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Derby honours silk workers’ bitter lockout battle
The annual Silk Mill Festival celebrates the first-ever industrial workers’ strike in Britain, which, although it ended in defeat, laid the template for today’s union movement, writes BILL GREENSHIELDS
Trade unionists march through Derby city centre

“REMEMBER the past, fight for your future,” is — as it is every year — the rallying cry at Derby’s annual Silk Mill Festival.

Derby’s Silk Mill Festival marks the year-long struggle of Derby and Derwent Valley silk mill workers from 1833-34, against oppressive and ruthless owners and managers who routinely ripped off their already low-paid workers through spurious pay cuts  — and denied them trade union rights with the threat of instant dismissal.

Does this sound familiar 190 years on?

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