Tolpuddle (UK) 03 August 2022 (SPS)- The annual British Trade Union festival of the six Tolpuddle Martyrs expressed support and solidarity with the Struggle of Saharawi people, Western Sahara campaign said in a letter to Saharawi Workers Union (UGTSARIO), urging the British government to stand for the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination.
"Today the Saharawi people who live under a brutal Moroccan colonial regime in occupied Western Sahara are also standing up for their rights," the letter says.
Participants to the Festival stressed the need for UK, as a country committed to justice and international law, to "finally make a real stand in the name of Saharawi self-determination." For that to happen, concerted efforts have to be taken to liberate the last colony in Africa
For the British Trade Unionists, the sacrifice and determination of the Six Tolpuddle Martyrs would not have been successful without the solidarity and mass support they received across the UK, forcing the then government to allow them to return back from exile to their country.
Living up to the principles and spirit of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the British Trade Unionists pledge their commitment to international justice and to defend the Sahrawi people's struggle to free their country.
Tollpuddle Martyrs Festival was held from July 15 to 17 in the village of Tollpuddle, in the presence of thousands of Trade Unions’ members. This yearly event commemorates the struggle of six men who were exiled to Australia in 1834 for standing up for their right to join a trade union.
That sentence against the 6 men triggered a large solidarity and protest in UK, forcing the government to reverse its decision in 1836 for them to return back between 1837 and 1839. Their struggle was instrumental in the formation of the British Trade Union Movement. (SPS)
090/500/60 (SPS)
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