{"id":1676,"date":"2014-10-01T14:24:41","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T13:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=1676"},"modified":"2014-10-01T14:24:41","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T13:24:41","slug":"workers-museum-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=1676","title":{"rendered":"Workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 museum at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

You have to give the Tory-led coalition its due \u00e2\u20ac\u201c when it comes to fighting for their values and principles they take no hostages.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From the mass sell-off of the NHS to their friends and donors to the callous bedroom tax, the politicians in this government are the true class warriors of our time.
\nThey look after their own \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the few \u00e2\u20ac\u201c while we \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the many \u00e2\u20ac\u201c face a constant barrage of attacks on our living standards.
\nThere is also something quite spiteful about this government too: a vengeful, nasty streak seems to underpin almost everything they do. Take its decision to slash funding to the only museum in England dedicated to celebrating the history of working people.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s History Museum<\/a> in Manchester is facing a \u00c2\u0141200,000 shortfall<\/a> in funding after the government slashed its grant.
\nAccording to the museum\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deputy director, Cath Birchall, part of the reason is because their present exhibition graphically tells the story of working people and their role in the first world war, including some who were conscientious objectors.<\/p>\n

 
\nBirchall has said: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see the importance of a national museum that shows the effects of the war on ordinary people.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 This was a war that saw an estimated three-quarters of a million people die in combat and over a million injured.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt produced domestic casualties too. Research suggests that while the battles raged on the western front, as many as 100,000 people died of malnutrition and disease at home.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe proposed funding cut for the museum is a blatant attempt by the Tory party to rewrite history in its own image, to stop future generations from learning what their great-grandfathers sacrificed in the name of their country.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn Tory history, brigadiers and colonels are worth more than barrow boys and coalminers.<\/p>\n

 
\nWhen the trustees of the Manchester museum attempted to meet with culture minister, Ed Vaizey, the man responsible for funding our national museums, they received the terse reply: \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m too busy.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Those three words sum up the attitude of the Tory party.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s History Museum is a rare gem<\/a>, dedicated to remembering the stories of working people and their contribution to building this country, in both war and peace.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt charts our movement\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history, from the deportation of the Tolpuddle martyrs<\/a> to the stoic heroism of Lancashire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mill workers during the American civil war<\/a>, and the solidarity with the movement against apartheid in South Africa.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt is one museum out of approximately 2,500 in the country. If your thing is the history of lawnmowers then you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re well catered for, with several dedicated to the machinery.<\/p>\n

 
\nIf you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a bit of a mustard aficionado then there are multiple museums devoted to telling you the difference between Dijon, English and wholegrain. Yet, when it comes to the history of working people, England boasts just one \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the government wants to shut it down.<\/p>\n

 
\nHistory is not just about those who write it, but about those who live it. Working people and the labour movement have been at the forefront of all social and political changes this country has undergone over the past three centuries.<\/p>\n

 
\nWe must defend the People\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Museum from the Tory-led government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s malicious and politically motivated attack, and safeguard the one museum dedicated to telling the story of us all.<\/p>\n

 
\n*This article first appeared in The Guardian online, October 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You have to give the Tory-led coalition its due \u00e2\u20ac\u201c when it comes to fighting for their values and principles they take no hostages.   From the mass sell-off of the NHS to their friends and donors to the callous bedroom tax, the politicians in this government are the true class warriors of our time. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[44],"wps_subtitle":"Tories try to erase working people from history","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1682,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions\/1682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}