‘Long overdue': ’Wakefield Trades Council welcomes Orgreave inquiry 40 years after clashes at miners' strike
Wakefield Trades Council (WTC) has welcomed the ‘long overdue’ announcement of a National Inquiry into the Policing at Orgreave.
Forty years ago, Wakefield was in the centre of the strike when collieries around the district stopped working, and miners stood up for the future of employment in their communities.
Wakefield Trades Council stood with them then, organising support practical , food and financial – for them and their families.
The inquiry, expected to launch in the autumn, will investigate the events surrounding clashes at the Orgreave Coking Plant in 1984, causing 120 injuries.
In total, 95 picketers were arrested and initially charged with riot and violent disorder, but all charges were later dropped after evidence was discredited.
Miners who were at Orgreave and on other picket lines tell vivid account of how they were moved into restricted spaces, attacked and badly injured.
It is why the court cases against the miners collapsed.
People who have heard this testimony, their families and wider members of trade union movement, and the wider public, have been waiting for some accountability for the injustice that happened at Orgreave and on other picket lines.
Catherine Porritt Secretary of Wakefield Trades council said: “At every With Banners Held High festival in Wakefield, we have had speakers from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign describe what had happened at Orgreave, the injuries sustained and the impacts on lives since.
"We joined the campaign because we know that without the truth coming out there can be no justice.
"Previous Home Secretaries who chose not to hold an Inquiry have added to increasing distrust and disillusionment in the ex-mining communities.
This announcement has been a long time coming. We trust that all sources of evidence, from the Government files, from the BBC and
other news and media, will be called for and made available, to make up for any missing police evidence that may have been destroyed over this long time of waiting.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, MP for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley said: “Every community should have confidence in their police, but we know what happened at Orgreave cast a shadow over communities in Yorkshire and other mining areas.
"The violent scenes and subsequent prosecutions raised concerns that have been left unanswered for decades, and we must now establish what happened.
"I pay tribute to the campaigners who never stopped in their search for truth and justice, and I look forward to continuing to work with them as we build an inquiry that gets the answers they and their communities deserve.”
The Rt Revd Dr Pete Wilcox, the Bishop of Sheffield, has agreed to chair the inquiry, which is intended to aid the public’s understanding of how the events on the day, and immediately after, came to pass.
He said: “ I am extremely grateful to the Home Secretary for the opportunity to chair this inquiry and for the support I shall be given in doing so. I do not underestimate the weight of expectation or the significance of the task.
"I look forward to engaging with stakeholders in the coming weeks over the draft terms of reference, and to working with the government to identify experts to support me on the independent panel."