Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival – a personal retrospective

The main part of the festival began on the evening of 13^th July. Party members from around the Country attended. Some camped out over the weekend whilst others arrived for the big finale day on the Sunday.

The original Tolpuddle Martyrs were of course shipped off to Australia for ‘illegally’ forming a secret trade union back in the 1830’s. What I learned at the festival was that, at the time, the exiled French King Charles X was staying in Dorset and the authorities got the wind up for his safety in the event of any local uprisings. They therefore stamped down on any workers showing a bit of ‘activism’.

By the Sunday morning, the SLP contingent began to gather in strength.We had a little literature of our own to distribute amongst the crowds and took notice of handouts from the Post office workers in defence of their jobs and conditions and also from the RMT who currently seem to be more militant than most (not being affiliated to the Labour Party). In fact they flew a small ‘airship’ above the site with a slogan to the effect that their union was never on its knees- a good example for the movement.

Towards noon on the Sunday Cumbawamba took to the main stage. Over 20 years ago, apparently, they started off with a cassette sold as a benefit for striking miners. They certainly had more political content in their songs than most of the TUC etc speeches. The lyrics ‘I get knocked down but I get up again, you’re never going to keep me down’ would be a good slogan at any time for the working class. They did not feature that particular gem amongst their repertoire, however, but did include many notable numbers including the ‘diggers song’ from the English civil war period (written C1649).

A little later prior to the march to Tllpudle there were some insipid speeches from TUC representatives about how we must all do our bit to help on the global warming front- as if it was the fault of the working classes! Appropriately for the event, an Australian trade unionist also gave a speech which was worthwhile!

Eventually we formed up for the march with at least 4 SLP banners prominent. Our banners were of course deep red in colour, unlike those of New Labour which included yellow and sickly magnolia- apt for such ‘dead-end’ merchants.

As the march progressed, we were making our presence felt –showing that we are growing as a political force- and causing looks of worry and surprise on the faces of some on the march including Mr. T Benn.

We were pleased to see an NUM banner amongst the throng.

We noticed British state ‘unintelligence’ officers on the route taking photos of potential militants ( obviously including ourselves). You would think that they had something better to do with their weekends!

On the route, we had some dialogue with the bystanders (explaining the public’s past mistakes in ever voting in the New Labour people) and we even received the cheers of some of the crowd.

There were more misleading speeches from the TUC representatives and New Labour people at the end of the march. We were told, for instance, that the very rich are paying the same rates of tax as the rest of us! No they’re not- they are often not paying any tax whatsoever!

Anyway, all in all, our own SLP members were very happy with our turnout and it was a pleasure, literally, to be able to ‘fly the flag’ for the Party.

 Rob

S.W.Region