Latest news with #NUM
The Independent
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
What happened at the Battle of Orgreave – and why is there an inquiry 40 years laster?
The government has announced it is launching a statutory inquiry into the violent policing at Orgreave during the infamous miner's strike of 1984. Dubbed the 'Battle of Orgreave' by historians, the event saw dozens of picketers and police injured in a morning clash with an estimated 14,000 participants. The inquiry will also look into the collapsed cases of the 95 miners accused of offences there, more than four decades after the events. Home secretary Yvette Cooper announced the inquiry having first informed campaigners last Thursday. She spoke from the site in Orgreave where the coking plant that was the target of the picketing was located. 'People have waited for answers for over 40 years,' she said. 'The scale of the clashes, the injuries, the prosecutions, the discredited evidence, all of those things – there's still so many unanswered questions.' 'I think the miners' strike still has deep scars across coalfield communities, and the decisions made at that time – the broadest decisions that were taken by the Thatcher government in the 1980s – the scars can still be felt across the coalfields.' Here's everything you need to know: What happened at the Battle of Orgreave? On 18 June 1984, one of the most brutal clashes in modern British policing history unfolded as workers organised by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) gathered to picket a South Yorkshire coking plant. The previous evening, NUM president Arthur Scargill addressed miners about plans for the following days' picket. Around 2,000 miners were due to visit Orgreave, a major plant near Rotherham where coal was processed into coke to be used in British Steel factories. Picketers begin gathering as early as 4am on the hot day, and by 7am are being guided in their thousands by police to a nearby field. Here, an estimated 6,000 police officers have assembled, and are facing around 8,000 picketers. Many of the officers are equipped with truncheons, riot shields, or on horseback. Just after 8am, empty wagons begin arriving to pick up coke from the plant. Miners begin pushing towards police line, and police push back. At this point, picketers recall struggling to keep their footing or even breathe in the crush. A few minutes later, the police line opens up, and officers on horses carrying long truncheons advance on the miners. Two more charges like this would take place within the hour, as one senior officer is filmed advising the police: 'Bodies, not heads.' The third charge is accompanied by snatch squads – police with batons and short shields – marking the first time this kind of unit had been deployed on the UK mainland. Miners that have not fled are dragged out of the crowd and pulled to the ground. One news report captures footage of a miner named Russell Broomhead being repeatedly hit in the head with a truncheon. Around 2,000 of the remaining miners are sent to another entrance to Orgreave, where there is another large field. Gates open at 10.15am, when around 30 lorries packed with coke leave the site. Pickets attempt to stop them, and more arrests are made, with allegations of more violence. It is during this final frenzy of activity that Mr Scargill is injured, claiming he had been hit by a police shield. He said: 'All I know is that these bastards rushed in and this guy hit me on the back of my head with a shield and I was out.' Police deny that Mr Scargill was hit by a shield. The lorries get through, and police continue to attempt to disperse remaining picketers. The horse charges and snatch squad activity continues until around 1pm, when the majority of the violence subsides. What was the aftermath? Following the clash, South Yorkshire Police was accused by critics of having pre-planned the violence and overstating the unlawful behaviour of the striking miners. This criticism was also lodged against then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who said the Orgreave picketers had attempted to 'substitute the rule of the mob for the rule of law,' adding that the strike action failed 'because of the magnificent police force well trained for carrying out their duties bravely and impartially.' The following year, the prosecution against 95 of the picketers charged with riot, unlawful assembly and similar offences collapsed. All charges were dropped after their barristers repeatedly accused police officers of lying. Michael Mansfield KC, who represented several of the miners in court, called the event 'the worst example of a mass frame-up in this country this century.' A number of lawsuits were subsequently brought against South Yorkshire Police for assault, unlawful arrest and malicious prosecution. The force would later agree to pay £425,000 compensation and £100,000 in legal costs to 39 picketers in an out-of-court settlement. To this day, the police have not admitted any fault, and no