Anniversary Echo
Today, in 1834, six farm workers from Tolpuddle were sentenced to transportation to Australia for forming a trade union.
How long will it be ere they cease to grind to dust, trample under foot, and tread down as the mire of the streets the hardworking and industrious labourer? … never no, never will (with a few honourable exceptions) the rich and the great devise means to alleviate the distress, and remove the misery felt by the working men of England.
What then is to be done? Why the labouring classes must do it themselves or it will be left undone; the laws of reason and justice demands their doing it. Labour is the poor man’s property, from which all protection is withheld. Has not the working man as much right to preserve and protect his labour as the rich man has his capital?
George Loveless
