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We mustn't let the Martyrs' struggle be in vain
Just as in 1832, the Establishment wants to deny working-class people a voice, writes STEVE GILLAN
POA general secretary Steve Gillan

MODERN day trade unions have much to learn from the struggles of workers in the 1800s with the Trade Union Act now being law.

Before 1824/25 the Combinations Acts had outlawed combining or organising to gain better working conditions.

In 1832 — the year of the Reform Act which extended the vote in England but did not grant universal suffrage — six men from Tolpuddle in Dorset founded the “friendly society of the agricultural labourers” to protest at the lowering of agricultural wages.

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