Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long
as ever you can.
John Wesley
| Text size: +/-Trade Unions
The Tolpuddle Martyrs
George Loveless was a Methodist local preacher from the Dorset village of Tolpuddle. In 1832 he became leader of six agricultural labourers who formed a society to protest against falling wages.
His Methodist influence had given him and some of the other men a strong sense of social justice, and a vocation for speaking out for the oppressed. James Frampton, the local landowner, had the men arrested on charges of swearing an illegal oath, and they were deported to Australia. After a major public outcry they were eventually brought home.
At the time the Wesleyan Methodist Conference seemed totally disinterested in the men’s fate. Today’s radical and active Methodist political tradition owes much to this group of pioneers, and underlines the need for us to be open to challenge and new ideas.
God is our guide!
From field, from wave, from plough, from anvil, and from loom;
We come, our country's rights to save,
And speak a tyrant faction's doom:
We raise the watch-word liberty;
We will, we will, we will be free!
George Loveless
Tolpuddle holds a celebration in July each year to celebrate the birth of the trade union movement, which includes a special service at the Methodist Chapel.
Joseph Arch – The Great Awakening
Joseph Arch was a Primitive Methodist Preacher from Warwickshire. In 1872 he helped to form the National Agricultural Labourers Union and became its President.
By helping to inspire agricultural workers Joseph Arch played a key role in what Karl Marx called ‘the Great Awakening’. Farm labourers saw a rise in wages, and Arch himself later became a Member of Parliament.
Every June special Joseph Arch celebrations take place, involving a walk along the Joseph Arch Trail around his birthplace and the area where he began organising agricultural workers.
Trades Union Congress
Today’s Trade Unions trace their heritage back to the Tolpuddle Martyrs and Joseph Arch. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has 66 Trades Unions and represents over 6½ million workers in the UK.
Each September the TUC meets to debate policy and the future direction of the organisation. The President and Vice-President of the Methodist Conference attends the TUC to listen to some of the debates, as well as meeting with officials from individual trade unions.
Links between the TUC and the Methodist Church are developing, particularly in areas where we can help each other.
For more information about Methodism and Trade Unionism, or the annual celebrations at Tolpuddle, Warwickshire or the Methodist Church at the TUC, please contact David Wrighton, Methodist Church House, 25 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5JR.
Telephone 023 8026 1146 E-mail david.wrighton@mibic.org.uk
