teifidancer: 32 years anniversary of the battle of Orgreave

Saturday, 18 June 2016

32 years anniversary of the battle of Orgreave

On this day in 1984, the battle of Orgreave took place when striking miners faced off against thousands of police under the jurisdiction of Margaret Thatcher as they attempted to blockade the Orgreave coking plant. The police showed the lengths they would go to break the strike with violent attacks, mass arrests and deliberate but fortunately unsuccessful attempts to fabricate evidence and frame miners. The insult was added to by the BBC reversing footage of miners defending themselves from police attacks to try and make out that the police were attacked first.
It was one of the most brutal attacks by the state on its own citizens of the last 20th Century.It saw the police going berserk under state orders, repeatedly attacking individuals wherever they sought refuge, as they fled into a nearby Wheatfield and into the community of Orgreave, where the police carried on their pursuit through the streets. A scene of ugliness, fear and menace, as all concepts of Law and order that the constabulary were supposed to withhold abandoned all its basic principles.
At the end the day over 100 people were arrested, for no crime whatever, with many more being injured along with the Miners leader Arthur Scargill. Following Orgreave, the police conducted a deliberate and co-ordinated attempt to frame arrested miners for one of the most serious events on the statute book - the offence of Riot. No police officer has ever been prosecuted or even disciplined for their role in the terrible events that occurred.

The miners strike of 1984 was one of the longest and most brutal in British labour history. A community fighting for jobs and survival was wholly denigrated and depicted as violent by the majority of the media. 32 years later many still seek some form of justice.Today all the victims of this bloody confrontation,are simply asking for an apology for the actions taken out against them. We should never forget, today the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) are calling on supporters to join them in a march and rally for truth and justice at 5pm at The Old Bridge, Orgreave Lane, Sheffield S13 9NE. Supporters are encouraged to commemorate the day when 95 miners were arrested and wrongfully charged and many others were violently assaulted and wounded by a police force charging on horseback and wielding truncheons.
The huge demand for a public inquiry since the Hillborough verdict should help to expose the real truth of what happened on that day, achieve justice and make it easier for both the mining community and the police to move on

For further details of the Orgreave Peace and Justice Campaign

I refer you to this excellent site

http://otjc.org.uk/

An earlier post on the 30th anniversary of the Miners Strike can be found here

http://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/30th-anniversary-of-miners-strike-their.html