Letters to the Socialist

The 1826 Lancashire Weavers’ uprising

This April marks the bicentennial of the 1826 Lancashire Weavers’ Uprising. Weavers who worked on handlooms were increasingly being challenged by mass production in the steam-powered cotton mills. Food prices were high and wages low, meaning thousands of families were living in poverty.

So, on 24 April 1826, thousands of people gathered at Whinney Hill, Accrington, to decide what to do, and the decision they made was to destroy the powerlooms in the area, while avoiding unnecessary damage to property, or violence to people. Over the next few days, over 1,000 powerlooms were destroyed, and around 10,000 people descended on Blackburn and Oswaldtwistle. Other groups of weavers and supporters joined the campaign, on 25 April 2,000 people met at Earcroft, proceeding across the moors to Helmshore and Haslingden to destroy the powerlooms there.

The mill owners and the capitalist establishment were initially taken by surprise at these events, but on 25 April soldiers were sent to deal with the weavers, 4,000 of whom were moving from Haslingden and Rawtenstall towards Dearden Clough Mill in Edenfield, and from there to Chatterton. The magistrate read from the Riot Act, ordering the crowd to disperse, and when they held their ground, soldiers from the Duke of York’s Own Rifles Regiment fired into the crowd, killing at least six people. Despite this, the weavers regrouped, and on the final day of the uprising, a large crown assembled at Water Street Mill in Chorley, many of whom were local people who supported the weavers.

The true numbers of those killed or wounded is not known. 41 people were put on trial, convicted and sentenced to death, although these sentences were later commuted. These events show the determination of the working class to fight for justice, and the viciousness of the capitalist class to hold onto their power and property.

Roger Bannister

Farage promotes the Sun the same week as a visit to Merseyside

Nigel Farage recently visited Southport on Merseyside as part of Reform’s campaign to potentially win seats in Sefton and Knowsley councils. He believed the prospects for this are good – it is certainly true Reform have sent me two leaflets as a registered elector in Bootle (Sefton).

I wonder what the people of Sefton and Knowsley, and wider, the people of Merseyside, will think of Mr Farage proudly promoting the infamous rag ‘newspaper’ (see below) that lied about the 97 victims of Hillsborough? A ‘paper’ that exists solely as a mouthpiece for the most reactionary parts of the British capitalist class.

Farage is just another Tory. He must be resisted. That is why TUSC is standing in working-class communities in Bootle, Netherton and Kirkby to cut across the toxic anti-working class politics of Reform.

Dean Young, Merseyside Socialist Party