98 for 98: The century in photographs: today 1985
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Your support makes all the difference.As we continue with The Independent and the Hulton Getty Picture Collection's "Century in Photographs" series, it appears that this man's pleas are falling on deaf ears. It was a familiar scene in the year-long miners' strike, and there were many violent clashes between miners and police. Throughout the year, miners who went back to work were greeted by strikers outside the pits and heckled them as "traitors". In response, police in full riot gear were sometimes called in.
The miner's action was against the Coal Board's 5.2 per cent pay offer and its programme of pit closures. On 3 March the National Union of Mineworkers decided to call off the strike, which generated cries of "scum, scabs, traitors" by enraged miners. They had agreed to go back to work without an amnesty for those miners dismissed during the dispute.
Two incidents during May shocked the football world. On the 12th a small fire started at the Valley Parade football ground, home of third-division Bradford City. Within minutes the old timber structure had succumbed to an inferno and 52 were dead. The fans' reaction was to blame officials for locking the gates to the ground, a view lent credence by the discovery of charred bodies pressed against the exits. Furthermore, according to Bradford's fire chief, the club had been warned that the timber structure was a fire risk, but had not taken adequate measures to remedy this.
Then, on the 29th, Liverpool football fans rioted at the final of the European Cup in Belgium, leaving 41 dead and at least 350 injured. The disaster happened when a wall and safety fence collapsed as fans charged towards supporters of the Juventus team.
Photo 98 is a series of national events and exhibitions. For information, call 01484 559 888 or e-mail www.photo98.com.
Current exhibition - 'Worth a Thousand Words: Photography and Railways', 120 images selected from an archive of nearly 1.5 million photographs, at the National Railway Museum.
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