175th Anniversary Commemoration - Friday 17 to 19 July 2009From the TUC website here
On February 24th, 1834, six farm labourers from Tolpuddle were arrested on a charge of taking part in an ‘illegal oath’ ceremony. The real offence was that they had dared to form a trade union to defend their livelihood. For this they were sentenced to seven years’ transportation to the penal colonies of Australia. The sentences provoked an immense outcry, leading to the first great mass trade union protest. The campaign won free pardons and the Martyrs’ return to England. It was an historic episode in the struggle for trade unionists’ rights in Great Britain
Quite hard to get hold of, but the epic film Comrades (1986) on the Tolpuddle Martrs is worth seeing.
ReplyDeleteCharlie
ReplyDeleteFilm4 showed it a few months ago.
i will be going so will my unison branch
ReplyDeletenow great weekend
thanks to south west tuc