THIS weekend thousands of people will descend on a small village in Dorset to pay tribute to the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

The story of the Martyrs will be familiar to many Star readers. Six agricultural workers, who were transported to Australia in 1834 after being convicted of taking an “illegal oath,” had in reality been convicted for coming together to form in a union.

Like all the best episodes in labour movement history, the Martyrs’ story did not end in historic defeat. Instead public outrage — culminating in a demonstration attended by 100,000 people in London and an 800,000-strong petition to Parliament — led to the Martyrs returning home with a full pardon. The nascent trade union movement had been put to the test, and it had passed with flying colours.

But the Tolpuddle Festival is much more than an opportunity for trade union nostalgia. It’s a chance to build new friendships, share new ideas and organise around the challenges we face as a movement.

Challenges like the Trade Union Bill: a Bill that Squire James Frampton — who was behind the prosecution of the Martyrs — would definitely have approved of.

The squire was a landowner who feared that organised labour threatened the power base of the wealthy classes and called on the full might of the law to quash it. Fast forward 180 years and ministers are looking to do the same.

The Bill is a modern-day masterclass in punishing workers for daring to stand up for their rights.

This government is determined to strip trade union members of power at the negotiating table and give bosses the upper hand during disputes. Even when ballots succeed in meeting the new thresholds, employers will soon be able to bring in agency staff to break strikes.

These plans go much further than thresholds. Workplace training, safety and support for millions of workers could be hit by unlimited powers for the government to cap time spent on any union activity. This could even stop a union representative supporting you at a tribunal if you’re the victim of harassment or discrimination.

And unions face being hit by heavy fines if they don’t submit their plans for protests during industrial action in advance.

The government is even consulting on making striking workers tell authorities what they are planning on Facebook.

This spiteful attack on working people — shop workers, teachers, nurses, postal staff and factory workers, and their unions — is an affront to the British sense of fair play and is a huge threat to civil liberties.

This weekend at Tolpuddle, as we celebrate the six courageous workers who stood together against the squire, we will also be sending a strong message to the government that this generation of working people are just as determined to defend our democratic unions.