TODAY activists from across the country will gather in Sheffield city centre to rally and march for long overdue justice. Less than five miles away from the sounds of the brass bands and the colour of the banners, the previous site of the Orgreave coking plant bears no resemblance to the land on which blood was spilt as a result of the state-ordered police violence that took place there on June 18 1984 during the 1984-85 miners’ strike.
 
Forty years on from what was possibly the most sustained and violent attack on striking workers in Britain engineered in private by a government in recent history, are we in sight of an Orgreave inquiry?

The publication of the Labour Party manifesto earlier this week includes the declaration that a Labour government, if elected on July 4, will ensure, through an investigation or inquiry, that the truth about the events of Orgreave comes to light.

The Labour Party first committed to some kind of inquiry in its 2017 manifesto. Our campaign is pleased that once again the Labour manifesto goes to the electorate with this commitment.

If Labour does form the next government, we assure all our supporters that we will do all that we can to ensure that any investigation or inquiry is fit for purpose. It is imperative that any official investigation or inquiry achieves justice for all 95 miners and their families and communities who were falsely accused of offences of riot or unlawful assembly.

It must have the power to be decisive and unwavering in demanding any organisation with information that is still not in the public domain is produced. It must ensure that all the information that has been released into the public domain, as a result of our campaign’s work, and the work of others, is properly brought together to be scrutinised.

We are confident that Tory ministers and the prime minister themselves lied to Parliament and the public about their intense level of involvement and that an inquiry will prove this.

Parliament and the public were fed lie after lie from the number of planned pit closures and how ministers were directly involved in police tactics, to the meddling in the criminal justice system to charging strikers with more serious offences and demanding more serious sentences to be passed.

It took over a year for the trial of the first 15 of the 95 charged with offences from June 18 1984 to commence. This was the Tory Party’s show trial, a shameful and undemocratic attempt to manipulate our entire criminal justice system to convict the innocent.

The absolute impunity that the Tories and police chiefs acted with, is not just iniquitous but is also potentially corrupt. We are talking about a willingness to act dishonestly at the highest level of government for political reasons — to destroy organised labour so it could make way for a free-market economy.

Sadly, needing some kind of retributory process to address historic miscarriages of justice is nothing new, and seems to be snowballing. For us, as a campaign formed in 2012, when we see others suffering lies and cover-ups at the hands of any government, we naturally feel their hurt and frustration.
 
Will a government only agree to some kind of justice when it has to be dragged to a court, tribunal or inquiry? Are we now reliant on TV dramas and documentaries to make a government act? Are those of us who campaign and protest to achieve justice for historic miscarriages of justice unworthy of a hearing until some kind of celebrity is attached to the campaign?

Most of the mainstream media was not truthful about what it actually saw through its own camera lenses at Orgreave, on the build-up to and on the actual day of June 18 1984. We absolutely applaud the media that did try to shine a light on the obvious excessive police violence used without reason.
 
Sadly though, some broadcast media, in particular the BBC, failed to act as you would hope a public broadcasting service would. It is a truth well known that the footage of the police horse charges on June 18 1984 was edited in such a way that millions of viewers would presume striking miners had initiated violence which the police then acted on. Many years later the BBC did accept that there had been an editing “mistake.”
 
We have been made aware that the BBC retained its camera footage at Orgreave on June 18 and the unedited footage clearly shows that the narrative of the need for police horse charges followed by a snatch squad of police was completely fabricated. The edited film footage shown on the BBC evening news reached millions of viewers and gave the government the false narrative it had been asking for.
 
For 40 years the BBC have held that footage. It sat on it as it witnessed 95 miners wait for a year to potentially get sent to prison for life. It has sporadically engaged with our campaign to report on our calls for justice knowing that the truth was within its own organisation.
 
The truth about the police actions at Orgreave, which has been gathering dust for the last 40 years, is now digitalised — but not yet public. The BBC needs to be open about the existence of this footage. It is of such historic importance it should be made available to any inquiry or investigation and questions should be asked by that body as to why the BBC has been silent about it for 40 years.

This Saturday we will march with the same determined hope we have had since our campaign began 12 years ago.
 
A commitment from the Labour Party to order an investigation or inquiry if elected is in itself the shared achievement of everyone in the labour and trade union movement that has supported our campaign. It is proof that consistent well-organised grassroots activism from justice campaigners can work. Be part of what we have achieved and support our campaign.
 
Chris Peace is a criminal defence solicitor and an Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign activist — www.otjc.org.uk.