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| It’s 30 years since the miners’ strike. But justice for Orgreave shouldn’t have a time limit | It’s 30 years since the miners’ strike. But justice for Orgreave shouldn’t have a time limit |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| For anyone motivated by justice – wherever they stand on the political spectrum – the case for investigating the so-called “battle of Orgreave” should be straightforward. As the Independent Police Complaints Commission themselves note about this bitter episode of the 1984-85 miners’ strike, in which a coking plant was picketed by striking workers, evidence points to South Yorkshire police assaulting miners, perverting the course of justice, committing perjury and now keeping back evidence. The “ethical standards” of the police force at the time are questioned. | For anyone motivated by justice – wherever they stand on the political spectrum – the case for investigating the so-called “battle of Orgreave” should be straightforward. As the Independent Police Complaints Commission themselves note about this bitter episode of the 1984-85 miners’ strike, in which a coking plant was picketed by striking workers, evidence points to South Yorkshire police assaulting miners, perverting the course of justice, committing perjury and now keeping back evidence. The “ethical standards” of the police force at the time are questioned. |
| Perversely, there was an attempt to prosecute striking miners in the aftermath which collapsed, and hundreds of thousands of pounds was paid out in compensation to several pickets. But there is to be no inquiry because, in the view of the IPCC, it is all too long ago. | Perversely, there was an attempt to prosecute striking miners in the aftermath which collapsed, and hundreds of thousands of pounds was paid out in compensation to several pickets. But there is to be no inquiry because, in the view of the IPCC, it is all too long ago. |
| This is an insulting approach to justice which, on this basis, has a time limit. But whether injustice took place last week or half a century ago, it must surely be investigated and addressed. If not, the state will be taught an invaluable lesson: that it can mistreat British citizens, sit it out for long enough, and get away with it. | This is an insulting approach to justice which, on this basis, has a time limit. But whether injustice took place last week or half a century ago, it must surely be investigated and addressed. If not, the state will be taught an invaluable lesson: that it can mistreat British citizens, sit it out for long enough, and get away with it. |
| Orgreave is significant in so many ways. There appears to be a link between what happened at Orgreave and what followed at Hillsborough five years later. During the miners’ strike, the police were heavily politicised, referred to by those on the receiving end of their truncheons as “Maggie’s boot boys”. They were trained to regard the striking miners – the “enemy within” – with contempt. Michael Mansfield QC – who defended some of the miners – told me that police statements had “the same writing” and “had obviously been dictated by a unit”. Signatures on statements were forged, leading to the collapse of the trial of picketing miners. The media helped to demonise the victims. | |
| It is hard to see an inquiry under this government. It would help expose the role of the state in a dirty campaign | It is hard to see an inquiry under this government. It would help expose the role of the state in a dirty campaign |
| At Hillsborough, the miners were substituted for another group of demonised working-class people – Liverpool fans. “Scummy, working-class Liverpudlians, as far as they were concerned, who were the ‘enemy within’, like the miners,” as Merseyside MP and Hillsborough campaigner Maria Eagle put it to me last year. And, as we know, in that instance, there was a concerted attempt to demonise the victims with the help of the British press. South Yorkshire police had got away with it at Orgreave, and had been taught a valuable lesson: that they could act with impunity when it came to working-class people. | |
| The IPCC has been exposed as an abject failure too many times: it employs many former police officers, for a start. According to the home affairs select committee in 2013, it is “woefully under-equipped and hamstrung in achieving its original objectives.” Orgreave underlines how the IPCC cannot be trusted to scrutinise the police, and an independent inquiry must follow instead. | The IPCC has been exposed as an abject failure too many times: it employs many former police officers, for a start. According to the home affairs select committee in 2013, it is “woefully under-equipped and hamstrung in achieving its original objectives.” Orgreave underlines how the IPCC cannot be trusted to scrutinise the police, and an independent inquiry must follow instead. |
| But it is hard to see an inquiry under this government. It would help expose the role of the state in a dirty campaign to defeat the miners. This defeat was a seminal turning point in British history: it helped cement Margaret Thatcher’s project to remodel society, and represented a rout of the trade union movement from which they never recovered. If the miners – who had toppled Ted Heath’s government in 1974 – could not win, then nobody could win, or so went the sentiment among many trade unionists. Britain has “the most restrictive union laws in the western world,” as Tony Blair once boasted, and the current government is determined to make striking all but impossible with balloting thresholds, a six-person limit to pickets and the use of agency workers as strike breakers. This is the legacy of the miners’ strike, and it is not one the government would wish to see scrutinised. | But it is hard to see an inquiry under this government. It would help expose the role of the state in a dirty campaign to defeat the miners. This defeat was a seminal turning point in British history: it helped cement Margaret Thatcher’s project to remodel society, and represented a rout of the trade union movement from which they never recovered. If the miners – who had toppled Ted Heath’s government in 1974 – could not win, then nobody could win, or so went the sentiment among many trade unionists. Britain has “the most restrictive union laws in the western world,” as Tony Blair once boasted, and the current government is determined to make striking all but impossible with balloting thresholds, a six-person limit to pickets and the use of agency workers as strike breakers. This is the legacy of the miners’ strike, and it is not one the government would wish to see scrutinised. |
| What a sorry story for those who believe in justice. Whether you sympathise with the striking miners or not, they are British citizens. They have the right to be treated fairly, and to be protected from arbitrary violence and cover-ups on the part of the state. And when justice is denied for some, it can be denied to all of us. A good day for the state, a bad day for the rest of us. | What a sorry story for those who believe in justice. Whether you sympathise with the striking miners or not, they are British citizens. They have the right to be treated fairly, and to be protected from arbitrary violence and cover-ups on the part of the state. And when justice is denied for some, it can be denied to all of us. A good day for the state, a bad day for the rest of us. |