Strikes are nothing new – on 14th February 1891, fiery trade union leader Tom McCarthy told a large crowd outside Newport Guildhall to expect the biggest strike ever known in England.
McCarthy – who was representing the Dock, Wharf, Riverside and General Labourers Union – was speaking on behalf of the downtrodden agricultural labourers of the South of England. He claimed working men on farms were being paid as little as 9s (45p) or 10s (50p) a week for over 10 hours labour a day.
In real terms, farm workers were then taking home around £81 a week after taking inflation into account.
McCarthy denounced what he called “the cursed system of capitalism and landlordism”. He believed that there were strong-limbed, able-bodied labourers on the Isle of Wight – who were neither rogues nor thieves – but were unable to earn sufficient to provide for themselves let alone their wives and children.
McCarthy demanded:
“The land for the people who work it, and not those who live on its fruits and do nothing.”
The firebrand speaker went on to condemn the big gentlemen, swilling with wine after dinner, talking about the privilege of belonging to a great and glorious empire. He believed such sentiments mocked half-starved labourers with no provision for their old age.
The union leader then proposed union branches be set up in all the agricultural villages of the Island.
So, nothing has changed then………The rich get richer, whilst the working classes fight amongst themselves….Divide and Conquer !
Nothing has changed then ,the rich get richer ,the poor get poorer, interesting article though
“The firebrand speaker went on to condemn the big gentlemen, swilling with wine after dinner, talking about the privilege of belonging to a great and glorious empire”
He could be talking about any number of senior Tories today.
And Rees-Mogg in particular.