THE Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign was established over 10 years ago to seek justice for miners, their families and communities affected, by the state-directed police violence at the Orgreave coking plant on June 18 1984.

We mark the anniversary each year on the nearest Saturday to June 18 and this year our anniversary march and rally will be held in Sheffield on Saturday June 17.

The anniversary rallies are always a vibrant day of community and comradeship, dignity and determination and a chance for miners and supporters active during the strike to share stories with new supporters, some of whom weren’t even born at the time of the strike.

However, amid the firmness of purpose, there is always a sad realisation of the injustice suffered and the lack of accountability that still prevails.

Every year we note an increased number of miners, woman activists from Women Against Pit Closures and others active in the 1984-85 struggle who aren’t there as they have passed since last year’s rally without seeing justice for the actions of the Tory government of the day. Justice has now been delayed and denied for 39 years.

The ’84-85 miners’ strike was a pivotal moment in our trade union history, with the Thatcher government determined to crush the strong National Union of Mineworkers and then the whole trade union movement, to advance their political agenda of selling off our nationalised industries to the private sector.

The result is clear to be seen in Tory Britain today, with private-sector jobs and employment rights in the hands of a greedy free market and the public sector suffering from unprecedented cuts and asset stripping.

Wages are failing to keep up with the cost of basic needs of food, bills and housing, despite many sectors celebrating staggering profits. Since the miners’ strike, trade unions have arguably faced more anti-trade union legislation than any other country. Some workers have felt unable to fight back.

The policing of the whole ’84-85 miners’ strike was planned as a paramilitary operation. The police violence on the fields and streets around Orgreave resulted in serious physical injuries to many miners at the hands of charging, mounted police with long batons, and the snatch squads of police with short shields and short batons that followed.

There was a deliberate plan to terrorise those present with dogs and tactics similar to “kettling.” Many miners still suffer, both physically and psychologically, from the extreme police violence that the state ordered to be utilised that day.

In considering government and police papers that are now in the public domain, the work of our campaign and others, such as Morag Livingstone and Matt Foot in their book Charged, confirms what many believed at the time: the police were not acting independently but rather as the arm of the state.

We continue to fight for the release of police papers embargoed until 2066 and our new discovery of papers relating to some of the miners arrested on June 18, 1984, embargoed until 2071.

Orgreave and the whole miners’ strike was a turning point in how protest is policed, and how the state will stop at nothing to not just limit, but crush dissent. The occupation of pit villages and the curtailment of free movement for those residents is still a dark shadow on our social and political history.

The policing of protest today is one of the most controversial and political acts of the current government, and you can go back four decades to look at how such an aggressive model has been developed and is now further legislated for in the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act, which received royal assent earlier this year.

The action of the Metropolitan Police in implementing the latter at the coronation last month shows a determination on the part of the current government to ensure a regime of anti-protest.

Alongside this, the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill seeks to further curtail trade union rights, no doubt in response to the widespread demands of workers for better jobs, pay and conditions.

In short, whether you are resisting racism or the fascism of the far right, fighting climate change or asserting your trade union rights, objecting to the monarchy or fighting against historic miscarriages of justice as we are, the new and proposed legislation of this government has you in its gaze and wants to suppress you. The new Serious Disruption Prevention Orders put justice campaigners like us at risk of being criminalised simply for campaigning for justice.

It is no wonder that activists and workers new to the struggle and trade union movement are supporting our campaign. They can see the similarities between the rhetoric and attacks of the Thatcher government and the mainstream media against the miners in the 1980s and the same attacks from the same people on their current struggles.

Understanding what our campaign is about is shaping their understanding of the intention and actions of two Tory governments nearly 40 years apart.

We are grateful to everyone who has supported us and look forward to seeing you at our rally next Saturday. We have an incredible array of speakers including Yvette Williams, director of Justice For Grenfell, Mark Serwotka, general secretary of PCS, film director Morag Livingstone, Chris Kitchen, general secretary of the NUM, Neil Findlay, former MSP campaigner for Scottish miners, Jodie Beck of Liberty and John Dunn, arrested striking miner and activist in the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign.

It not only is heartening to see the support for our campaign growing and to have new comrades standing with us, but it is essential to ensure that Orgreave, and the fight for justice for the miners, remains a priority for today’s labour and trade union movement.

Chris Peace is a criminal defence solicitor and an activist for the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign.

The Orgreave anniversary rally and march take place on Saturday June 17 2023, starting at 1pm, at Barkers Pool, Sheffield, S1 2JA — full details at www.otjc.org.uk.