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With our banners still held high

PETER LAZENBY introduces the 2023 edition of West Yorkshire's ever-growing celebration of the labour movement that grew out of the 30th anniversary of the miners' strike

TRADE UNION banners will be proudly raised and marched through Wakefield in West Yorkshire on Saturday May 13 for the annual With Banners Held High festival.

The festival is a celebration of trade unionism and working people, inspired by the miners’ strike against pit closures of 1984-85, which has its 40th anniversary next year.

The first festival took place on the 30th anniversary of the strike and the event has become one of the north’s key celebrations of the labour movement.

Today it embraces current issues — particularly the need to develop green energy and a sustainable future as climate change continues to threaten the planet.

The traditional march from Smyth Street in Wakefield on Saturday morning will include a pipe band, a samba band and a silver band, and will culminate in the main part of the festival with stalls lining Wood Street where speeches and music, food and drink, will be part of the celebrations.

The festival is organised by a group of volunteers from Yorkshire’s labour movement. It attracts support from trade union branches and campaigning organisations from the north of England and beyond.

Phil Boyes, joint chair of the organising committee, said: “With Banners Held High was first held to mark the 30th anniversary of the miners’ strike against pit closures of 1984-85, and the miners’ proud march back to work with banners raised.

“Its aim was to remember the past so that we can build the future. It is more relevant today than ever, with climate change threatening our future and that of coming generations.

“Working people in Britain are also suffering desperate problems caused by the cost-of-living-crisis — in reality, a cost-of-profiteering-crisis — which they have not caused.

“All these are issues facing the labour and trade union movement today.

“Speakers at the festival on May 13 will be raising these vital issues.”

The festival is preceded by an online event on May 9 at which Sarah Woolley, general secretary of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union will argue that the climate emergency is a trade union issue.

On the evening of Friday May 12, Wakefield’s famed Red Shed Labour Club will host a pre-festival fringe event looking at the Featherston Massacre of 1893 when miners resisting pay cuts were attacked by the military. Author and historian Ian Clayton will speak on the massacre.

Annie Lawson-Foley will speak about the successful Sheffield Needs a Pay Rise campaign which continues today and the evening will end with a performance by singer-songwriter Gary McVeigh Kaye.

At the main event on Saturday, speakers on the main stage in Wood Street will talk about the current struggles of teachers, health workers, rail workers and others resisting the government’s continuing attacks on pay, conditions and public services.

They will include Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, Britain’s biggest teaching union, Bill Adams, secretary of Yorkshire and the Humber region of the TUC, Karen Reay, regional secretary of Unite, and Gaz Jackson, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regional organiser of rail union RMT.

Music will also be a key part of the festival with performances from radical singer-songwriter Joe Solo, Leeds People’s Choir and the band Bard Company.

Organisers’ joint chair Trevor Howard said: “Each year we try to develop the festival — with the march, more music, the online workshop series, events at the Red Shed, and this year with children’s activities in Mandela Square.

“This year our theme is sustainable energy and sustainable living, as we consider the ways we need to transform our economy and build a green future.

“We really hope that people are able to get to Wakefield, to join in with this great event.”

More information is available on Facebook @withbannersheldhigh.

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