TRADE unionists lined up to slam Tory austerity and the attack on their movement to the deafening cheers of an estimated 175,000-strong gathering at the Durham Miners’ Gala this weekend.

As the sun shone on crowds not seen for half a century at the 131st gala on Saturday, speakers said that the time was coming to “defy unjust laws” if the Tories impose unachievable turnout levels for strike ballots.

The Big Meeting, as the gala is traditionally known, began with three marches merging into one huge column in the heart of the cathedral city.

Brass bands and pipe bands led dozens of union banners, many of them from pit branches of the former Durham coalfield, and collieries around the country.

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said: “Are we simply going to protest, and let them get away with it? Or are we going to stop them making these attacks?

“We saw on London Underground a little taste of power,” he said, referring to Thursday’s all-out 24-hour strike which paralysed Tube services.

“Four unions brought it to a standstill,” he said. “Imagine what we could do if we all fought together.”

Tosh McDonald, president of Train drivers’ union Aslef, one of the unions involved in the co-ordinated London Underground action, said the coming battle against the Tories would be based on class.

“We want to fight for our class the way that they fight for their class,” he said.

He recalled the days when all the people of Britain owned its coalmines, the trains which carried coal to the publicly owned power stations, provision of electricity through the publicly owned distribution network, to publicly owned factories and hospitals. Privatisation had ended that, he said.

Teachers’ union NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates attacked the Tories’ tactic of blaming the poor for their poverty, and for the party’s continuing dismantling of welfare support.

“We know there are no depths to which this government will not sink in its efforts to destroy the welfare state,” she said.

“The next £12 billion in cuts will be so devastating that even the government has had to decide the cuts will be made over three years, not two.”

She said that while top bosses’ salaries had increased by 26 per cent, two in five workers had been forced onto zero-hours contracts.

Unite leader Len McCluskey made clear the union’s position on defying unjust laws.

He said that at the recent Unite conference delegates had made a momentous change to its rule that industrial action could take place only “as far as it may be lawful.”

Mr McCluskey said the words had been removed from the rule book.

“We have a duty not only to oppose but to break bad laws,” he said.

He quoted Tory Lord Hailsham’s historic comment about how a government could be “an elected dictatorship.”

“We are talking about a Tory government elected by less than a quarter of the electorate imposing its will on millions,” he said.

“We are ready to fight. And we believe we will find allies throughout our society by everyone who cares for freedom and democracy.”