AT THE FBU we know the importance of our history, we remember those who fought to build an independent union for firefighters 108 years ago; the men and women who grew our union over the past century are the giants on whose shoulders we stand.

I’m proud of our trade union movement and its great history. Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival is a weekend to honour those who have gone before us, we remember those agricultural workers who formed a union in 1834 at great personal sacrifice.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs are part of a long history of working-class struggle in Britain and around the world, and now, at this crucial period in history, our generation must take forward the mantle of struggle.

Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival is also a weekend where we come together, learn from each other and re-energise for the fight ahead. FBU members will be in attendance in Tolpuddle today, engaging in discussion and enjoying the festivities with comrades from across the trade union movement. I’m sure that all involved will return to their workplaces next week with their socialist batteries charged and ready for the fight ahead.

The Festival has been running and developing since the 1930s.We have much to be thankful to previous comrades, such as Nigel Costley and others, who have built it over the years and made it the much-anticipated event it is today.

The festival reminds us that we are guardians of our trade union movement, and we have the responsibility to build it and pass it on to the next generation in a better shape than we inherited it. Each generation of trade unionists have fought the same fight for peace, prosperity and socialism.

As Tony Benn said many times from the stage at Tolpuddle: “There is no final victory, as there is no final defeat. There is just the same battle to be fought, over and over again.”

This weekend is an important time for our movement to come together and reflect, because we are just about to see another Labour Prime Minister take office. We must also take stock of the growing threat of the far right. Time is running out to prevent a far-right government and there will be no more second chances if Labour fail to deliver the changes that working people need.

Looking to the future, we must be as bold in our demands as the Tolpuddle Martyrs were in their day. We know that more of the same and another Labour Prime Minister tinkering round the edges of a fundamentally broken economic system will not work.

We need a fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of wealth and power in favour of the working class. Nothing else will be enough to achieve justice for our class and stop the rise of the far right.

For the fire service, we demand an end to the austerity that has been imposed on us since 2010 which has seen 12,000 firefighter jobs lost — amounting to one in five posts lost in the UK Fire Service. We need to see action on climate change, including a statutory duty on flooding, as the UK faces increasing threats from wildfires, floods and extreme weather conditions.

This year firefighters have shown that when we stand and fight together, we can win. In the last few months alone the FBU “Cuts Kill” campaign has saved jobs and prevented station closures in Oxfordshire, Kent and Dorset & Wiltshire. This follows on from other successes in Wales, Avon and Leicestershire. We’ve done this through unity, campaigning and being willing to defend services by industrial action if necessary.

How will future generations look back on our time at the helm of the movement? If we stop the far right from gaining power and lead the Labour government to introduce policies that improve the lives of working-class communities, including real investment in public services, then surely they can look back with pride. 

Steve Wright is general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union.