"Poster, 'Free The Shewsbury Two', 1972" [NMLH.2025.38.4]

Catalogue Number
NMLH.2025.38.4

Object Name
poster

Title
Free the Shrewsbury Two

Place
Shrewsbury, UK

People
Des Warren, Ricky Tomlinson, Shrewsbury Two

Events
Strike

Date
1972

Description
Black and white poster, with text reading 'TRADE UNIONISTS IN JAIL | ALL OUT ON MAY DAY | FREE THE SHEWSBURY TWO'.

The Shrewsbury Two, Des Warren and Ricky Tomlinson, were builders and union organisers who were arrested on charges of "conspiracy to intimidate" following the 1972 construction workers strike. The strike had been called by several unions in the construction trade to fight for construction workers to have a minimum wage of £30 a week, an end to cash-in-hand pay, and access to employment rights that casual labourers didn't have. Tomlinson and Warren were arrested months after the strike, along with other builders who had participated in picketing. None had been charged with misconduct or criminal activity during the strike itself, and so this round of criminalisation was viewed as an attempt to suppress labour organising. Warren was jailed for three years, and Tomlinson for two, and this was viewed as political persecution by some union members.

Des Warren died in 2004, which Tomlinson attributed in part to the impacts of medication he was given while being held in solitary confinement in prison. Ricky Tomlinson, who is now a prominent actor, campaigned for decades to have their convictions overturned, a campaign which was eventually successful in March 2021, almost 50 years after the strike.

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