Petition handed over as Parliament to debate convictions of the Shrewsbury 24
A three-hour debate will take place in Parliament next month on the convictions of the "Shrewsbury 24" during the national building workers' strike more than 40 years ago, campaigners have announced.
Eileen Turnbull, from the Shrewsbury 24 campaign, said the debate is due to take place in either the second or third week of January after requests by a number of cross-party backbench MPs.
The news comes as campaigners today delivered a 100,000-strong petition to the Government calling for the disclosure of all documents relating to the charges, trials and convictions of the pickets who were arrested in 1972.
The petition was being handed in to 10 Downing Street by union leaders and Royle Family actor Ricky Tomlinson, one of the 24.
The pickets were arrested five months after the 1972 building workers' strike and charged under the 1875 Conspiracy Act, with six sent to prison, including Mr Tomlinson.
The campaign group wants all documents relating to the case to be released, claiming they would prove that a "massive miscarriage of justice" was handed out.
The Shrewsbury 24 Campaign reverted to a paper petition after its e-petition was failing to register everyone signing it. The e-petition attracted 37,000 names, while the paper version has been signed by 70,000 people in towns and cities across the country.
Steve Murphy, general secretary of construction union Ucatt, said: "The Shrewsbury campaign's achievement in collecting 100,000 signatures is outstanding. It demonstrates the determination of the pickets to win justice and also the public's support for their cause. Parliament now has a moral duty to debate the case and the Government must come clean and publish all the papers relating to the pickets' case."
Rail Maritime and Transport union leader Bob Crow said: "It is clear that there was a conspiracy at the highest level in 1972 to blacklist and fit up trade union activists and it is time for all the papers to be released and for those that were wrongly imprisoned to be given justice at last.RMT is proud to be supporting the campaign for justice for the Shrewsbury pickets."
