Friends remember Peterloo Massacre
‘The Massacre occurred during a period of immense political tension and mass protest.'
Friends were among a gathering to mark the 204th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre last month. The event on 16 August marked the moment in 1819 when over 60,000 peaceful pro-democracy and anti-poverty protestors gathered to call for democracy but were met with brutal attacks.
According to a Quaker plaque installed two years ago, ‘an estimated eighteen people, including four women and a child, died from sabre cuts and trampling. Nearly 700 men, women and children received extremely serious injuries’.
‘The Massacre occurred during a period of immense political tension and mass protest,’ reads the plaque, which was installed by Manchester & Warrington Area Meeting and fixed to the wall that surrounds Central Manchester Meeting House. It says: ‘Fewer than two per cent of the population had the vote, Manchester didn’t have a member of parliament, and hunger was rife with the disastrous corn laws making bread unaffordable.’
According to Clare McCann, a local Friend, the wall is ‘a rare survival of that time and formed the northern boundary of St Peter’s Field’, now St Peter’s Square. During the massacre, Friends tended to the injured, who were carried to the Quaker Mount Street building for safety, where Central Manchester Quakers meet now.
Speaking at the rally, Laura Pidcock, former Labour MP and People’s Assembly national secretary, likened the brutality to the cost-of-living crisis now: ‘Two hundred years ago, the people made very modest demands about democracy, representation and food poverty… What are the parallels today? 4.2 million children in poverty, untold wealth of corporations, families worrying about how to feed their children, 2,500 foodbanks.’
The Peterloo commemoration was organised by Greater Manchester Association of Trade Union Councils and the People’s Assembly.
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