The Tories introduced the 50% strike ballot threshold to make industrial action harder. MATT WRACK argues that a Labour government has no justification for leaving it on the statute book
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Justice at last for Scottish miners
Last month Holyrood announced it would formally pardon hundreds of those involved in the strike of 1984-85 – a decision that follows many years of campaigning. JIM PHILLIPS reports
Former miners outside of the Scottish Parliament last month
In the wake of Ann Widdecombe’s murder, JOHN GREEN wonders whether the government will really get to grips with the root cause of these attacks on our MPs
The new PM’s opening addresses offered hope, council homes and reform — but little detail on how any of it will be delivered, warns CLAUDIA WEBBE
Despite the screeching from the right-wing media, Burnham’s speech chimed with the public mood - and socialists should take advantage, says Morning Star editor BEN CHACKO
Scotland's Labour leader cannot continue to evade responsibility for the party's decline, argues LAUREN HARPER
Nature as well as society works dialectically, asserts the Marx Memorial Library and Workers’ School
THE Scottish government agreed in principle on October 28 to a collective and posthumous pardon for 500-plus miners who were convicted in Scotland for breach of the peace or breach of bail during the 1984-85 strike.
Cabinet Secretary for Justice Humza Yousaf announced the decision in the Scottish Parliament following publication of the final report of the Independent Review of policing in Scotland during the strike, chaired by John Scott QC.
Miners in Scotland and other coalfield areas in Britain experienced serious injustice in two ways in 1984-85.
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IAN LAVERY MP warns that decades of neoliberal policies have left former industrial communities behind — but a renewed Labour commitment to working people could change the political landscape
The public inquiry is the result of more than a decade of determined campaigning. Now, those who fought for justice want the full story of government involvement and police conduct to be told, says KATE FLANNERY
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