MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Epic account of the Tolpuddle martyrs' struggle for trade union rights
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ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
Six for the Tolpuddle Martyrs: The Epic Struggle for Justice and Freedom
by Alan Gallop
(Pen and Sword, £14.99)
ANYONE familiar with the song Red Fly the Banners, O! will understand the reference in the title of this book to six agricultural labourers from Dorset who’ve become a lasting symbol for the freedom to join a trade union.
Every July thousands flock to Tolpuddle in Dorset to commemorate their lengthy struggle and eventual success against the forces of the establishment — Parliament, the judiciary, the church and the landowners.
Life for farm labourers was grim in the early 19th century. In William Cobbett’s Rural Rides he described the food and dwellings of farmworkers in the south-west as not fit for pigs and the wretchedness of life worse than that of “free negroes” in the US.
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