Ep 13: Police vs Picket Lines

Labour Days: a labour movement podcast

What attitude should the labour movement take to the police? Does the way strikes have been policed in the past give us some clues about the police’s fundamental role? With the Labour Party adopting an explicitly pro-cop position, distributing leaflets shaped like police helmets calling for 20,000 more police on the streets, we argue for the labour movement to take a more cautious, and ultimately hostile, to the role of the police, who we believe ultimately exist to defend the power of capital. Most of this episode is taken up with an interview with Kevin Horne, a striking miner in the 1984/5 strike andparticipant in the “Battle of Orgreave”, and Barbara Jackson, who struck in 84/85 as part of the National Union of Mineworkers’ white collar section, and later founded the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC). Find out more about the OTJC here: https://otjc.org.uk/ This episode also includes a special one-off feature, “Four Ways to Make the Next TUC Demo Better”. Send us your suggestions for additional ideas. Hope to see some of you at Ideas for Freedom on 23-24 June, where Labour Days will be hosting a panel on “the new New Unionism?”, with speakers from the Picturehouse cinema workers’ strike and other disputes. Ellie will also be giving a talk on “what should Labour do on crime and policing?”, which will extend the discussions from this month’s episode. See previous episode descriptions for copyright disclaimers.