No Tony Benn. No Bob Crow. Over the last months the workers movement has lost two significant agitators. Two people who made their voices heard and stood alongside their comrades fighting injustice; low pay; inadequate contractual conditions; bullying bosses; unacceptable targets…. This festival was not a morose affair though it was an opportunity to rejoice in the alliances of the past and the hope for the future.
No matter the adversity imposed upon us by the selfish and the cruel the message was that it can be withstood and defeated. At approximately 15.30, on the Sunday afternoon, well over a thousand people clapped and cheered Tony and Bob and their input into a movement that needs to be as strong now as at any other time.
There is a tendency to look for facsimiles or replacements in our personality driven culture but we must remember that we are all capable and our communion of skills and knowledge will deliver. We do not need iconoclasts. Left wing politics has to renounce leaders and celebrate the totality. You and I are the future. No disrespect to the speakers who took to the stage but they are the crowd warmers for the forthcoming big event.
Owen Jones (Guardian columnist) identified the enemy and roused us to work hard to remove them in 2015. What with is the main concern however. I managed a quick chat and asked him to promote Dorset Eye. As an independent, alternative citizen media we need as much support as is possible to provide a balance to the corporate mainstream media.
Emily Benn (Tony’s granddaughter) spoke warmly about her grandfather but reminded us that he would not want mourning but a celebration of what he had achieved and what there is still to be accomplished.
Robb Johnson (musician) compared the main stage following his performance the previous evening.
The warm sunshine kept the spirits high and the march was the focal point of yet another packed event. Travelling from all over the country and marking thirty years since the coal strike and the battle of Orgreave more specifically the masses gathered. Of all the festivals I attend this one has a soul that cannot be replicated. Almost all are friendly and like minded. This should never be underestimated.
Towards the end of every festival the bands play on. No Billy Bragg this year. Instead it was the quite wonderful Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott followed by the equally magnificent The Men They Couldn’t Hang. Both sets were excellent with new and old mixed gloriously together.
Paul and Jacqui reached into the catalogue of The Housemartins and The Beautiful South as well as from their new album. Kicking off with ‘Old Red Eyes is Back’ and also including ‘Rotterdam’, ‘I’ll Sail This Ship Alone’, ‘Happy Hour’; ‘Build’ and ‘Caravan of Love’ and many more jewels; this was a great set. Local activist Neil Duncan Jordan described it as one of the best sets he had seen at Tolpuddle.
Just when I thought this could not be equalled on come TMTCH and played tracks such as ‘The Ghost of Cable Street’, ‘Devil on the Wind’ and ‘The Green Fields of France (No Man’s Land) in tribute to the centenary of the biggest harvesting of humanity (until the next one 21 years later). And if that was not enough they invited us up at the end and our five year old daughter plucked at Shanne Bradley’s bass guitar. It will make her day one day but her dad did not have to wait.
Of all the wonderful Tolpuddle Festivals I have attended including chatting with Tony Benn this one was the stand out. The weather, atmosphere and the anger at being treated like fools by a corrupt and beguiling coalition government (and unfortunately much of the Opposition) meant that there was a unity of purpose not experienced before. As I walked back to collect the car I popped in to pay my respects to James Hammett. After all he and his comrades are the reason we are here. Celebrating what can be achieved and what is still to come.
The Facilitators
