REMEMBERING THE LONGEST STRIKE IN HISTORY

www.rmt.org.uk :: october 2007 :: RMTnews 33 The annual rally in Burston village on the Norfolk/Suffolk border not only commemorates the longest strike in history but includes the only march in the world where you can pick blackberries along the whole picturesque route. Thousands come each year to retrace the footsteps of schoolchildren nearly a hundred years ago that went on strike in support of their sacked teachers Kitty and Tom Higdon. The teachers were dismissed from the village's Church of England school after they complained of the appalling conditions the local children were forced to endure. Looking for a pretext to sack the teachers, the vindictive school managers led by Reverend Charles Tucker Eland accused Kitty of lighting a fire without their permission - to dry the clothes of children who had walked three miles to school in the rain. For this and other ludicrous trumped-up charges, the Higdons were sacked on 1 April 1914. However, as the authorities were taking over, the sound of children marching and singing could be heard and they began their fateful march which is re-enacted to this day. STRIKE SCHOOL The children never returned to the school, but instead had lessons on the village green and maintained a full timetable and observed registrations with the full support of parents. This act of defiance led to 18 parents being summonsed to court and fined for failing to ensure their children's attendance at school. Collections outside the court paid the fines and the authorities were soon forced to back down. With the onset of winter, the school moved into empty workshops. But the authorities kept up their intimidation and farmers sacked and evicted farm labourers. Striking families who rented land from the Rector for growing food were also evicted and their crops and property destroyed. Yet the local children and their families stood firm and, following donations from miners' and the National Union of Railwaymen and Trades Councils, a new school was opened in 1917, with the leader of the 1914 demonstration Violet Potter declaring, "With joy and thankfulness I declare this school open to be forever a School of Freedom". The Burston Strike School continued until 1939 when Tom Higdon died and Kitty, in her seventies, was unable to carry on alone. Both are buried in Burston churchyard. However, in 1949 The Strike School was registered as an educational charity and today it is a museum, visitor centre, educational archive and village amenity. Each year the annual rally celebrates the people who continue to fight for trade union rights, working class education, democracy and international solidarity. RMT general secretary told the crowd that the Higdons and the school children had shown that another world was possible where the rich did not dictate how the poor should live. “They showed us that if you want decent education, pay and healthcare you must fight for it and you can win,” he said. REMEMBERING THE LONGEST STRIKE IN HISTORY Bob Crow addressed this year’s annual rally to commemorate the children’s school strike at Burston which ran from 1914 to1939 Bob Crow Tony Benn and Billy Bragg Children lead the march