Peter Lazenby
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HUNDREDS of campaigners marched and rallied in Sheffield on Saturday demanding justice for mineworkers violently attacked and falsely arrested by police at a cokeworks during the 1984-5 strike against pit closures.
Angry speeches demanding a public inquiry into the vicious attack at Orgreave, near Rotherham in South Yorkshire, were cheered and applauded as speakers also demanded a wider investigation into mass police assaults on mining communities in Yorkshire, Scotland, north-east England and other coalfields.
The attack on pickets by thousands of police happened on June 18 1984, and the march and rally, organised by the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC), marked the 39th anniversary of the event.
National Union of Mineworkers general secretary Chris Kitchen told the rally: “It’s difficult to imagine that 39 years later we are still campaigning to reveal the truth about what happened at Orgreave.
“We need to know who took the decision to incite a police riot that day. For us there is no time limit on justice.”
Yvette Williams of the Justice for Grenfell Campaign said it was vital that all the campaigns for justice united, including Orgreave, Grenfell, blacklisting, Shrewsbury and more.
“There are more of us than them,” she said.
Civil Service union PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka pledged his union’s continuing support for justice for the Orgreave miners and called for a united campaign against new anti-strike laws.
A short march through Sheffield city centre was headed by OTJC organisers carrying a banner stating: “Defend the right to protest.”
