfields. This year’s event marked 30 years since the miners’ strike and the predictions of the Gala’s inevitable demise have never materialised with over 100,000 attending the Big Meeting. 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 →

Political Scandal and Indifference

police at orgreaveLet’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 from 1987 to 2001. It was a time that saw the 1945 settlement strengthened and deepened. Social democracy renewed was the common sense of the age, so much so that they wrote it into the European Union’s constitution. Britain, by no means a perfect society, was nevertheless more at peace, more at ease. It had earned itself a respite from ugly industrial strife and the attempts to dismantle British industry by Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives. Continue reading →