JUSTICE FOR COALFIELDS DEMANDED

The 1984 cabinet papers released earlier this month revealed the true scale of the divide and rule politics at the heart of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government.

It was confirmed that, despite denials, at the time there was a secret plan to close 75 pits at the cost of some 65,000 jobs, that the Conservative government sought to influence police tactics to escalate the dispute and Mrs Thatcher even actively considered declaring a state of emergency and deploying the Army to defeat the miners, their families and the unions.

We now know the miners’ strike was not simply an industrial dispute but the consequence of government policy driven by an economic ideology which sought the destruction of a way of life.

Today, Labour is launching a campaign, ‘Justice for the Coalfields’. We are calling on the Government to do three things:

• Make a formal apology for the actions of the previous Conservative Government during the time of the strike
• Set out all details of the interactions between the Government and the police at the time of the strike
• Release all information about government-police communications specifically around Orgreave, with a proper investigation which might go a little way to rebuild public confidence, as Yvette Cooper has called for previously

The 30th Orgreave anniversary is an opportunity to begin to put right some of the wrongs that were inflicted on the coalfield communities during the strike. Between now and June 18th Labour will campaign for Conservative ministers to apologise and increase transparency to begin to foster reconciliation with coalfields communities.

We all know that lasting damage was done by the then government – something which is still being felt today. This is an opportunity to for the Conservatives to begin to make amends.