Never Forget Peterloo - Commemoration Event   

Manchester Trades Council wants to commemorate Peterloo every year by holding a memorial event - with music and politics and remembering those who took part.

Monday 16th August 2010

Britons Protection Pub, Bridgewater Street, Manchester M1

7.00pm to 11pm. Tickets available on the door £3/£1

Confirmed acts are:

Claire Mooney

“The people’s songstress” (Music Week)

Dave Puller

“Poet, promoter and all-round nice guy” (MEN)

Rich Man’s Ruin

“The new, fab, rad folk band from Liverpool” (Debs, Liverpool Unite Against Fascism)

There will also be speakers from the trades union, labour movement and civil liberties campaigns, including the Justice 4 Bolton campaign.

Manchester Trades Union Council is proud of the legacy played by people in this region in fighting for tPeterloo Paintinghe right of people like us to have the vote. We will always remember the men, women and children who demonstrated at St Peter’s Field in Manchester on the 16th August 1819.

These peaceful demonstrators had one simple plea – for the right for adult men and women in this country to vote in elections. The magistrates in Manchester ordered the cavalry to arrest the organisers. The cavalry charged into the crowd on horses with sabres drawn, this attack resulted in at least 15 deaths with an estimated 400 to 700 demonstrators injured, some very seriously.

Forever after this has been known as the Peterloo massacre.

Many of us might still be recovering from our hard work getting the vote out for the General Election. Perhaps we tried to raise the level of political discussion within our workplaces so that people picked themselves up and went out and voted and didn’t abstain or watch Eastenders instead. Many of us may have been upset at how the vote turned out!

But at least we voted and had the right to vote.

Please come along and support this event, bring your branch members and friends