Blacklisting talk, Chippenham

The Thomas Helliker lecture

A day of discussion about Civil Liberties

Speakers include leading authors, journalists, campaigners, union activists.

Among the speakers is Phil Chamberlain, co-author of the explosive Blacklisted book that uncovers illegal collusion between construction firms and police to prevent politically active workers from finding employment. with the book recently published in a vastly expanded second edition, Phil will tell the full shocking story of co-ordinated repression, depriving ordinary people of one of the fundamentals of life simply for exercising their democratic rights.

Also speaking are:

W Stephen Gilbert – Jeremy Corbyn: Accidental Hero
Ray Packham – Working in and for Palestine
Paul Dobson – Venezuela: the truth behind the headlines

FREE ENTRY

Organised by the White Horse Trades Union Council

In memory of Thomas Helliker, the Trowbridge Martyr 1784–1803

The anniversary of Helliker’s death, March 22nd, is celebrated each year by a wreath laying at St James Church in Trowbridge. White Horse ( Wilts) trades council is now also reviving the practice of holding a memorial lecture each year.

Thomas Helliker is an important figure in Wiltshire and working class history. In the early nineteenth century the introduction of machinery into the woollen trade impoverished thousands of workers; the best organized of the dispossessed workers, and the most opposed to mechanization were the shearmen. Littleton Mill near Semington was allegedly burnt down by a shearman in 1803. For his supposed part in this, a young Trowbridge apprentice, Thomas Helliker was hanged in 1803. Despite Helliker having an alibi from his friend Joseph Warren he was charged and lodged in Salisbury gaol. He refused to give evidence that would clear his name because it would have incriminated the real culprits.