LONDON (AP) — The British government said Monday that it will hold a public inquiry into the “Battle of Orgreave,” a violent confrontation between police and striking coal miners that became a defining moment in the conflict between unions and then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government.
Some 120 miners and police were hurt when officers clashed with miners trying to stop trucks entering the Orgreave Coking Plant in northern England on June 18, 1984. It came three months into a nationwide strike over plans to close two dozen coal pits and lay of 20,000 miners.
The bitter dispute between the National Union of Mineworkers and the government was a decisive moment in Thatcher’s bid to break the power of trade unions and remake the U.K. economy along free-market lines. The strike ended in defeat for the miners after a year and hastened the end of British coal mining, which employed 180,000 people at the start of the strike. Today, no coal mines remain.
Campaigners have long called for an inquiry into why police from across the country were sent to Orgreave and what their orders were. Images of mounted police in riot gear charging stone-throwing miners with truncheons and dogs shocked and divided the nation.
Some 95 picketers were arrested and charged with riot and violent disorder, but all charges were later dropped after evidence from the police was discredited.
The Home Office said the inquiry will be led by Pete Wilcox, the bishop of Sheffield, and start in the fall. It will have the power to compel witnesses to testify under oath.
Kate Flannery, secretary of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, said the announcement of an inquiry was “really positive news.” She said it must be given “unrestricted access to all relevant information including government, police and media documents, photos and films.”
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the events 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,” she said.
