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Pity the Poor Labourers that Follow the Plough
GMB general secretary Gary Smith pays tribute to the Tolpuddle Martyrs — and why they're as much an inspiration for today's trade union movement as ever
A mural in Islington depicts the 1834 march to Westminster to petition for the pardon of the six Dorset farm labourers
[London Mural Preservation Society]
NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
Born on this day in 1931, the heroic revolutionary faces a dangerous new wave of White House aggression. We must treat his birthday as a rallying cry to resist the illegal siege of Cuba, writes ROGER McKENZIE
RAMZY BAROUD decries the rats of Gaza, the rodent and human type. Both abound as profiteering from tragedy reaches obscene levels
THE squire of Tolpuddle stamped down the Earth as James Hammett’s coffin was laid into the ground.
The gang of hired heavies who circled the churchyard were there to do his express bidding: to ensure that no trade union speeches were delivered, or wreaths laid, to mark the passing of the last of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, in November 1891.
Forgotten by the movement that he had helped to forge, and with no old-age pension to fall back upon and his eyesight failing, Hammett had slipped away, quietly, into the workhouse so not to burden his family or to drag them further into poverty.
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Labour movement history in Britain shows workers secured reforms through collective pressure and political representation, rather than being gifted from above, writes KEITH FLETT
MARY DAVIS welcomes a remarkable documentary about the general strike — politically spot on, and featuring accounts from the strikers themselves — that is available for screenings
ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the legal case behind this weekend’s Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival and the lessons for today
As the labour movement meets to remember the Tolpuddle Martyrs, MICK WHELAN, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, says it’s an appropriate moment to remind the Labour government to listen to the trade unions a little more