
Issue No 68		25 August 2000

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Away For The Games

Olympic Dreams and the Forgotten Martyrs

By Peter Lewis

The only special offer worth contemplating in London right now is the chance to win tickets to Sydney 2000. It was a different story for the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

The six men transported to the colonies for seven years for having the temerity to form a trade union would think the world has gone even madder if they could witness the scramble to get to Sydney. It's in the British papers both high-brow and tabloid, on TV game shows, even on the back of breakfast cereal packets: the chance to "share the spirit in one of the most beautiful cities on earth". News reports are dominated by athletes attempting to 'make it to Sydney' or to beat the drug charges that would prevent them getting there. For perhaps the first time in history, the Harbour City is being placed at the centre of the world for two short weeks in September.

It was the end of the earth in 1834, when the Loveless Brothers, Thomas Stanfield and his son John, James Hammett and James Brine received their sentences, convicted by the sort of judicial process that Peter Reith would consider a 'more efficient industrial relations system'. They were tried and sentenced for forming a Friendly Society of Agricultural Workers to oppose ongoing cuts to farm workers' wages, which were now well below the cost of living. While trade unionism was perfectly legal, under an 1824 law, the local squire who also happened to be the magistrate had other ideas. He drew up charges under the Mutiny Act 1797 on the grounds the men had taken 'unlawful oaths'. Ironically, for a group to be remembered as political prisoners, the offending oath explicitly forbade the discussion of political or religious subjects during Lodge hours.

The case was backed by Lord Melbourne, later to become Prime Minister who was on the record as saying organised labour was "a conspiracy to control their masters and contrary to the laws of nature". He personified the ruling class's growing terror at the rise of trade unionism across the country under the charismatic leadership of Robert Owen, which had gained a foothold in the northern industrial cities and was threatening to spread through rural communities. But the seven year sentence of transportation that the court imposed on the Tolpuddle martyrs was regarded, even by Whig and Tory newspapers, as excessive. But seven years it was, on the grounds that "the use of all punishment is not with a view to the particular offenders or for the sake of revenge ... it is for the sake of example". And so the seven farm workers were torn from their young families and community, placed in dank cells before being herded into the rotting hulls of the transportation ships and sent, like thousands of working class people before them, on the treacherous voyage to a harsh and unknown land.

Which would have been the end of a typical story of unjust banishment if not for the efforts of the increasingly politicised working class. Within weeks of the sentence, public meetings were being held, supportive MPs were raising questions in Parliament and agitation for the release of the Tolpuddle Martyrs was gathering pace, culminating in a peaceful demonstration of more than 30,000 supporters in London's Copenhagen Fields in April 1834. The Martyrs had come to symbolise the very essence of the right to organise. As The Pioneer newspaper reported: "Last Monday was a day in Britain's history which long will be remembered: for labour put its hat upon its head and walked towards the throne."

The pressure was maintained in Parliament by the new breed of MPs with working class credentials like William Cobbet, Joseph Hume and Thomas Wakely. In 1836 the six were granted free pardons and a return to England at no expense, although the last of the men did not arrive home for more than two more years. During that time they were, in words of their original leader George Loveless: "treated like dogs, worked from the dawn of the morning till the close of day, often naked and all but starved". Welcomed home as heroes, the returned to Tolpuddle, where fundraisers had purchased land for them; most were active in the Chartist movement of basic and universal political rights, while Loveless penned his doctrine 'Victims of Whiggery'. Later five of the six emigrated to Canada where they made a pact not to discuss their past and died with their grandchildren unaware of their place in history.

But Tolpuddle, in the greenbelt southern county of Dorset, remains a cause celebre of British unionism; where a museum funded by trade unions keeps the story alive today. It stands adjacent to a series of homes built to provide free housing to retired rural workers who actively served their union during their working lives. Funds from the museum go into maintaining the residences, a practical way in which the Martyrs are still serving rural workers.

The story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs got me thinking about what seems like one of the great omissions in the Australian psyche; the history of exile. In all the celebrations of the Bicentenary and Federation no word has ever been made of the gross injustices foisted on the forebears of many Australians: the poor workers sentenced for taking the only food they could get, the women who had to eke out a living on the street, the dispossessed Irish, the persecuted trade unionists; driven from home and family by a legal system run by the wealthy for the wealthy. In an era when official apologies appear in vogue, maybe it's time for us to receive one from the British Government. In the context of our own reconciliation debate, the concept that white Australia's forebears committed collective atrocities may be easier to accept if we recognised we too were sinned against.

I put this theory to my London host, Russell, a 70-year-old former trade union official who now publishes Pluto Press books in the UK. "No way; I'm not apologising for anything," he laughs, "I've seen what life is like out there!" Like the millions of Britons who will tune into the Games, he'll see the beautiful shots of the Harbour and think he's looking at paradise. Let's hope he'll also get a bit of coverage about Australia's current debates about our three 'r's' the Republic, reconciliation and racism to make him wonder why we seem such a mixed up nation. But what I'm betting he'll miss is the recognition of his own society's part in the Sydney story.

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  Issue 68 contents

Interview: New Unionist
Britain's Trade Union Congress secretary John Monks on life under Blair and why the future of unionism could well rest in Europe.

History: The Victims of Whiggery
George Loveless, the leader of the rural workers who became the Tolpuddle Martyrs, recorded his ideals and experiences in a pamphlet that brings his story to life.

Economics: The Final Station
Corporatisation was first introduced into Australia by the former Greiner Coalition government. What is 'corporatisation' and who should we hold to account under its prescriptions?

International: Massive Union Win in American Telecom
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) announced on Thursday a settlement with Verizon Communications ending a fifteen day strike by 87,000 telephone workers from Maine to Virginia.

Unions: A Vital Community Service
What keeps the engine of the Australian economy running? Manufacturing productivity, the stock market, exports? Try child care.

Satire: Putin copies Clinton: dead seamen stains reputation
MOSCOW, Tuesday: Russian naval authorities today faced staunch criticism, and the anger of a nation gripped by tragedy, as they conceded that all 118 Russian submariners trapped in the nuclear submarine, the Kursk, had died.

Review: Blow Up The Pokies
Whether it arouses public debate about Gambling is best left to the public but Peter Zangarri thinks Tim Freedman is on a winner with the Whitlam's latest CD.

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