REMEMBERING BURSTON

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2013 :: RMTnews 26 Each September over trade unionists from across the country gather in the small Norfolk village of Burston to celebrate the longest strike in British history. Children marched out of their school when their much-loved teachers, Tom and Kitty Higdon, were sacked on trumped up charges because of their support for the farm workers’ union. Tom’s election as a councillor inflamed the local landowners and the Church of England, which was then responsible for educating children in the countryside, and on April 1, 1914, after the couple had been dismissed, the children walked out on strike. The Burston Strike School was built on the village green from Labour movement subscriptions and continued to educate children right up to 1939 until Tom Higdon died, 25 years after the strike began. Today trade unionists march around the village, retracing the steps of those children in 1914. The Strike School building is now a museum, visitor centre and village amenity, and since 1984 a rally has been held every year to commemorate the original Burston rally. Bob Crow addressed over 1,000 people, reminding them that the spirit of the Higdon’s lived on. “We need to stand up as a movement just like those children did nearly 100 years ago and fight the assaults on working people by this rotten Tory/Lib Dem coalition government,” he said. The Burston rally is a great day out, one which you should put in your diary for next year, the 100th anniversary. REMEMBERING BURSTON The Longest Strike RMT band plays to large crowds at Burston to mark 99 years since school children launched 25 years of strike action in defence of teachers