Skip to main content
From Cinderloo 1821 to Shrewsbury pickets 1972
Historian KEITH FLETT reminds us of some class conflicts with anniversaries this month

THE first week of February saw a couple of labour movement occasions centred on Shropshire and north Wales.

It was the 200th anniversary of the event known as “Cinderloo,” where miners protesting about wage cuts were attacked by the Shropshire yeomanry. Several were killed and others put on trial at Shrewsbury.

Over two days in the same week was the long overdue appeal by building workers convicted as part of the 1972 national building workers’ strike, in which the matters at issue also took place in the Shrewsbury area.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
STILL MARCHING: A May Day demo makes its way through London, 1973
Features / 1 May 2025
1 May 2025

KEITH FLETT revisits the 1978 origins of Britain’s May Day bank holiday — from Michael Foot’s triumph to Thatcher’s reluctant acceptance — as Starmer’s government dodges calls to expand our working-class celebrations

Features / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
From bemoaning London’s ‘cockneys’ invading seaside towns to negotiating holiday rents, the founders of scientific socialism maintained a wry detachment from Victorian Easter customs while using the break for health and politics, writes KEITH FLETT
TURNING POINT: The anti-cuts plan put forward by Tony Benn (
Features / 31 March 2025
31 March 2025
Facing economic turmoil, Jim Callaghan’s government rejected Tony Benn’s alternative economic strategy in favour of cuts that paved the way for Thatcherism — and the cuts-loving Labour of the present era, writes KEITH FLETT
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor of the Exchequer
Features / 17 March 2025
17 March 2025
Starmer’s slash-and-burn approach to disability benefits represents a fundamental break with Labour’s founding mission to challenge the idle rich rather than punish the vulnerable poor, argues KEITH FLETT
Similar stories
A cartoon depiction of the arrest of the Cato Street Conspir
Features / 4 February 2025
4 February 2025
The legacy of an 1820 conspiracy in revenge for Peterloo resonates down the ages, argues KEITH FLETT
Britain / 15 September 2024
15 September 2024
Starmer and Sunak arrive for their BBC debate in Nottingham
Features / 30 June 2024
30 June 2024
KEITH FLETT offers some historical context to the election campaign’s final period