This weekend sees three important cultural events celebrating the traditions of the English labour movement. Today is the 123rd Miners Gala in Durham, tommorrow sees the Tolpuddle festival in Dorset (which I am going to with my children, my GMB union branch is putting on two coaches), and also on Sinday the annual Rise anti-racist festival takes place in London. All of this seems relevent to the recent discussion on this blog of whether there is a progressive aspect to national consciousness. As a contribution to that debate I reproduce an article from SWP member Keith Flett that appears in today’s Morning Star.
KEITH FLETT WRITES: >
THEY seem to do celebrations and festivals better in labour movements in other countries - or at least that’s the myth.
It isn’t true, as the three festivals this weekend demonstrate.
There’s the annual celebration of the Tolpuddle Martyrs in the agricultural village of Tolpuddle near Dorchester in Dorset. There’s the Durham miners gala, in the ex-mining city of Durham and, in north London’s Finsbury Park, there’s the anti-racist Rise festival.
They span the ages of the labour movement, from the struggles of Dorset farm workers to join a trade union in the 1830s to the industrial might of Durham miners from the late 19th century to the united black and white fight against the racists in recent decades.
Different struggles in different localities, but ones that form a history of resistance. All focused on a united fight for a better world and need to be understood in their own sense.
In 1834, when a group Dorset farm workers met to swear allegiance to and form a trade union, it was less than 10 years since the repeal of the Combination Acts in 1825, which had made unions completely illegal.
The labourers soon found that it was still very difficult to join a union.
The news that farm workers were getting organised alarmed local employers, who were also the local political leaders and magistrates.
They prosecuted George Loveless and the other Tolpuddle trade unionists under an obscure 1797 Act which forbade the swearing of oaths.
After a trial, the men were, unsurprisingly, found guilty and sentenced to transportation to Australia for seven years. But a massive campaign was launched to win their release.
Eventually, the home secretary pardoned them and they returned to England.
It was a hugely important battle for the right to organise and it was won. The Tolpuddle Martyrs, mostly Methodists, were neither militants or revolutionaries. They had simply made a stand for what was right.
At the other end of the country, around the pits of County Durham, similar struggles for trade union organisation were underway. Unions were often short lived, as battles with employers were fought and lost. But by the 1860s there was a stable union structure. In 1871, the first “big meeting” of Durham miners, the miners’ gala was held.
It has continued ever since with breaks for the world wars, the 1926 general strike and the 1984-5 miners’ strike.
Despite the fact that Margaret Thatcher’s onslaught left no working pits in Durham, the tradition of the gala continues. Attendances are on the increase and new banners are appearing reinventing the festival as one of a celebration of community solidarity.
Rise dates back to 1996, when it was first organised by the Trades Union Congress as an anti-racist festival concerned at the way fascist groups like the BNP were trying to divide communities.
From the start, it has mixed political speech and stalls with top musical acts. Relaunched when Ken Livingstone was elected mayor in 2000, it is a celebration of the diverse cultures of London.
It continues the link going back to the Tolpuddle trade unionists and the Durham miners of standing up very publicly for what is right and decent in public life - the dignity of organisation and the fight against repression.
The twin motors of religion and politics can be seen at work - the Methodism of the farm workers and miners and the religious views that can inspire the fight against racism. But alongside that are left-wing politics and the desire to fight back against oppressors.
These festivals are of the left and a place for the left to argue its politics but they are also about fun.
There is a lot of respectability involved with the public culture of the British left, but there are some unrespectable bits as well.
Not only the music and dancing but also the beer. In 1960, for example, there were complaints that Durham pub owners were raising the price of a pint on gala days, such was the demand.
So, if you believe that the British left is dull and boring compared to elsewhere, getting along to one of the great labour movement festivals this weekend might just cause you to think again.
Solidarity with the postal workers can be mixed with some history and a good time. I should add that, historically, some of the time it did rain.
