RMT ON THE MARCH AT TOLPUDDLE AND BURSTON

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2011 :: RMTnews 24 R MT members braved the changeable weather this summer and marched behind the union’s famous brass band at the Tolpuddle Martyrs festival in Dorset and the Burston strike school rally in Norfolk. The rain held off and the sun came out for marchers celebrating both the six Dorset farm labourers transported to Australia in 1834 for the ‘crime’ of forming a union and the Norfolk schoolchildren who struck in 1914 in defence of their sacked teachers. The Burston strike, which ran from 1914 to 1939 is the longest running in British history after pupils of the local school spontaneously walked out in support of husband and wife teachers Kitty and Tom Higdon. The Higdons were sacked by local landowners for their active campaign to educate and fight for the rights of farm workers and the rural poor. Local parents installed the couple to teach in the strike school, which lasted until Mr Higdon died in 1939. The school is now a valued museum of the labour movement. Each year children head the trade union procession retracing the route of the march taken nearly 100 years ago, passing the teachers’ home, now known as Higdon’s cottage. Addressing the rally, Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins congratulated the organisers of the annual event. “Burston celebrates the action those children took and the Higdon’s passionate belief in educating working people to liberate themselves from oppression. “The local landowners didn’t want their workers educated because they knew they would demand their rights. “It is still the case today that the privileged few do not want to share their wealth or see working people educated. “The trade union movement needs to fight this attitude and that is why I am proud to call myself a socialist Member of Parliament,” he said to applause. South West Regional TUC ensured that the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival was another great success, despite the downpour campers suffered at the beginning of the weekend. RMT hosted a meeting on site at its tent on the controversial proposals contained in the EU/India Free Trade Agreement known as Mode 4, which allows big corporations to bring in Indian labour on very low wages (see page 12). RMT members took part in a lively debate on transport with TSSA and ASLEF representatives, all agreeing on the need to resist the proposals on the McNulty report. RMT ON THE MARCH AT TOLPUDDLE AND BURSTON