Thousands of trade unionists will this weekend celebrate the return of the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival.
Run by the South West TUC, the three-day event in Dorset commemorates the sacrifice of six farmworkers transported to Australia in 1834 after forming a trade union.
Headline acts include Billy Bragg, Ngaio and the Ngostics, Rhoda Dakar and the Cable Street Collective, with speakers including TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady, Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner and Ukrainian journalist Serhii Guz.
Organiser Nigel Costley said: “After two years away, we can’t wait to welcome people back to Tolpuddle for what promises to be our biggest festival yet.
“With the government in freefall, there’s never been a better time for people to join a union to protect their rights at work, their jobs and their pay.”
There is a packed programme of music, film, entertainment and topical discussion throughout the weekend.
The festival has kept its promise to musicians booked for the 2020 event but gaps have been filled with some great artists from here and abroad. US protest singers who performed online in 2021, Crys Matthews and Carsie Blanton were so taken by the Tolpuddle story they are here in person this time. They will be joined by David Rovics a radical folk singer also from America.
Ukrainian journalist Serhii Guz has been to Tolpuddle a couple of times before but never expected to come under the shadow of war. He is the founder of a new independent media trade union and, as a result of a medical exemption from fighting, was granted a visa to come to the UK to join his family who have fled the war. He will speak about fighting the Russian invasion and defending trade union rights in Ukraine.
It will be the last festival for Frances O’Grady and Nigel Costley, both of whom step down in the autumn.
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