Now! Then! The Wool Combers and Weavers Union of Bradford, meeting at the Roebuck Inn, signs off a poster condemning the anti-strike petition issued by the employers, meeting at the Sun

20 June 1825: The Wool Combers and Weavers Union of Bradford, meeting at the Roebuck Inn, signs off a poster condemning the anti-strike petition issued by the employers, meeting at the Sun

Wool Combers and Weavers Union. 1825/06/20. The Non-Signers of Bradford and Its Neighbourhood. Marxists Internet Archive. Ed. Mitchell Abidor Get it:

Excerpt

Those hot-headed Fellows, the Inhabitants of the Sun, seem to think, because they have more Light and Heat, that they have more Sense and Wisdom, also, than we poor Mortals of the lower Regions. It has lately also been driven into their empty Noddles, that they have a Right to rule or govern us, who are only the poor and simple Inhabitants of Earth. On account of our independent Spirit, we did not so easily submit to this, as they the Inhabitants of the SUN had at first imagined. They have therefore solicited their Brethren, who live in neighbouring STARS, to come to their Assistance and help them in putting down the Upstarts of the Earth. Not being able, with the Assistance of their zealous Brethren of the Stars, together with the King of that scorching COMET nightly seen at BOWLING, to curb by Force our independent Spirit, they have now Recourse to Stratagem. They mean to assail us separately with a Request to sign. To sign what? We do not know. Cannot you think or guess? Yes. We think we are to sign away our independence. We think we are to sign away our children’s Bread. We think we are to sign away our Labour at any price which these Inhabitants of the higher Regions may be pleased to give. This we certainly shall do if we sigh against the UNION. No sooner shall we have done this than they will ascend to their high Abode, laugh at our Cowardice and Ignorance, bind us to future Slavery through our present Conduct, and we being exposed more to the to the Pride and greediness of the Sun’s Inhabitants than to the Heat of the Sun itself, shall be dried and shriveled up, until we are reduce to Skin and Bone.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.
Abbreviations:

ER: East Riding
GM: Greater Manchester
NR: North Riding
NY: North Yorkshire
SY: South Yorkshire
WR: West Riding
WY: West Yorkshire

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Original

Fellow non-signers,

Those hot-headed Fellows, the Inhabitants of the Sun, seem to think, because they have more Light and Heat, that they have more Sense and Wisdom, also, than we poor Mortals of the lower Regions.

It has lately also been driven into their empty Noddles, that they have a Right to rule or govern us, who are only the poor and simple Inhabitants of Earth.

On account of our independent Spirit, we did not so easily submit to this, as they the Inhabitants of the SUN had at first imagined. They have therefore solicited their Brethren, who live in neighbouring STARS, to come to their Assistance and help them in putting down the Upstarts of the Earth.

Not being able, with the Assistance of their zealous Brethren of the Stars, together with the King of that scorching COMET nightly seen at BOWLING, to curb by Force our independent Spirit, they have now Recourse to Stratagem.

They mean to assail us separately with a Request to sign. To sign what? We do not know. Cannot you think or guess? Yes. We think we are to sign away our independence. We think we are to sign away our children’s Bread. We think we are to sign away our Labour at any price which these Inhabitants of the higher Regions may be pleased to give. This we certainly shall do if we sigh against the UNION. No sooner shall we have done this than they will ascend to their high Abode, laugh at our Cowardice and Ignorance, bind us to future Slavery through our present Conduct, and we being exposed more to the to the Pride and greediness of the Sun’s Inhabitants than to the Heat of the Sun itself, shall be dried and shriveled up, until we are reduce to Skin and Bone.

Committee-Room, Roebuck Inn, Bradford, June 20th, 1825

324 words.