ORGREAVE campaigners have told the government that they are not going away until their fight for justice is won.

The Orgreave Truth and Justice campaign marked the 36th anniversary of the 1984 police attack on striking miners at the Yorkshire coking plant on Saturday.

The event marked the campaign group’s first online rally as the coronavirus lockdown prevented them from holding their traditional annual rally at the site of the attack.

Hundreds attended to hear those representing justice campaigns on a wide range of issues including the Shrewsbury 24, construction blacklisting, Grenfell and Hillsborough, and relatives of people killed in police custody or unjustly imprisoned.

National Union of Mineworkers general secretary Chris Kitchen said that the online rally “should send a message to the Tory government that we are not going away, because if the coronavirus pandemic cannot stop us, neither will the refusal by the government to hold an inquiry into what happened at Orgreave.”

Film director Ken Loach challenged Labour leader Keir Starmer to choose which side of the struggle he is on by issuing “a principled set of demands” in the interests of working people.

In a message to the rally he said: “The current leadership of the Labour Party is in danger of falling back into the old position of making no serious demands for change.

“Labour should be calling — loudly and clearly — for an end to privatisation, all employees on union contracts, a National Care Service, all properly funded.

“What do we get now? Simply an attack on Johnson’s incompetence. He and his bunch are certainly incompetent but where is the principled set of demands? 

“People are desperate for the big ideas that will bring social justice and security for all. Why aren’t Keir Starmer and his team putting them forward, in simple clear language?”

Mr Loach said that the Orgreave atrocity “reminds us, if we needed to be reminded, that the instruments of the state are there to protect the interests of those with power and privilege.

“We needed in 1984, and we need now, political leaders who understand that reality, and who pursue the interests of ordinary, working-class people.”