LABOUR GATHERINGS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 1 September 1934, Page 7

LABOUR GATHERINGS

DORCHESTER EVENTS RECALLED (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, 31st August. Many Labour organisations, including the Trades Union Congress, are holding their annual meetings near Dorchester this*'week. The meetings coincide with the commemoration of the centenary of the Totpuddle martyrs. Totpuddle is a small village near Dorchester and in 1834, farm labourers there having combined together to have their wages raised to 10s per week, were sentenced under the unrepealed Emergency Act of 1797, to seven years’ transportation, for administering an unlawful oath. Protests in Parliament and elsewhere were raised and free pardons were granted before the sentences expired. This week’s Labour celebrations mark the beginnings of the Trade Union movement to include the dedication of six cottages at Totpuddle for aged workers erected by the Trades Union Congress and the unveiling of a memorial in the village church;