I lost my home, I lost my wife who was 4’ 11’ and battered in the face twice by scabs.
I lost my job and then when I was falsely imprisoned, I lost my freedom.
Dessie Warren, who was wrongly jailed with me, lost his life after he was treated terribly in prison and died after he was released, a strapping steel fixer reduced to a scarecrow.
The other lads all suffered lots of problems too as a result of the injustices done to us, struggling to get work and blacklisted.
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So do I feel jubilant after all these years? Do I feel made up? Do I feel this is compensation for the four weeks I was on hunger strike, not eating a bean? Do I think it’s good after the nude protests, for the hours we were forced to sit on wooden chairs in soaking wet cells hosed down? For the 14 jails over 18 months I was moved around?
No I bloody don’t. I’m absolutely angry, angry that they have done this for the establishment.
Because by admitting a little mistake they can say nearly 50 years later they put it right, did the right thing.
What was done to us was a much bigger conspiracy and we believe it went straight to the top, that Ted Heath, who was the Prime Minister then, was involved.
I’ll speak to my legal team who are fantastic about what we do next but I still want to see a public inquiry so we can get all of this into the open, to see the collusion between the politicians and the police to teach us a lesson.
This was about keeping workers down, keeping us in our place.
The 1972 national building strike is still the only national strike in that industry’s history.
We took a stand for better wages and health and safety in a poorly paid industry in the days when sites were known as killing fields, huge numbers injured and dying.
The employers and the authorities wanted to keep it that way, the price of a building workers’ life only a £100 fine.
I’ve been lucky in life since then, I know that. Acting’s taken me to Samuel L Jackson and Leonardo DiCaprio. I count Jimmy McGovern as a good friend.
But what’s really impressed me, kept us going, is the support from working people all over the country who suffered the heavy hand of the authorities.
Good people like the miners in the North East and I’ve had a message of congratulations from Arthur Scargill. People like Dave Smith and the Blacklisting Support Group. These people are the salt of the earth.
When I was in Leicester jail, the governor, an ex-brickie with twisted hands, told me: “You’e a political prisoner.” He was right. We were political prisoners. More people are aware of that now. But we’re not going to be grateful to the establishment. It’s still protecting itself.
