Peterloo remembered

Unite members who on Sunday August 17 marched 12 miles from Bolton were amongst a 200-strong crowd who descended on Manchester’s St Peter’s Square.

They were commemorating there the 195th anniversary of the 1819 Peterloo massacre when the cavalry slaughtered at least 15 pro-democracy campaigners.

Demonstrators want a fitting permanent memorial mounted for the Peterloo bicentennial in 2019. Richard Lease, Manchester City Council leader, has just commissioned its design by artist Jeremy Deller, who will meet the Peterloo Massacre Memorial Campaign (PMMC) members next month.

In 1819 just two per cent of people could vote and there was widespread poverty, mainly from the corn laws that artificially inflated bread prices. On August 16, 1819, contingents from across Manchester marched in disciplined fashion to St Peter’s Field to support parliamentary reform by listening to radical speaker Henry Hunt. The crowd was at least 60,000 – half the population of the immediate area.

Banners demanded reform, universal suffrage and equal representation. Those in a government representing its own needs wanted no such thing and sought to arrest Hunt and disperse the crowd.

Wielding sabres, Manchester and Salford Yeomanry galloped into the unarmed, peaceful masses. Two-year-old William Fildes was the first casualty when a late arriving trooper knocked him from his mother’s arms. Fifteen people, at least, were killed and 600 to 800 injured.

Dreadful scene – Peterloo massacre etching from the time

Among the dead was ex-soldier John Lees, who fought at the Battle of Waterloo. Peterloo became a mocking reference to Waterloo at which soldiers were viewed as genuine heroes. In recent times Peterloo has become compared with the slaughter of pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Not content with killing, the authorities in 1819 cracked down on reform. But liberty could not be suppressed and demands for economic and political justice multiplied.

The great Reform Act of 1832 meant Manchester, previously unrepresented in Parliament, elected two MPs. Sweeping democratic changes followed later.

Today Manchester has numerous magnificent statues and commemorative monuments. Peterloo has just a small red plaque. Unite members who carried their branch banner 12 miles from Bolton Socialist Club – England’s oldest independent socialist club – seek change soon.

“We followed the footsteps of ordinary working people who marched into Manchester and pushed our system towards democracy. They deserve a monument that is distinctive, respectful and informative,’ said Martin McMulkin, Unite shop floor convenor at JOST, Bolton.

That prospect has improved now Jeremy Deller is to come up with a design. Manchester’s deputy mayor, Paul Murphy, a Unite member who was previously a British Aerospace convenor, said after the rally which concluded Sunday’s events, “This matters to me and fellow Mancunians, whose forefathers led a struggle for emancipation which needs a fitting memorial. Peterloo should also be taught in schools.”

A view supported by ten-year-old Grace Poyning. “Most of my friends like history and Peterloo helped give people some rights.”

Summing up a good day, PMMC representative Martin Gittins said, “The healthy attendance boosts our plans which include schools work and encouraging greater public involvement so that we have, at least, 6,000 people in 2019. Meeting designer Jeremy Deller will be good and hopefully there will be a public consultation about the memorial.”