officer has been disciplined for misconduct, Why has an inquiry been launched now? The subsequent 41 years have seen several calls for an official inquiry into the events. In 2012, the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) was launched following the success of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign in forcing an investigation into police conduct in that event. However, in 2015, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said it would launch a formal investigation because too much time had passed. Prior to the July 2025 general election, the Labour Party led by Sir Keir Starmer promised to launch an inquiry into Orgreave should it secure victory. A year on from its election, the government has delivered on that promise. OTJC secretary, Kate Flannery, said: 'We have waited a long time for this day and this is really positive news. All these years of hard work by the OTJC and our many supporters has helped to influence this constructive announcement. 'We now need to be satisfied that the inquiry is given the necessary powers to fully investigate all the aspects of the orchestrated policing at Orgreave, and have unrestricted access to all relevant information including government, police and media documents, photos and films' The NUM president, Chris Kitchen, said: 'We are over the moon. We're hoping the inquiry will show that our dispute, which we believe was industrial, was political, orchestrated from No 10, or higher up the food chain towards No 10. 'We never came to this field to cause a riot or to deliberately lame people. I don't think that was the same for the police, who came tooled up, with a plan to injure us, and to try and get the public perception on their side and end the strike.' A spokesperson for South Yorkshire police said: 'We will fully cooperate with the inquiry in a bid to help those affected find answers.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
The confrontation at Orgreave: a visual timeline
The mass picket of the Orgreave coke works in 1984 has its origins in what has become known as the battle of Saltley Gate. It involved a mass picket of a Birmingham fuel depot and has been called the British miners' Agincourt. The picket was initially 400 miners from Yorkshire, led by a 34-year-old firebrand called Arthur Scargill, but was swelled by at least 15,000 engineering workers from surrounding factories. The picket was successful and helped bring Edward Heath's government to its knees. Heath, subsequently forced to introduce a three-day week, lost the election in 1974 while Scargill was propelled to national fame. A meeting is held at Silverwood Miners Welfare, in Rotherham. Scargill, now president of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), addresses miners about the following day's picket. He says 2,000 miners from South Yorkshire collieries would be at Orgreave, an enormous plant outside Rotherham where coal was processed into coke to be used in British Steel's vast factories, 40 miles east in Scunthorpe. That evening, miners from further afield arrive, staying overnight in places such as the Northern College, in Barnsley. Others sleep on floors. About 400 pickets gather near the plant. It is shaping up to be a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky. It was 'scorching' even at that time, recalled one picket. 'All the Scottish boys had their tops off, it was that warm,' he said. A union official is being filmed. 'They tell me it's the biggie,' he says, as men cheerfully stream behind him. Birds are singing. Spirits are high. The official continues: 'It's about seven o'clock. A few of us are here already. I'm told there's going to be thousands. Let's have a look, see what happens.' Police seem to be directing the miners to a field. Some play football. Nearby villagers bring out trays of orange juice and iced water. But why were they being guided by police? 'I'd never seen this before,' recalled one. 'Normally they'd stop you on the motorway and make you walk, six or seven miles.' When miners get over a railway bridge and on to a hill overlooking the plant they see some of what is to come. Police officers are lined up in staggering numbers in front of the plant. Bill Frostwick, a miner from Durham, recalled: 'They were so well organised, man, it was a trap. And we fell for it, went straight in.' The number of police, some on horseback, some with dogs, is remarkable. But so too is the number of miners, in jeans, trainers, T-shirts and no shirts, looking down at a motionless thick black wall of police, sometimes 10-deep. There are an estimated 8,000 pickets facing 6,000 officers. A unit of riot police carrying long shields is ordered to move in front of the lines of uniformed police guarding the coking plant. Tensions are rising. 'It was something out of Gladiator or some Roman film,' said one. 