The Battle of Orgreave

The Battle of Orgreave occurred on June 18, 1984, at a British Steel Corporation (BSC) coking plant in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, between pickets and officers of the South Yorkshire Police (SYP) and other police forces, including the Metropolitan Police. It was a watershed moment in the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike, as well as one of the bloodiest clashes in British industrial history. According to journalist Alastair Stewart, it was "a defining and ghastly moment" that "changed, forever, the conduct of industrial relations and how this country functions as an economy and as a democracy." The majority of media accounts at the time described it as "an act of self-defense by police who had come under attack." In 2015, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) reported that there was "evidence of excessive violence by police officers; a false narrative from police exaggerating violence by miners; perjury by officers giving evidence to prosecute the arrested men; and an apparent cover-up of that perjury by senior officers".

Tristram Hunt, a historian, described the clash as "almost medieval in its choreography... at various stages a siege, a battle, a chase, a rout, and, finally, a brutal example of legalised state violence." 71 picketers were charged with rioting, while 24 were charged with violent disorder. At the time, rioting was a capital offense punishable by life in prison. The trials were halted when the police evidence was deemed "untrustworthy."

Gareth Peirce, who represented some of the pickets, stated that the charge of rioting was used "to make a public example of people, as a device to assist in breaking the strike," while Michael Mansfield called it "the worst example of a mass frame-up in this country this century." In June 1991, the SYP paid £425,000 in compensation to 39 miners for assault, wrongful arrest, unlawful detention and malicious prosecution.

Following the 2016 Hillsborough inquest verdict, previously censored documents implying links between the actions of senior SYP officers at both incidents were made public. This prompted renewed calls for a public inquiry into the police actions at Orgreave. Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced in October 2016 that there would be no statutory inquiry or independent review in an Oral Answer to a Question in the House of Commons, a written ministerial statement to the House of Commons and Lords, and a letter to the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC). South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings admitted in 2016 that the SYP was "dangerously close to being used as an instrument of state."

Date: 18 June 1984
Location: Orgreave, South Yorkshire, England

Type: Civil disorder

Non-fatal injuries: 123

Arrests: 95

Cause: the South Yorkshire police force to blame the victims