Tolpuddle singer’s victory over British Conservative xenophobia

This video from Dorset, England is called Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival 2012.

Singer allowed back in Britain for Tolpuddle Festival

Thursday 14 July 2011

Singer Maureen Lum will join this weekend’s major Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival after all despite her “shameful” deportation to Australia 10 days ago.

Amateur singer Ms Lum was apprehended by officials at London’s Stansted airport and deported back to Tasmania because she did not have a visa allowing her to take part in entertainment.

However, she has now travelled all the way back to Britain after being forced to obtain the required piece of paper and rebook her flight.

Ms Lum is now heading for Dorset to join her comrades in an hour-long festival session with the amateur Tasmanian Grassroots Union Choir, before continuing with a long-planned holiday in Britain.

Labour MPs condemned her deportation yesterday as a “shameful incident.”

A group of 26 MPs led by Tony Lloyd put down a Commons early day motion slamming “ridiculous” rules which require amateur performers to have a formal entertainment visa to enter Britain.

The motion noted the “irony” that the Tasmanian choir sings songs retelling the story of the six Tolpuddle Martyrs whose decision to form a union led to their transportation to Australia.

Ms Lum will join her fellow singers in performing a folk opera Loveless In Hobart Town telling the story of martyr George Loveless who was transported to Van Diemen’s Land – now Tasmania.

South West TUC regional secretary Nigel Crossley said: “This sorry saga demonstrates how harsh and brutal this country seems to be becoming.

“It could be blamed on ridiculous red tape, but seems to me to be part of a co-ordinated government policy to make Britain a less welcoming place.”

Festival organisers are expecting a bumper turnout this year.

The need to revive the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ spirit to fight against today’s wage race to the bottom is continually implied in Neil Gore’s We Will Be Free! Here.

Today Derby celebrates the Silk Mill Lockout — the first major industrial dispute in Britain, which, along with the struggle of Tolpuddle, marked the birth of the trade union movement, writes GRAHAM STEVENSON: here.