Some of the most violent scenes in the 12-week-old miners╒ dispute erupted yesterday at the Orgreave coke works, Yorkshire, when police used riot gear in clashes with up to 7,000 pickets who tried to stop two lorry convoys leaving the plant.
Eighty-two pickets were arrested and 69 people were injured, more than half of them police. Smoke bombs, thunder-flashes, stones and other heavy missiles were hurled through the air.
At the end of a day of considerable bloodshed some miners complained that they had been stoned by their own comrades in the confusion.
Mr Arthur Scargill, the miners╒ president, who was at the coke plant at the height of the demonstration, had called for a huge blockade to stop coke being sent to the British Steel Corporation╒s works in Scunthorpe, 40 miles away.
The response was unprecedented in the dispute but the pickets failed to stop the coke lorries leaving. Mr Scargill said that the pickets would be back today. He said: ╥We did it at Grunwick and we can do it here.╙
Afterwards the police claimed that violence had broken out only during Mr Scargill╒s presence, and the NUM president retorted by alleging ╥almost unbelievable╙ brutality by the police.
Yesterday╒s troubles began early when 35 lorries, heavily protected by wire mesh, arrived at Orgreave to load up. The response was a barrage of bottles, stones, and broken fencing. Mounted police, supported by officers wearing riot gear and carrying shields, moved in to make arrests.
One policeman fell from his horse and broke a leg during running skirmishes across fields near the works. Teams of ambulancemen wearing protective helmets ferried the injured to hospital, and finally the first convoy of lorries emerged as the pickets stood in silence, controlled by a strong police cordon.
About three hours later the lorries returned, and so did the violence. A hail of stones, fencing posts, and even a shovel and a bucket rained on police lines. The pickets scattered across a field while mounted police moved in, followed by officers in riot gear. The running fights continued while the lorries were being loaded.
As the convoy was about to leave, the pickets threw rocks and bottles at the police lines and the convoy left past struggling groups of pickets and police. Within minutes the police began to withdraw.
When the mounted police returned to their makeshift base they were given a huge burst of applause by other officers.
The injury toll among the pickets came to 28, and 41 policemen were hurt, with two detained in hospital. The operation meant the deployment of 1,700 police from 13 forces.
Mr Scargill concentrated his criticism on the action of the police. ╥What you have now in South Yorkshire is an actual police state tantamount to something you are used to seeing in Chile or Bolivia,╙ he said. ╥We have seen riot shields and riot gear in action. We have seen mounted police officers charging into our ranks. I saw truncheons wielded and I saw our people hit. I saw people punched on the ground.╙
The NUM president then went on to urge all his members and the whole trade union movement ╥to come here in their thousands in order that we can make aware to everybody that we╒re not prepared to see this kind of brutality inflicted against working men and women.╙
Mr Tony Clement, South Yorkshire╒s assistant chief constable, was responsible for the police operation. He was quick to respond to Mr Scargill╒s accusations.
╥We have been listening to Mr Scargill now for some 12 weeks,╙ he said. ╥The pickets began throwing stones, bricks, wood torn from fences, and our officers were being injured. That was the time for me to order officers to go in with shields to prevent that sort of thing happening.╙
Mr Clement agreed that sending in officers in riot gear was ╥a deployment of last resort.╙ He also defended the use of police dogs and mounted police. Mr Clement explained that in an incident before the lorries arrived the full complement of officers was not present and an attempt had been made to rush police lines from the bottom end of the works.
╥There were about 800 people charging up the road and the only way we had available to us to stop them was to put a line of dogs along the road. That did effectively stop them.╙
Superintendent Tony Pratt, another senior police officer, said that the pickets had demolished walls and fencing. The police had not been prepared to remain under bombardment and it was necessary to make controlled charges, he said.╥We have found spikes and ball bearings which were used as missiles against the police,╙ he added. ╥It was a case of stopping the continuous bombardment of officers.╙
He suggested that the change of mood among the pickets had occurred after Mr Scargill╒s arrival. He claimed that in the four days he had controlled the operation at Orgreave the pickets had not shown any violent animosity. That had appeared in the last two days, when Mr Scargill had been present.
During the lunch break about 200 workers at the coking plant decided to approach the lorry drivers in an effort to persuade them not to take the coke to Scunthorpe.
Mr Jesse Atack, the works convener, said the men had been sickened by the injuries to miners and police but they felt unable to back the miners with strike action because that would put their jobs in jeopardy. The Orgreave men had approached the lorry drivers and other contract workers loading the lorries to ╥bring some sanity back.╙
Lancashire miners╒ leaders decided yesterday to defend what they claim is their right to discipline other colleagues for refusing to join the strike. The Lancashire executive of the NUM decided to contest an injunction granted by a High Court judge in Manchester last week, preventing the union from suspending working miners from membership.
Mr Sid Vincent, the NUM╒s Lancashire secretary, said that they would be taking legal advice before challenging the injunction in court probably next week.
