THERE is a widely accepted belief that we live in a democratic country where the rule of law is upheld — maybe not always by each and every citizen, but surely by the state institutions which are there to enforce the rule of law. 

We also commonly believe that our democratic state treats everybody the same and that it treats all its citizens, however rich or poor, with dignity.  

Now think again. Imagine a state was and possibly is actively trying to undermine a group of working people and trade unionists by eliminating their livelihoods — crushing their peacefully exercised right to strike for better pay and conditions and helping construction employers spy on their workers and barring them from working. 

Does this sounds more like a foreign authoritarian country? In fact it describes how the British state has over decades treated and conspired against its citizens — at least a section of them, the allegedly inconvenient, recalcitrant working class. 

In 1973, in a major state conspiracy against construction workers, 24 workers were arrested, prosecuted and convicted in the so-called Shrewsbury picket trials. Six of the workers received a custodial sentence, the other 18 a suspended sentence. 

The whole prosecution and trial was based on a conspiracy between the Conservative government, the police and the influential construction employers, seeking to intimidate workers following their rightful demands for better wages and conditions.  

The Shrewsbury trials were one of the biggest miscarriages of justice in British legal history. 

But even now the Establishment continues to conspire against the Shrewsbury campaigners by refusing to release documents relating to the strike and prosecutions. 

It is great news that earlier this year construction workers’ union Ucatt secured a Labour Party commitment to release and place in the public domain all documents related to the Shrewsbury trials if it is back in government next year.

A decade after the Shrewsbury trials, this time it was miners who were at the receiving end of government forces. 

My family and I, along with my comrades in the National Union of Mineworkers, felt the full force of the state which conspired with the security forces to crush whole communities and wipe out the NUM. Over 11,000 workers were arrested, 5,000 had to stand trial for varying offences. A large number of strikers were brutally beaten up by police. 

In a more subtle way, welfare benefits of the strikers’ dependents were curtailed and “urgent needs” payments were stopped, with the aim of starving the strikers’ families and making them withdraw their support for the cause. 

As if that was not enough, MI5 decided to tap the phones — among other tactics — of our union leaders.  

Scotland was disproportionately affected with 206 out of 1,000 miners sacked by the end of the strike. Whole communities were destroyed and left destitute. 

More recently, another evil case of state conspiracy against workers has come to light. In 2009, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) exposed details of a large-scale surveillance operation run by a company called the Consulting Association. 

This company, made up and funded by household construction names such as Sir Robert McAlpine, Skanska and Balfour Beatty, collated files on thousands of construction workers and sold and exchanged the information to blacklist workers. 

Though court proceedings are ongoing at the moment, so far all 44 companies have escaped without penalty and are refusing to accept their guilt in this scandal.

Workers had their lives ruined, unable to find employment in the construction industry, blacklisted for their trade union activities or for raising health and safety concerns. 

What is more, documents and a recent court case reveal that the police and security services may have been complicit in the Consulting Association’s activities. 

Operation Herne has published three reports into the activities of the Special Demonstration Squad — an undercover unit formed by the Metropolitan Police’s Special Branch in 1968, to infiltrate British protest groups. 

The second report, called Allegations of Peter Francis and published in March 2014, investigates the claims of the former undercover agent Peter Francis. 

Francis had claimed that he had passed on intelligence to the Consultation Association which was then found on the blacklist.

In addition, we know from documents released by the ICO that the National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit — a unit that was organised and funded by and reporting to the Association of Chief Police Officers — met board members of the Consulting Association. 

This is why Ucatt has pushed hard for a full-blown public inquiry into the case. And through Ucatt’s determination it has secured a commitment that should Labour come to power next May there will be an inquiry that is transparent and public. 

Unfortunately, there are many more cases of state or police collusion, Hillsborough and Orgreave among them. 

But what should have become clear in these cases is that, again and again, workers have been the victims of the Establishment. In particular the confident, active workers, often trade unionists, who are speaking up to defend their jobs, limbs and livelihoods. 

This is outrageous in the 21st century and it is time that attacks on workers were stopped and details of the conspiracies are exposed in full.  

David Hamilton is Labour MP for Midlothian.