'It was just beyond belief.' Empty wagons start arriving to pick up coke from the plant. Miners push towards the police line and police push back. Pickets who were there recall struggling to keep their feet on the ground or even breathe. The police line opens and officers on horses, carrying staves twice as long as truncheons, advance on the miners. Hundreds of miners can be seen running, trying to get out of the way before the police ride their horses back and the ranks close up. Stones are being thrown towards the police. There is footage of police in uniform trying to avoid missiles. There is a second horse charge. As they return, police applaud and bang their batons on their shields. A third charge. This time they are accompanied by snatch squads of police with batons and short shields, the first time they have been used on the UK mainland. A senior officer can be heard on film shouting into a megaphone: 'Bodies not heads!' Lesley Boulton, the subject of what has become one of the most famous photographs taken on the day, recalled: 'There were policemen on foot with short shields, laying about people with truncheons. I was numb with shock. This was violence far in excess of anything I'd ever witnessed.' Miners are being dragged out of the crowd and pulled to the ground. A TV news crew captures footage of Russell Broomhead being repeatedly bludgeoned over the head with a truncheon. About 2,000 miners are sent to another entrance to Orgreave where there is another large field. The gates open and aabout 30 coke-laden lorries begin to drive out. Pickets begin moving forward to try to stop the lorries. Arrests, along with more allegations of brutality, are made. The lorries get through. The police launch new attempts to clear the area of pickets. There are more horse charges and more snatch squads of officers with short batons. Miners can be seen running as fast as they can to get out of the field. Scargill sits dazed and injured after being hit, he says, by a police shield. 'All I know is that these bastards rushed in and this guy hit me on the back of my head with a shield and I was out.' The police deny that Scargill was hit by a shield. The trouble subsides. In two late-night sittings of Rotherham magistrates court, scores of arrested arrested miners are charged with criminal offences and given bail. The newspaper headlines and stories focus on Scargill being treated for minor injuries. 'Scargill in hospital after bloody battle of Orgreave,' is the headline on the lead story in the Times. 'Blackest day for pit strike violence,' is the headline in the Guardian, which reports that the battle lasted for 10 hours. The Labour MP Tony Benn said the scenes amounted 'in some cases to almost civil war proportions', the Guardian reports. Sources include the documentary film Strike: An Uncivil War, on Netflix, and Robert Gildea's book, Backbone of the Nation.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Orgreave papers destroyed by police thought to include report on notorious truncheon beating
Documents destroyed by police relating to operations at Orgreave during the miners' strike in 1984 are believed to include a report on a notorious incident in which an officer beat a man over the head with a truncheon. In the ITV News at 10 report on the violent scenes at Orgreave, the officer, PC Martin of Northumbria police, was seen hitting the miner, Russell Broomhead, several times with his truncheon. Northumbria police have been widely criticised since confirming that in April last year they destroyed two boxes of documents relating to the strike and the Orgreave operation. That was just months before a general election that the Labour party, which had a longstanding pledge to hold an inquiry into what happened at Orgreave, was expected to win. The timing led to accusations that the force had destroyed the documents to avoid scrutiny of its officers' actions. At the Orgreave coking plant on 18 June 1984 an estimated 8,000 miners assembled for a mass picket called by the National Union of Mineworkers, met by 4,500 police officers from forces nationwide, led by South Yorkshire police. The violence that took place, with police charging on horseback and hitting miners with truncheons, is remembered as a landmark confrontation of the bitter 1984-85 strike. A criminal prosecution of 95 miners for riot and unlawful assembly collapsed a year later after the miners' barristers repeatedly accused police officers of lying and malpractice. The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) has for years called for an inquiry into the police operation and the failed prosecutions. Northumbria police previously confirmed that they held documents relevant to the policing at Orgreave, including a report by a superintendent who was the liaison officer for 92 officers sent to South Yorkshire. In 2016 Northumbria's then chief constable, Steve Ashman, wrote to Yvette Cooper, then the chair of the home affairs select committee, explaining that the superintendent's report detailed an incident involving a police constable. 'This officer was believed to have been involved in striking a 'picket' with his truncheon,' Ashman wrote. 