James Callaghan at Tolpuddle

Ex Prime Minister and Labour Leader of the Opposition James Callaghan joins the Tolpuddle Martyrs March in Dorset and lays a memorial wreath on the stone of James Hammett (1821-1891). On 24th February 1834, six farm labourers from Tolpuddle are arrested on a charge of swearing an illegal oath. They had founded the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers to protest against the gradual lowering of agricultural wages. This marks the beginning of the Trade Union Movement.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs, as they became known, James Brine, James Hammett, brothers George and James Loveless, George's brother in-law Thomas Standfield and Thomas's son John were sentenced to transportation to the penal colonies of Australia. A public outcry led to free pardons, James Hammett returned home and died aged 70 in the Dorchester Workhouse. The Martyrs festival and rally is held annually to commemorate the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the event celebratesthe right to form unions and is organised by the Dorset Committee of the National Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers and the Trades Union Congress. It is an historic episode in the struggle for trade union rights in Britain and around the world.