The recent strikes across the UK have undeniably shaken the country. However, there was a time where the government would never have to debate whether to give in or not. This is because workers’ unions were illegal.

In 1834, six agricultural workers (from Tolpuddle, Devon) asked their landowner to raise their weekly wages, having seen them cut from nine shillings a week, to seven. Like current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who refused to negotiate with strike union leaders, the landowner simply cut their weekly wages down to six shillings- equivalent to 30p in today’s money. It was not nearly enough to provide for themselves and their families.

As a result, the six labourers banded together and formed the ‘Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers’ union, swearing to support each other (to achieve fair wages) and to secrecy of the union. However, the landowner became aware of this and had them imprisoned, trialled, then transported to Australia- the latest punishment, not far off execution, for the worst of criminals. Even after one-hundred-and-eleven days at sea, the six small-town farmers, including an older worker, were shown no mercy. They were all forced to walk, barefoot, to whichever farm they would serve their sentence working in.

Their supposedly heinous crimes may not be immediately obvious to many. In fact, a majority, if not everybody, would call not even call it so. Their offence was swearing a ‘secret oath.’

A ‘secret oath’ was an old law specifically made for the navy. It was for security: it prevented marines from swearing secret alliances to each other to avoid mutiny. The wealthy landowners, often also MPs, took this law and twisted it to convict the six righteous farmers, who only wanted enough to feed their families. They disliked the idea of the working class cooperating to challenge the status quo, potentially even reversing the social order as it was them who would lose the most.

Their fears were justified; only 60 years ago, the French revolution (1789) saw the French Monarchy overthrown and thousands of aristocrats guillotined. This familiar frustration from the working class was clear in England, shown in the Swing Riots in 1830. The landowners were becoming increasingly concerned of organised protests (fearing a similar revolution in the UK), hence the sentence of seven years transportation.

While in prison awaiting trial, George Loveless, one of six wrongly convicted and determined farmers, inscribed on his walls,

“We raise the watchword, liberty. We will, we will, we will be free!”

Their will to fight for fair wages is not unlike what is seen today. They were an inspiration for the whole working class- it was and is a sign that they should not have to play coy in fear of the angering the rich. These six farmers, bottom of the food chain, became a popular cause for the early union and workers' rights movements.

Their story shows that change is possible, no matter how unrelenting and powerful the other side seems to be. Fittingly, they are remembered today as the courageous, dedicated Tolpuddle ‘Martyrs.’