Orgreave

The decision of Amber Rudd not to hold a Public Inquiry into the Battle of Orgreave should come as no surprise.  It took twenty-five years just to get a decent report on Hillsborough, and the actions of the police.  But, Hillsborough was not an overtly class issue.  Orgreave was!  The Tories, even now a quarter of a century after the event have no intention of having any inquiry designed to uncover the truth of what happened on that day, because, unlike Hillsborough, where the blame can be placed upon the police, the responsibility for Orgreave rests entirely on the padded shoulders of Maggie Thatcher and her government of that time.

It was Thatcher's government that brought in the measures that prevented British workers moving freely around the country, that sanctioned widespread spying on workers and their families, that used a large scale programme of undercover cops infiltrating the labour movement, including their use as agents provocateurs, that brought in troops dressed as police, but without any numbers on their uniforms, and so on.

We should give no encouragement to the illusion that the bosses state could ever undertake an honest inquiry into the events at Orgreave, or during the strike as a whole.  If the Labour Party, the TUC and the rest of the Labour Movement wants an honest investigation into the role of the police and the rest of the state apparatus, including the role of the mass media, they should do it themselves.

We do not need a Public Inquiry into Orgreave, we need a Workers Inquiry!