Column: The Orgreave inquiry is a victory for all coalfield communities
The government’s announcement of an inquiry into the events at Orgreave during the 1984-85 miners’ strike marks a historic moment. It is a moment of truth long overdue - a victory for the miners who never gave up, for the resolute organisers of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, and for the labour movement as a whole which has stood shoulder to shoulder with them for over four decades.
This announcement didn’t come out of nowhere. It is the direct result of unrelenting pressure from trade unions, campaigners, and the coalfield communities who were targeted by a government determined to crush them. Without their efforts - without the refusal of working-class people to allow this injustice to be buried - this inquiry would never have seen the light of day.
Many will remember the horrific images from that day in June 1984. The sight of mounted police charging at unarmed men, batons flying, remains burned into the memory of our people. These were men defending their jobs, their communities, their future - met not with negotiation, but with organised state violence.
I’ve talked to many of those men - now older, many still bearing the physical and emotional scars. I’ve heard how the police not only brutalised them but then lied about it in court. Dozens were arrested and falsely accused, only for their trials to collapse when those lies unravelled. But the damage had already been done.
Let’s call this what it was: a cover-up. A deliberate effort by the Conservative government of the day to portray miners as the aggressors, when it was the state that turned on its own citizens. The truth has been suppressed for 40 years. Justice has been delayed, but it cannot be denied forever.
When Thatcher’s government announced 20 pit closures in 1984, we said she planned to destroy the entire coal-mining industry. They called us liars but we were right. The legacy of that destruction still hangs over our communities today. Decades of underinvestment, broken promises and political neglect have held our towns and villages back. Yet through it all, the resilience of our people has never wavered.
I believe this inquiry must get to the heart of what happened - not just at Orgreave, but in the wider policing of the miners’ strike. It must expose how far the state was prepared to go to silence workers.
Now, we must keep up the fight for full justice - including proper reform of BCSSS pensions and real investment in coalfield areas.
We must also recognise that Orgreave is not the only example of police brutality, state cover-up and injustice suffered by working class communities in our country. My colleague, Ian Byrne, is pushing for a Hillsborough law to be passed that will place a duty on public officials to tell the truth. The government is wrong to resist this measure, which would help prevent prolonged injustices like Hillsborough and Orgreave.
The Orgreave inquiry is not just about the past. It’s about how we build a fairer future. And it’s proof that organised working class people, refusing to back down, can win.