Clinton Hatcher, Bristol North Socialist Party
Tolpuddle Martyrs festival is a weekend of celebration, culminating in a parade through the village. Every year, we in the Socialist Party try and make sure we get our ideas out – a new mass workers’ party, opposing austerity, and socialism.
We reached hundreds of people with our programme. We sold 113 copies of the Socialist – more than last year, despite the festival being smaller. We met several people interested in joining the Socialist Party.
A gulf between some trade union leaders and their members was evident. The top table speeches backing Andy Burnham weren’t reflected in the hundreds of conversations we had with ordinary trade unionists.
We found some hope that Burnham would signal a slight improvement, but very little expectation, let alone enthusiasm. On the march, people joined our chants calling for an end to union funding for Labour and fighting austerity.
It is vital that we get out to our trade union branches and call for a new workers’ party. Capitalism has a stacked line-up of hands to manage their system in parliament.
Calling them ‘safe hands’ though would be overselling it. We’ve had seven prime ministers in ten years!
