Campaigners for an inquiry into the Tories’ most vicious state attack on organised workers will renew their demands. Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign will march through the streets of Sheffield in South Yorkshire today.
Thirty-nine years after baton-swinging police cavalry charged into defenseless striking miners. The campaigners will show their continuing determination to hold those responsible to account. They said that an inquiry would “put an end to years of lies and cover-ups by the Conservative government about the political role they played”.
What happened in 1980s?
The conservative government played an orchestrating role in managing the pit closure programme in the 1980s. Directing materialistic police operations in an industrial dispute and manipulating the courts and media to manufacture a false narrative to demonize and criminalize workers for their jobs and communities.
What role did the Police play?
On 1984, the police who previously prevented pickets from travelling freely, often smashed their cars windscreens and headlights. Ushered thousand of striking miners in a field next to the coking plant at Orgreave in South Yorkshire. When the miners were hemmed in mounted police wearing body amour charged which was followed by waved of police riots. The confrontation has been described as “the Battle of Orgreave”.
What has Tory government done all these years?
The Tory government has refused pardons and an inquiry into the atrocity, despite evidence of the police’s actions. OTJC secretary Kate Flannery said: “No-one in government or the police has ever been held to account for what the government directed and the police did. “The Tory government’s attempts to sweep malicious and dangerous government and police conduct under the carpet will not make it go away. It is a serious threat to our already declining democracy.”
The Tories are afraid of the Orgreave inquiry which would expose their scandals, corruption and attempts to stifle dissent. They have recently organized a whole raft of Draconian policing, anti-strike and anti-protest legislation to criminalize and shut things up.
The Right to protest and the right to strike should not be a gift from the state. It should be our basic right! It is what people expect in a democracy. But democracy in Capitalist regime is nothing but democracy for some and dictatorship for the mass. Today’s march and rally begins at 1 PM at City Hall, Barker Pool.
WhatsOn stands united with Orgreave in FAVOR of justice for the miner workers!!
