Anti-Labour legislation

The following piece from the Socialist Labour Party made its point forcefully! I want to share it:
THE TRADE UNION FREEDOM BILL
– A LESSON FROM HISTORY

BY LYNTON BENNETT
In 1863, dockers from Liverpool and Manchester refused to unload bales of cotton produced by slave labour in the southern states of the USA. This resulted in a bitter strike which brought hardship to the dockers and the workers in the cotton towns of Lancashire.
The sacrifice of the British workers helped the northern states of the US in the civil war. A monument carrying an address by Abraham Lincoln was erected near Manchester town hall to commemorate the strike.
But what relevance has this chapter of British labour history got for today?
Well, 150 years later, under a Labour government, the strikers would be thrown in jail, their union’s funds seized and the southern slave states allowed to pursue compensation for restraint of trade!
This leads us to the need to repeal all anti-trade union laws and, as one step in that struggle, secure a safe passage into legislation of the Trade Union Freedom Bill.
Despite wide support across the labour movement, the Bill continues to be talked out by New Labour apparatchiks.
Our forefathers stood up to the employers and government of the day to help free slaves, we haven’t even got that right.
Stand up against the anti-trade union laws and let’s win back the right to fight.

Ends.

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