SOCIALIST UNITY

I am off on Friday after work to camp at Tolpuddle for the festival. It has been a busy time booking coaches for the Sunday, and I am pleased that we have got some good inter-union cooperation, especially between Wiltshire and Swindon GMB, and Wiltshire Unison.

By helping each other, we have been able to run two coaches from Wiltshire, one put on by GMB with financial support from UNITE, which goes from Swindon and Salisbury; and another put on by UNISON which goes from Trowbridge picking up in Warminster.

For those of you bemused by the picture showing people marching in two directions, the parade at Tolpuddle walks up the high street, and then doubles back on itself, to return by the same route.

BY DAVID ROSENBERG

Today saw the start of a week of events to mark the 175th anniversary of the mass protest march from Copenhagen Fields in Islington that handed in a petition with 200,000 signatures demanding the pardon and return of 6 farm workers form Dorset who had been transported to Australia for seven years for forming a trade union. they were convicted under legislation about taking oaths in secret but the purpose of their punishment was clearly to deter any moves towards forming trade unions.

The week begins with a free three mile walk of “Radical Islington” that I am leading, starting at 11am tomorrow (18th April) outside the Mitre Pub in Copenhagen Street, London N1 (near the junction with Caledonian Road), that highlights important people and places in Islington mainly over the last 200 years, that ends at the Angel Islington.

During the week there is a film about the Tolpuddle Martyrs and a comedy night in support of the events

At the end of the week (Saturday 25th April) there is a plaque unveiling and a short march to a festival with music (including Billy Bragg, Leon Rosselson, Martin Carthy) and speakers and activities for children/young people.

Details of all the events can be found at: www.tolpuddlekx.wordpress.com/

Another brilliant weekend at Tolpuddle. It is a great credit to Nigel Costley, regional secretary of the South West TUC, that he has turned this event around from being a rather dull bureaucratic affair, into a lively festival that celebrates solidarity and trade unionism, but also provides a great weekend’s entertainment whether you are there with your mates for a few beers and the music, or looking for a more family friendly time with your children.

I spent most of Saturday just hanging out: the activities in the childrens’ area this year were good – particularly the story teller – Clive Pig. The Saturday is a great time for mooching about and bumping into other trade unionists – I was impressed that Unison and FBU activists from Swindon were camping for the weekend this year. And on Sunday the GMB laid on a full coach from Swindon in conjunction with the T&G, and I think Unison may have put on their own coach.

Respect had a stall in the Martyr’s Marquee, staffed by the Dorset Respect branch, and national secretary Nick Wrack had also come down, and did a great job of promoting Respect. I had the children with me so wasn’t able to do much political activity, but I was able to spare an hour on Sunday morning and I was impressed with the good response we got.

Mark Steel gave a barn-storming performance on Saturday night to about a thousand people, which includes very funny but affectionate impersonations of George Galloway and Bob Crow. He even had to deal with six year old hecklers with whistles!

On Sunday supporters of the National Shop Stewards Network leafleted the parade through the village, including some help from my sons. The leaflets got a very warm response. You can look at the leaflet at the South West NSSN website:

What is remarkable is what a small footprint the Labour Party had at the festival. A one minute speech from Dawn Primorolo, and a stall smaller than Respect’s or the Green party’s. There were also fewer Labour Party banners than in previous years. The forthcoming year will be very interesting, as the CWU have given the Labour Party one year to improve or they will ballot the members on disaffiliating, and the GMB have started a process of critical engagement with the party, that includes looking at what value the union gets for its money.

18-20 July
This year’s Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival should be the ‘greenest’ yet. The South West TUC has worked hard to encourage people to come by public transport, coach or shared cars. People will be urged to recycle and leave no waste; a wind and solar generator will be tested; all caterers are expected to come with biodegradable plates and cutlery and the new South West TUC Green Workplaces project team will be on hand to give advice. The Tolpuddle Green Camp has had a good response and local environmental campaigners and advice agencies will have stalls.
The cottages and museum have had their insulation improved and solar panels are being fitted.
Derek Wall, the Green Party Principal Speaker, will address the festival and the discussions on the Saturday will include a debate over food production.
www.tuc.org.uk/tolpuddle

‘The repression of the Tolpuddle martyrs in the 19th century is the reason for this festival but trade unionists are still repressed even killed for their work in countries like Colombia. I am proud to have been invited to celebrate the spirit of Tolpuddle and to provide the support of the Green Party to workers across Britain, particularly in the public sector who are threatened with pay cuts.

Green politics is about social justice and to create real justice you have to challenge neo-liberalism and give workers rights.

In turn environmental problems are problems that can only be solved with the participation and input of workers. We need green plans where workers helped develop ecological forms of production. We must also remember how green industrial action has brought benefits. In the 1980s sea dumping of nuclear waste was halted after industrial action by the National Union of Seamen.

Of course such action would now be illegal because of Mrs Thatcher’s anti-union legislation. Strong unions are essential both to the prosperity of ordinary people rather than fat cats and to protecting the planet. This is why I am proud to say the Green Party supports the campaign for a Trade Union Freedom Bill.’

Dr Wall is speaking at the main rally on sunday at 12 pm .

GLASTONBURY’S OVER, ON TO TOLPUDDLE!
Philosophy Football’s Tolpuddle T-shirt celebrates the 1834 heroism of six agricultural workers who formed a trade union, were sentenced to seven years deportation to Australia and after mass protests were granted a free pardon. On an Ethical Threads garment, 100% organic cotton and special summer offer price just £14.99! Available from www.philosophyfootball.com

The Tolpuddle Festival 18-20 July features Mark Steel, Robb Johnson, Tracey Curtis, Devon Sproule, Alabama 3 and Tony Benn, its FREE and not to be missed. Details from www.tuc.org.uk/the_tuc/tuc-14521-f0.cfm

It is worth saying that the Tolpuddle Festival is a brilliant weekend, with around 10000 trade union and labour movement activists, great music, talks, a childrens’ play area. I will be camping there with the children for the three days, and I am thoroughly looking forward to it.

The weather wasn’t great. Indeed keeping a seven year old and a three year old happy for a whole wet day in the mud was a challenge – thank goodness for ice cream.

Yet this year’s Tolpuddle Festival was another triumph. Thousands upon thousands of union activists gathering from all over the south of England, and sometime even further afield. Music, stalls, speeches, the workers beer company’s excellent bar (who ran out of cider – c’mon this is the West Country!). The event is much more characterised by meeting old friends and comrades than it is listening to the great and the good – but the inspiration of the martyrs even make Brendan Barbour sound like he has a little life in him.

The RMT had produced a first class leaflet for the event calling on all trade unionists to join the lobby of parliament in October when the trade union freedom bill is debated – and I can think of few other general secretaries other than Brother Crow who would be handing out the leaflets himself. I hope the RMT increase his salary enough so that he can afford socks in future (see picture)

As I have remarked in previous years, what is clear is that for this vital layer at the grassroots of the trade union movement, loyalty to the Labour Party is attenuated, conditional or entirely absent. The left groups make a perfunctory intervention, and as is becoming more common the Socialist Party were more visible than the SWP. But however weak the loyalty of the  trade union activists is towards the Labour Party, they are clearly not attracted to any actually existing alternative. (Though my children were seduced by the free balloons from Respect)

The Migrant workers T-shifts that my GMB branch had produced were a big success, and the GMB had a good delegation of Polish members there on the day. (By the way - we must remember that not all migrant workers are Polish, the picture below shows two Iraqis carrying the Swindon Stop the War Coalition banner, wearing GMB migrant workers T-shirts)

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.