THE Tolpuddle Martyrs, a group of agricultural labourers, were charged with taking an illegal oath 189 years ago. This was a promise of solidarity to each other in their struggle against landowners extracting every last drop of profit they could from the workers’ labour.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs’ arrest and deportation to Australia in 1834 was an early emblem of how the powerful would treat the free organisation of workers for centuries to come. Freedom of association and of assembly, the right to protest, the right to strike and freedom of speech have been a constant battle since.

And here we are, in 2023, fighting the same battles again. The government’s Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill is in its final stages, and unamended, it will all but outlaw the right to strike — a right that has been severely restricted by a succession of anti-trade union laws over several decades.