Halifax Chartist died on 17 June 1853. Today, on 16th June 2023, Calderdale Trades Union Council are marking his life by laying a wreath at his grave in the Lister Lane Cemetery. Mohammad Taj, a bus driver for 43 years was the elected TUC President for 2013-14. Unable to attend the event today he has sent the following solidarity message.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I feel very privileged to have been asked to speak on this special
occasion to honour a great man who throughout his entire existence battled
ceaselessly to improve the lives and political rights of his class, the working
class and which constitute the overwhelming mass of the world’s population and
of which I am proud to be a member of as bus worker for 43 years, born overseas
from Pakistani side of Kashmir.
Sadly, I cannot though attend as I am otherwise engaged at
an Employment Tribunal in Sheffield and unable to be able to travel back
for the time of this event, and so I would be grateful if this short note could
be read out on my behalf.
Before I move on to speak about Benjamin Rushton and Chartism in
general, I would just like to praise and
thank Calderdale Trades Council for seeking to keep alive the history of
Chartism and the role it played in establishing some of the important political
rights we still enjoy today, not forgetting, of course, that the generations
that followed the Chartists have always needed to be aware they can easily be
lost if we don’t seek to assert these rights.
I have been fortunate enough to have read the coverage in the People’s
Press newspaper of Rushton’s funeral 170 years ago this month. If you haven’t
read this and want to read then please ask the trades council to send it to
you. What it reveals is the deep respect that so many people who were at the
sharp end of capitalist exploitation at the time had for a man who had stood up
for them, who had bravely gone first into battle against murderous, which was
shown in August 1842 during the great strike, brutal opponents, and some of
whom are still honored today in Halifax with statues to them.
With around a quarter of a million people taking the time to remember
Rushton on the day he was laid to rest then that is, quite simply, a remarkable
number. 15,000 packed out this cemetery to see him buried here with his
headstone paid for by donations. His cortege from Ovenden passed amidst mass
crowds who remained silent in tribute.
This man is a hero.
His wife Mary had, and at this point I am grateful to Catherine Howe’s
Halifax 1842 classic book, died ten years earlier of advanced dropsy, which can
result from pregnancy and from malnutrition. Her body would be swollen and
painful. In other words, she died because she was poor. Today, hundreds of
millions of people are still unable to get enough food to eat on a daily basis.
How wrong is this?
Benjamin, a weaver, knew that was the case and that is why he was a
chartist and a workers’ advocate, seeking better pay & improved political
rights which he knew meant greater working class representation in the
corridors of power.
In 1848, Rushton and Christopher Shackleton, whose own grave is in this
cemetery, maintained that the British people should follow the European
revolutions including that of France. Rushton was arrested after the 1842
popular Uprising in which Halifax played a major role and at least five people
were butchered by the military.
Rushton, at the time, was letting other people across West Yorkshire
know what had happened.
It only leaves me to wish everyone well and for those who enjoy a pint -
to ask them - to raise a glass - afterwards
of the special 1842 brew - to honour Rushton.
Mohammad Taj, TUC President 2013 to 14
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