Hillsborough tragedy – the final chapter

‘Heartbreak, tributes, tears’ was the headline in the Liverpool Echo as the next chapter in the Hillsborough tragedy unfolded. “Let our kids know that he wasn’t a hooligan” was the plea of the widow of victim Patrick Thompson.

The jury listened to pen portraits of some of the victims at the current coroner’s inquest called to consider all the evidence, and to finally root out the truth which has eluded the families of the 96 dead since 15 April 1989.

To this day, in spite of the massive weight of evidence pointing to a cover-up designed to shift the blame for the 96 deaths from the agencies of the state onto the victims themselves, not a single person culpable in the tragedy has been brought to book.

The inquest has been told that police accounts of the Hillsborough disaster were changed by senior officers and lawyers to remove criticism of the police leadership.

Margaret Thatcher’s statement at the time that the police should emerge blameless revealed the intentions of the establishment.

Determination

That this stage has been reached is due to the courage and fortitude of the families seeking justice for the 96 who, in spite of being fobbed off, crossing chasms of obstruction, showered with empty promises, refusal by ministers to re-open the case, pursued their quest with unremitting courage and determination.

A key factor highlighted by coroner Lord Justice Goldring was Chief Superintendent Duckenfield’s decision to open the football ground’s gates at Leppings Lane which triggered off the catastrophe.

Duckenfield’s lie that the fans had forced open the gate was repeated by FA chief executive Graham Kelly, and media outlets ran with it before the lie was retracted.

Kelly visited the police control room where he was told by Duckenfield that there had been an inrush of fans after they had forced open Gate C.

He later admits this to be untrue but by 3.40pm, BBC Radio Two broadcast: “Unconfirmed reports are that a door was broken at the end that was holding Liverpool supporters”.

Thatcher’s chief press secretary Bernard Ingham is later quoted as saying: “I know what I learned on the spot; there would have been no Hillsborough if a mob, clearly tanked up, had not tried to force their way into the ground.”

These remarks, along with the Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie’s vile onslaught, unleashed a Niagara of slander onto the victims and their families. (A 50,000-signature petition protesting the Sun’s coverage was delivered to Downing Street by the late Militant [forerunner of the Socialist Party] supporting MP Terry Fields and others from Liverpool).

The coroner has now posed questions which if investigated forensically should uncover the facts which have been shrouded in murk for 27 years.

For instance what was done to manage the approach of fans to the turnstiles at Leppings Lane? Did a crush outside the entrance develop? If so, could anything, or anything more, have been done to avoid or minimise that risk? If so, by whom?

The answer to that last question is the key to shining the light on and proving who bears the responsibility.

Such an outcome will be a testimony to the courage of those who suffered and the mass movement of ordinary working people in Liverpool who have never wavered in their determination to achieve justice for the 96.

The families are to be applauded for their courage and tenacity in the pursuit of justice. A debt of honour is owed to them for showing that working class people, fired with courage and determination, can render the forces of the state accountable.

No cover-up of the Hillsborough disaster

Editorial from the Militant newspaper April 1989

Below is the editorial from the 21 April 1989 issue of the Militant, the forerunner of The Socialist. In 1989 the Tory government of Margaret Thatcher was in power, eight years before the New Labour government led by Tony Blair. Since coming to power, New Labour have acted in the interests of the big business owners of the football clubs and have done nothing to improve the safety and accessibility of the sport.

Until it became obvious there was a major tragedy at Hillsborough, the police and TV commentators assumed there was a law-and-order problem.

All these people echo the Tories’ contemptuous attitude and their obsession with the threat of ‘hooliganism’.

The perimeter fence on which so many were crushed is a symbol of this obsession. All fans are seen as potential trouble-makers, to be herded and penned, outside and inside the grounds, like cattle being sold for slaughter.

To the bosses, working-class youth represent a potential threat. Offered no future in cities like Liverpool which have been devastated by Tory policies, they channel their aspirations for the future into support for their football team.

So businessmen finance football to exploit the fans, provide a safety valve for them to let off steam and divert them from ‘dangerous’ political activity.

Working-class fans are treated with the same contempt at matches as at work. While millions are spent on players’ transfer fees, only £70 million has been spent on safety improvements since the Safety at Sports Grounds Act became law in 1975.

£42 million of this has come from the pools promoters, compelled to provide money via the Football Ground Improvement Trust. But this has come from the millions who bet on the pools, not people like Sir John Moores, Littlewoods boss and former chairman of Everton Football Club, who is the fifth richest person in Britain.

‘Order’ or safety?

While many fans pay to shiver on uncovered terraces, money has been lavished on ‘improvements’ like executive boxes for businessmen to entertain their clients in luxury. Hillsborough proved that cash has certainly not been spent on adequate first aid and emergency provisions, proper stewarding or an effective public address system.

Rather than spending more money on safety, clubs have spent it on measures to maintain order, like the perimeter fences and barriers to segregate rival fans, which Hillsborough proved make the grounds more dangerous.

Now the Tories want to press ahead with ID cards to police fans still more rigorously. Even the plan for all-seater stadia is being put forward to make fans behave better rather than to improve their comfort.

Roy Hattersley accepts the argument that all-seating will price football beyond the means of working people. But why should the fans bear the burden of the cost of the improvements?

The root cause of football’s problems is that it is run by unaccountable businessmen, only interested in the balance sheet. Control and management must be transferred to elected representatives of the fans, workers in the game, local councils and the wider labour movement. Grounds must be publicly owned and made available for the whole community seven days a week.

We must have a labour movement inquiry to find out who was to blame for the disaster. There must be no cover-up of the role of the police and the football authorities or the contribution of crowd-control measures.

There must be a massive campaign to force the Tories to abandon ID cards and implement a crash programme of spending to improve grounds and for the resignation of sports minister Moynihan.

Labour must be committed to the municipal ownership of the grounds and the democratic control of the clubs. If Hillsborough leads to the reform of the game of football from a plaything of businessmen to a means of recreation and enjoyment for those who play and watch, then some good will have come from this appalling tragedy.