Campaigns - boycott to minute's silence

Since forming, as a proactive collection of Hillsborough families, survivors and supporters in Feb 1998, the Campaign has struggled to bring Hillsborough and the continued lack of justice back into the public domain on many occassions.

Many people are aware that all clubs now observe a minutes silence on 15th April following the group's letter campaign. In this section you can read on this and other successes the group has acheived, as well as ongoing activites.

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Quick Find - Contact Us

The Hillsborough Justice Campaign
PO Box 1089
178 Walton Breck Road
Liverpool
L69 4WR
Tel / fax : 0151 2605262

email: hjcshop@tiscali.co.uk

So far, since the group began in February 1998...

Our first objective of the group was acquisition of premises. A shop on Oakfield Road, a goal kick away from Anfield itself, was rented to act as a focus point.

This shop enabled for the first time:

We then began producing leaflets which were distributed at football match letting supporters know of our existence and to keep Hillsborough on the agenda.

Our first major campaign was against the instatement of ex South Yorks Police Officer Norman Bettison as Chief Constable of Merseyside. Bettison was heavily involved in the cover up of the disaster. We presented 15,000 signitures petitioning the Police Authority Appointments Committee, whom we also picketed.

A judgement against Linkskills Solicitors regarding a Professional Negligence claim was settled out of court in favour of one of our members which led to us initiating a conference in Manchester with a law firm who specialise in cases of post traumatic stress disorder.

The HJC assisted group member Anne Williams in the promotion of her book When You Walk Through a Storm, an account of her struggle for Justice and how she discovers the true circumstances of her son's death at Hillsborough .

We participated in the direction of 3 half hour award winning documentaries made by Channel One cable TV company and the Everyman BBC documentary about the tenth anniversary of the disaster.

Before the 10th anniversay the HJC wrote to every club in the Englsih and Scottish leagues requesting they observe a minutes silence on the 15th April 1999. This led to a directive issued by the FA and the Premier League instructing clubs to observe a minutes silence on the day including the FA cup semi finals.

The HJC called on all Liverpool Suporters to boycott the Sheffield Wednesday v Liverpool game on 8th May 1999.

Liverpool FC eventually bowed to pressure from our group calling on their players to wear black armbands as a show of respect to Joe Glover during their match verus Wimbledon. Joe, a member of the HJC who survived the disaster, watched his brother die at Hillsborough , was tragically killed in May whilst saving a colleage at work.

Liverpool Football Club plans a redevelopment of Anfield which has far reaching consequnces for local residents and businesses. A local campaign has been set up to fight the proposed demolition of the immediate area which the HJC is actively assisting.

Representatives of the HJC were present at the Annual Shareholders meeting of LFC in December 1999 at which, LFC Cheif Executive, Peter Robinson stated that "Hillsborough is not an issue for an annual shareholders meeting."

Since the trial in Leeds in 2000, The Hillsborough Justice Campaign have continued the struggle for Justice whilst others declared the "fight over".

Members of the Red All Over the Land online forum were so incensed by the events unfolding in Leeds, they organised in conjunction with the HJC a rally in Stanley Park before the start of the 2001-02 season.

Following on from the trial in Leeds, bereaved fathers, Dave Church and Terry Burkett petitioned the European Parliament. The basis of their petition was the behaviour and comments of Mr Justice Hooper.

The long struggle to have the documents used in the Stuart Smith Scrutiny, brought to Liverpool City Library was won in November 2000.

Breeze FC - local football team, helped promote the campaign at the beginning of the season. They received press coverage when they wore the HJC shirts and were pictured behind our banner. Their support for our campaign is longstanding.

RAOTL our old friends who continue to support us -they turned out at the beginning of the season to play Chicken Kiev from Nottingham in a charity game with all funds raised being donated to the campaign. RAOTL and Chicken Kiev also organised a charity auction the same day and raised substantial funds for the campaign. Later in the season, Everton and Liverpool fansites, Toffeeweb and Red All Over The Land (again) were kitted up for a charity match to raise money for the Justice Campaign. Played at the Edinburgh Park Dockers Club, Townsend Lane, on Easter Monday morning, the match was arranged to mark the 12th anniversary of the disaster.

The HJC was also paramount in the torrent of complaints regarding the Gladiator DVD. We negotiated with the company that made the film Gladiator after it was revealed that a DVD of the film linked Hillsborough to a section of the film relating to crowds rioting. A strongly worded apology was published together with an undertaking that the offending section would be removed.

An HJC member was instrumental the debate around Brian Clough writing in 4-4-2 which culminated in Clough 'apologising' for his offensive accusations in relation to Liverpool fans and Hillsborough .

Most importantly though, the campaign has concentrated its efforts in assisting the bereaved families in initiating further legal actions in their pursuit of Justice.

The struggle continues...