190 years since Peterloo

[MargaretR]

190 years ago - on 16/08/1812 - was the Peterloo massacre
BBC - Manchester - Peterloo: a massacre remembered

...and currently this
Police blockade crime hotspots - News - Manchester Evening News

I like one of the comments sent in in response-
" Anyone who subscribes to the "I’m not a criminal, so I think it's a good idea" school of thought should really watch the episode of Panorama that was on the other night. Ordinary people, exercising their God-given rights to protest, are routinely being stopped, searched, personal items confiscated, filmed, photographed, followed and put on a database of potential troublemakers for anywhere between 7 years and forever.

The problem is that middle-class middle-Englanders don't seem to grasp the idea that any law that can be applied to "the other people", can just as easily be applied to them. Especially as the Police don't know that you are actually a law-abiding citizen at the time they encounter you, so they treat you just the same way as any other suspect. If you think they should treat all suspects like scum, then don’t start whinging when you get the same."

I hope that this police action doesn't generate the violence it is designed to prevent.

[Bernard Dawson]

Thanks for that Margaret, I'll go to Manchester and have look at the exhibition on the Peterloo massacre. I hadn't realised it was on.

[garinda]

Although it was a tragedy, it was still a great victory in the struggle for the working man and woman's fight for equality and social justice.

Even if it didn't happen for many more years. It sowed the seed.

[cashman]

Originally Posted by garinda

Although it was a tragedy, it was still a great victory in the struggle for the working man and woman's fight for equality and social justice.

Even if it didn't happen for many more years. It sowed the seed.

i agree was a shocking incident tragically what was gained long term, much seemed to evaporate in the 80s. re the social justice.

[garinda]

Is it still taught in schools?

I was taught about the events, and it's just as an important event in our social history as the Tolpuddle Martyrs, so it should be on the syllabus.

[MargaretR]

Governments edit history in schools to influence social policy
oops - I may get moved to Anything Goes again

[Bob Dobson]

I am not able to post a copy because of my ineptitude with this machine, but I recommend you try to find a magbnificent poem -'Peterloo' by Harvey Kershaw of Rochdale.Probably written in the 1970s. I think that the Oldham Tinkers have recorded it.
Stirring stuff...................

On the 16th day of August
In the year 1-8-1-9
The cotton folk o'Lancashire in protest did combine
.................................

John Bright and Cobden never knew
t-were t'Riot Act till bugles blew
And mounted redcoats come in view
wi' sabres in their hand
........................

Salute once more these men of yore
Who were to conscionce true
And give their blood in t'common good
On t'fields o'Peterloo

[Bernard Dawson]

Originally Posted by Bob Dobson

I am not able to post a copy because of my ineptitude with this machine, but I recommend you try to find a magbnificent poem -'Peterloo' by Harvey Kershaw of Rochdale.Probably written in the 1970s. I think that the Oldham Tinkers have recorded it.
Stirring stuff...................

On the 16th day of August
In the year 1-8-1-9
The cotton folk o'Lancashire in protest did combine
.................................

John Bright and Cobden never knew
t-were t'Riot Act till bugles blew
And mounted redcoats come in view
wi' sabres in their hand
........................

Salute once more these men of yore
Who were to conscionce true
And give their blood in t'common good
On t'fields o'Peterloo

I think it was Harvey Kershaw who put the poem to music. The Oldham Tinkers have been singing it for years around the folk clubs.

[garinda]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

Governments edit history in schools to influence social policy
oops - I may get moved to Anything Goes again

...and yet we all come out of the education system believing different things, with people agreeing on so little.

[Tealeaf]

Originally Posted by MargaretR

Governments edit history in schools to influence social policy
oops - I may get moved to Anything Goes again

But schools no longer teach history, do they? 1066...Magna Carta...Glorious Revolution....Forget it. Kids spend 12 years doing something called empathy which involved pretending to be an 18th century jamaican slave, a 19th century domestic servant or a 20th century anti-aparteid prison mate of that old rogue, Mandela. They may get a bit of the evils of Hitler chucked in but nowt about those of Stalin or Mao.

As for Peterloo, can you imagine a similar meeting today? It would be a hotch-potch of latex dressed gay rights campaigners, bearded mullahs calling for holy war on british troops in Afganistan, conspiracy theorists demanding the government tell the truth about UFOs over Ossy and maybe the odd loony leftie like Mancie urging the workers of the world to unite. Only one answer to that lot - send in the cavalry and take no prisoners.

[Eric]

A hundred years after Peterloo, there was a general strike in Winnipeg, Manitoba (or Winterpeg, Manisnowba, for those familiar with its notorious climate) .... the Royal North West Mounted Police (now the RCMP) were called in to break up the strike .... many strikers were injured and one was killed .... didn't come very far in a hundred years did we ....