Lesley Boulton at Orgreave
The photograph depicts the moment when Lesley Boulton, an observer at the picket of the Orgreave Coking Plant, realises that a mounted officer is about to hit her head with a truncheon. She was pulled to the left by a colleague. John Harris, the photographer, reports that the second shot shows the truncheon swinging down, missing Lesley. This photograph has come to characterise the behaviour of the police during the strike. The government papers released in early 2014 indicate that the police were there to induce fear and to incapacitate miners and their supporters.
The Miners’ Strike of 1984/5
The Miners’ Strike of 1984/5 was in defence of the coal industry, to protect jobs and communities.
By the end of the strike in March 1985, 200 mineworkers served time in prison or custody, 20,000 people had been injured and 966 mineworkers had been sacked by the NCB. Two members of the National Union of Mineworkers were killed on picket lines; David Jones on the 15th March 1984 and Joe Green on the 15th June 1984. Three people died digging for coal during the winter.
The National Justice for Mineworkers Campaign
The National Justice for Mineworkers Campaign was formed at the 1985 Labour Conference and was launched at the Albert Hall, London, in October 1986.
The objectives of the campaign are to keep the issue of those victimised miners to the forefront of the labour and trade union movement and to raise money to alleviate hardship among the families of the victimised men.
The 966 men were originally sacked for no more than honouring picket lines, defending their jobs and pit communities, their class and the future of their children. Only a small number had been dismissed for offences against the person or damage to property. Many miners subsequently cleared by the courts were not re-instated and neither were many more who successfully won their cases for unfair dismissal at Industrial Tribunals. Many were even blacklisted from getting any work outside the coal industry.
The Justice Campaign is supported by the NUM, Labour Party, TUC conferences and many national & regional unions.
National Justice for Mineworkers Campaign
2 Hilden Street
Leigh
WN7 4LG
www.njfm.org.uk
01942 606 828
Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign
The Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign includes ex-miners, Trades Unionists, activists and others who are determined to get justice for miners who were victims of police lies and cover ups at Orgreave in June 1984.
The campaign is strictly non-party political and welcomes support from anyone who has genuine concerns about the pattern of deception and cover up that characterised police behaviour not only at Orgreave but throughout the coalfields during the strike.
http://otjc.org.uk/
The photograph
Photography by John Harris. John Harris / Report Digital
Have a look at other images here. http://www.reportdigital.co.uk/