'This incident is identified as been [sic] the subject of television news reporting … the superintendent's report details how [the PC] was 'reported' for the offence of assault to the director of public prosecutions (DPP). The report further outlines that the DPP subsequently decided there would be no criminal prosecution in the case.' Joe Diviney, a historian at the University of Sheffield who is researching a PhD on the Orgreave events, pointed out that this appeared clearly to be the PC Martin incident. Martin was identified, including in police documents, as the officer who struck Broomhead, and a report was sent to the DPP who decided, on the same day Martin was interviewed, not to bring charges. During an interview under caution, Martin denied wrongdoing, and said of the Orgreave policing: 'It's not a case of me going off half cock. The senior officers, supers and chief supers were there and getting stuck in too – they were encouraging the lads and I think their attitude to the situation affected what we all did.' Broomhead told the Guardian: 'I would still like truth and accountability for what happened. If something is wrong, it stays wrong. I never knew in all these years that a superintendent had written a report on the incident that involved me. It's unbelievable that the police can throw that document away, without asking me and people it affects.' Kate Flannery, secretary of the OTJC, said: 'It now seems highly likely that one of the documents destroyed by Northumbria police could relate to the PC Martin attack. Any destruction of important information relating to violent police attacks on striking miners means that crucial evidence is no longer available to an Orgreave inquiry. 'This all adds to the many concerns we have about police cover-ups and justice being denied.' A Northumbria police spokesperson said last month that the documents had been 'disposed of … in line with force policy and the Data Protection Act 2018'. After criticism, including by the Labour MP Ian Lavery, the force has since said it is investigating its own decision-making. 'We very much recognise the strength of feeling and concern within our communities at the disposal of information relating to the miners' strike,' a spokesperson said. 'We can confirm, we are carrying out an investigation into the circumstances around the disposal of the material.' The Archives and Records Association is calling for police documents to be preserved by law. The association's chair, Ruth MacLeod, said: 'Many people have no idea that police records, which are important for accountability, can be so easily destroyed. There needs to be legislation to protect them, and prevent the kind of destruction that has happened in Northumbria.'
Eyewitness News
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
NUM National Congress: Affiliates hope internal battles won't eclipse workers' challenges
JOHANNESBURG - Some National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) affiliates say they hope internal battles in the NUM won't get in the way of addressing key challenges that workers in the mining, energy and construction industries face. The union is holding its 18th National Congress in Boksburg on Thursday. Incumbent NUM President Dan Balepile is running for a second term and is vying against his deputy, Phillip Vilakazi, for the union's top position. The ongoing conference has again laid bare the internal factions troubling one of the country's oldest mining unions. Speaking for the global sub-Saharan industrial union, Elijah Chitowa says despite the clear competitive spirit in the race for new leadership, unity among union members remains key. 'It's important for a trade union organisation to have a congress so as to strengthen its own internal democracy, change of leadership and also the resilience that has been shown by the NUM, especially because it's not the only union organising workers in mining in South Africa.'
Eyewitness News
27-06-2025
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
Phillip Vilakazi unseats Dan Balepile to become NUM's new president
JOHANNESBURG - In a surprising twist of events at the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) 18th national congress in Boksburg on Thursday night, Phillip Vilakazi has unseated his boss, Dan Balepile, to become the union's new president. Vilakazi took on Balepile during a three-day conference in a heated race in the country's oldest mining union. ALSO READ: NUM National Congress: Affiliates hope internal battles won't eclipse workers' challenges Having joined the NUM, Vilakazi became the union's deputy president during the union's 16th national congress in June 2018. With a total of 747 ballots, Vilakazi beat Balepile by 80 votes. Olehile Kgware is the new deputy president. Mpho Phakedi will run the union's engine room as the general secretary and will be deputised by Phillip Mankge. Hellen Diatile returns as the national treasurer general. A special congress will be held within a month to finalise the congress's unfinished business.
