Tolpuddle, Thatcher, and the Worst Attack on Trade Unions in Thirty Years

Think Left

This weekend in Tolpuddle, trade unions will march  and recognise the sacrifices of the Tolpuddle martyrs who were transported to Australia for standing up for their rights to be in a trade union. As always the Tories try to divide the workers. We must not talk of divisions of North and South, of Scots and English, of public and private. Let us remember that the real divide is rich and poor.

God is our guide! from field, from wave,
From plough, from anvil, and from loom;
We come, our country’s rights to save, And speak a tyrant faction’s doom:
We raise the watch-word liberty;
We will, we will, we will be free!

George Loveless

Margaret Thatcher attacked the working class, closed down mines, factories, and ultimately British Industry. Nearly everything these days is imported, having been produced by cheap labour in appalling working conditions. The globalisation started thus…

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