Andy Burnham’s growing stature has fuelled hopes of a Labour revival – but ALAN SIMPSON warns that Britain’s crisis runs far deeper than just its leadership and traces its roots to decades of financialised capitalism
‘‘We are trying in a small way to retrieve the landscape here and put it into a happier, family context, at least for a day.”
Barbara Jackson, secretary of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC), was speaking to the Morning Star a few hours before hundreds of people began making their way to Orgreave, site 30 years ago of state-organised violence against striking miners in retaliation for their audacity in fighting for their jobs, their industry, their families and their communities.
Pickets at Orgreave, the coking plant which provided fuel for Britain’s steel industry, were surrounded on three sides by massed ranks of police, armed and heavily clad cavalry and riot police wielding shields and batons.
A past confrontation permanently shaped the methods the state will use to protect employers against any claims by their employees, writes MATT WRACK, but unions are readying to face the challenge
KIM JOHNSON MP places the campaign in the context of the history of the working-class battles of the 1980s, and explains why, just like Orgreave and the Shrewsbury Pickets before it, justice today is so important for the struggles of tomorrow
The Home Secretary’s recent letter suggests the Labour government may finally deliver on its nine-year manifesto commitment, writes KATE FLANNERY, but we must move quickly: as recently as 2024 Northumbria police destroyed miners’ strike documents


