BY ALAN JONES


Who would have ever thought that the new leader of the Conservative party could have a huge bearing on long-running campaigns for justice?


But in the UK’s current political roller coaster ride it could be prime minister Theresa May that helps to end 32 years of injustice by ordering an inquiry into events at Orgreave on June 18, 1984, during the bitter miners’ strike.


Unite has backed the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) in its demand for a public inquiry, along the lines of the Hillsborough-style independent panel.


As home secretary, Ms May indicated a willingness to consider the request and on July 20 new home secretary Amber Rudd announced she would meet with them after the summer recess.


An inquiry could also boost another campaign to release official government papers, relating to the 1972 building workers’ strike, or what has become known as the Shrewsbury 24.


Building workers including actor Ricky Tomlinson went on trial, and three were jailed for unlawful assembly and affray.


Unite has complained of a “conspiracy of silence” against the Shrewsbury 24 and has been a strong supporter of the efforts to have official papers published to establish the role of the government in the arrests.


Joe Rollin (pictured), Unite north east regional organiser, has been heavily involved in the Orgreave campaign and helped with an 86-page legal submission to Theresa May.


Joe told uniteWORKS, “We spent six months putting together a legal submission after Theresa May said she would welcome a call for a public inquiry.


“We are waiting for a meeting with her successor. She might want to show she’s not a ‘Margaret Thatcher mark II’ over the treatment of mining communities.”


“The demand for the government to set up an inquiry has become immense,” he said. “People from all over the country are telling us they have written to Theresa May urging her to speed up the decision she promised when we made our legal submission to her last year.


“After Hillsborough the demand for accountability of those to whom we entrust the responsibility for ensuring law and order in our communities has become unanswerable.”


A total of 95 miners were arrested at what became known as the Battle of Orgreave, when thousands of police officers, many in riot gear, and others on horseback, clashed with pickets outside a coking plant.


When the cases came to court they were all abandoned after the evidence by South Yorkshire Police was discredited and later the force made out of court settlements to 39 miners.


No police officers were ever charged of any offence despite allegations of assault, perjury, perverting the course of justice and misconduct in a public offence.


The violent scenes were some of the most shocking of the strike and left a legacy of mistrust of police in mining communities and anger at the way miners were treated.


Part of the legal submission reads, “Trust will never truly be restored until we find out the entire truth about Orgreave, which involved multiple police forces and multiple mining communities and the wider policing of the miners’ strike.


“We therefore urge you to seize the oppor-tunity to build bridges between the police and those still troubled by how and whether police forces – ostensibly there to serve their community – were used against one.”


The Shrewsbury 24 also want the truth. Ricky Tomlinson, Des Warren and John McKinsie Jones went to prison and 21 other building workers faced trial at Shrewsbury Crown Court.


Tomlinson, famed for his role as Jim Royle in the Royle Family, says it feels as though the Conservatives are waiting for everyone involved in the case to die before official papers are released.


The former TGWU member said the legal action “completely wrecked” lives, with many of the workers blacklisted.


Tomlinson has often spoken movingly about the 1972 strike, which lasted for 12 weeks and led to the highest pay rise in the history of the industry.


27 uniteWORKS Summer 2016


Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said, “There is something deeply wrong in this country when a 21st century government uses national security to withhold documents about ordinary working people who tried to improve working conditions four decades ago.


“We believe the Tories are desperately trying to hide the stench of a great miscarriage of justice.”


Eileen Turnbull from the Shrewsbury campaign, believes the support of unions – and Unite in particular, will help achieve success eventually.


“Len McCluskey has always given us 100 per cent support, speaking on platforms around the country and promoting the campaign through Unite. Without Unite’s support we wouldn’t be where we are today,” she told uniteWORKS.


Howard Beckett, Unite legal director, believes the Hillsborough inquiry will help achieve justice for the Orgreave and Shrewsbury campaigns.


“It is extraordinary that the Shrewsbury papers have not been released. We are talking about a conspiracy and blacklisting of workers – exactly what happened in the construction blacklist scandal.


“The same factors keep coming up, and they need to be exposed. The Shrewsbury case feeds into the blacklisting litigation we took – it is all about victimisation of trade unionists, and how far the State was involved.


“There is a feeling that Hillsborough will help open up the secrecy around the Orgreave and Shrewsbury cases – it just depends how long it takes for the truth to come out.”


In its 2015 manifesto Labour pledged to release all the relevant papers on the Shrewsbury case if it was returned to power, and a number of the party’s MPs and front bench spokesmen have supported the campaign.


But on October 23 last year, the Tory government announced its intention to continue to withhold the documents from public scrutiny for a further six years.


The next review is scheduled for 2021, but as Jim Royle would say – justice my a**e.


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