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WEALTHY Tory MP Richard Drax must surrender his Caribbean sugar plantation to atone for his family’s past use of slave labour, protesters at this weekend’s 2021 Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival demanded.
The organisers of the annual labour movement event teamed up with Stand Up to Racism activists to call on Britain’s wealthiest MP to hand over the 621-acre sugar plantation to the people of Barbados as compensation for his family’s 200 years of slave-owning on the island.
A rally at the gates of the Drax family estate in Dorset formed part of the largely online celebration of the Tolpuddle martyrs, a group of poorly paid farm workers who were punished for trade union organising in 1834 by being transported to Britain’s penal colony in Australia.
Campaigners marched round part of the “Great Wall of Dorset,” a three-mile brick barrier that surrounds Mr Drax’s 17th-century mansion at Charborough Park, eight miles from Tolpuddle.
Activists said the South Dorset MP, who personally controls the Drax Hall plantation in Barbados, had not responded to requests to meet them.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady urged the former army officer, who is said to own 125 properties and be worth £150 million, to “pay up now,” citing the violence, rape and murder that accompanied slavery.
Addressing campaigners via video link, Barbadian MP Trevor Prescod stressed that it was time to place the Caribbean estate “with the people of the community, so that it can be used for their benefit instead of for profit.
“Drax Hall witnessed terrible pain and suffering and people today still experience disadvantage that is the outcome of generations of slavery,” he said.
“We ask Mr Drax to show moral leadership and to discuss with us how to address the legacy of chattel slavery.”
Calling for an end to generations of injustice, Stand Up to Racism co-chairwoman Lynne Hubbard said: “Mr Drax still benefits from the plantation, which has a shocking history of racism and exploitation.”
TUC south-west secretary Nigel Costley said that, while no-one can be held responsible for their ancestors’ actions, the Tory MP is “still sitting on the mountain of gold gained from the horrors of slavery,” adding: “It’s time he paid some back.”
Mr Drax has said that his ancestors’ use of slaves was “deeply, deeply regrettable,” but he has so far resisted demands for reparations.