Skip to main content
The Morning Star Shop
Winning workers' rights will be the biggest tribute to the Tolpuddle Martyrs
The trade union movement faces a long, hard battle ahead — but we're ready and resilient, says TUC leader FRANCES O'GRADY
Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the TUC, speaks during a TUC national demonstration in central London to demand action on the cost of living, a new deal for working people and a pay rise for all workers.

TOLPUDDLE will forever be a special place for the trade union movement.

This year, the story of the martyrs is as relevant as ever. Squire James Frampton was a landowner who feared that trade unionism threatened the power base of the wealthy classes and called on the full might of the law to quash it. His victimisation of the martyrs — for organising against pay cuts — has been repeated by greedy bosses throughout history.

Squire Frampton would have approved of the way ministers today are introducing new laws to make it harder for people to defend their living standards.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
British Gas workers on strike outside the headquarters of Ce
Features / 1 May 2021
1 May 2021
Tell your children and grandchildren, your workmates and neighbours, it’s time to join a union, urges TUC leader FRANCES O’GRADY
Much of the home schooling burden has fallen on women
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2021 / 8 March 2021
8 March 2021
The Covid crisis, and the inadequate response to it, is deepening inequalities for women at work, says TUC leader FRANCES O’GRADY
Features / 3 October 2020
3 October 2020
by Frances O’Grady
Features / 30 April 2020
30 April 2020
Ministers and bosses must act now on pay and conditions to give a proper boost to all working families, says FRANCES O’GRADY
Similar stories
Tolpuddle Martyrs tree
Lawman / 19 July 2025
19 July 2025

ANSELM ELDERGILL examines the legal case behind this weekend’s Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival and the lessons for today

Train drivers from the Aslef union on the picket line at Euston station in London, April 5, 2024
Features / 19 July 2025
19 July 2025

As the labour movement meets to remember the Tolpuddle Martyrs, MICK WHELAN, general secretary of train drivers’ union Aslef, says it’s an appropriate moment to remind the Labour government to listen to the trade unions a little more

Junior doctors on the picket line outside St Thomas' Hospital, London, during their continuing dispute over pay. Picture date: Thursday June 27, 2024
Workers' Rights / 18 July 2025
18 July 2025

It is only trade union power at work that will materially improve the lot of working people as a class but without sector-wide collective bargaining and a right to take sympathetic strike action, we are hamstrung in the fight to tilt back the balance of power, argues ADRIAN WEIR

Eddie Dempsey joins the picket line outside Paddington Stati
Britain / 6 March 2025
6 March 2025