Three years ago at the annual  Durham miners’ gala the speakers included the General Secretary of the TUC, and the customary trade union general secretaries joined by  Kevin Maguire of the Mirrors and also Rickie Tomlinson representing the struggle for justice for the Shrewsbury Pickets and Margaret Aspinal speaking of the twenty five years struggle of the families of those who died at  Hillsborough.  At that time I wrote that  “it seemed that we were seeing in embryo the new kind of labour movement made up of trade unions, social movements and single issue campaigners, capable of engaging civil society, and challenging the power of the new political elites”.

Image by Feggy Art, Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Certainly this is what has happened in Liverpool as seen in  the tireless organisation and struggle of families determined to get justice for loved ones  “unlawfully  killed” and whose memories had been so horribly traduced by the police and the mass media. Aided by the football club, local trade unionists, churches  and a broad swathe of the city’s population they have achieved justice and a major victory over repression.