The courts | Socialist Action 1983

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ACTION 7 December 1984 TUC must miners 1799 1834 1871 1873 1896 1900 1909 1915 1927 1971 1972 1973 1980 1982 1983 versus Combination Acts: made all 'combinations' of workers illegal. Anyone joining together for the purpose of opposing her or his employer is liable to three months' imprisonment or two months' hard Combination Acts: The 1824 Act repealed the earlier anti-combination legislation but a wave of strikes immediately caused Peel's government to tighten up the law again.

Tolpuddle Martyrs: six labourers from Tolpuddle in Dorset were transported to Australla under a 1797 Act forbidding the 'administering and taking of unlawful oaths' for seditions.

Trade Union Act and Criminal Law Amendment Act: effectively outlawed peaceful picketing by 'watching unlawful since the 1825 Act, but had been finally legalised in 1859.

Gas Stokers' Case: London gas workers who had gone on strike to prevent the victimisation of trade were sentenceo to 12 months' hard labour for 'conspiracy' to break their contracts of employment.

The courts grant an injunction to prevent members of the Amalgamated Trade Society of Fancy Leather Workers from picketing their place of work, throwing into doubt the right to peaceful picketing believed to have been established by the 1896 Trade Union Act.

Taff Vale Judgement: again, the courts grant an injunction to prevent picketing, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants -in dispute with the Taff Vale railway. • Ine Hous of Lords also awards compensation for losses suf fered by the company as a result of the strike and the ASRS has to pay f42,000 in damages and legal costs.

Osborne Judgement: the courts declare that it is il legal for the Amalgamated Society of Railway Ser vants to make contributions to the funds of the Labour Party.

Munitions of War Act: made all strikes illegal in industries employed in war work. All trade union rules on production, such as limitations on overtime, are suspended and arbitration in industrial disputes made compulsory.

Trades Disputes Act: banned sympathetic strikes