The increasingly popular Peterloo Memorial Campaign is this year planning to replicate the original protest event from 1819, when 60,000 people from all over Greater Manchester gathered at St Peter's Field to peacefully hear speeches from the likes of Henry Hunt, listen to music and eat the food they had brought along.
As anyone who ever attended a history lesson knows, the 1819 protest event was savagely attacked by mounted soldiers, leaving 15 people dead, over six hundred injured and the day re-named the Peterloo Massacre.
"For nearly two hundred years the memory of Peterloo has been repressed and whitewashed" says Paul Fitzgerald, chair of the Peterloo Memorial Campaign "What happened in 1819 still challenges us today to ask tough questions about protecting and deepening the democratic legacy they passed on to us. As we near the 200th anniversary people are gathering not just to honour the names of those who gave their lives, but to loudly demand a prominent, informative and above all unashamed permanent memorial to their courage and determination."
In the spirit of the day, the Campaign is holding a Peterloo Picnic next Sunday (16th August) in front of the Manchester Central Convention Centre (GMex), aiming to replicate the original event, with people from Salford and beyond actually walking the original routes to the gathering. Even the publicity poster is a period style replica of the era.
The commemoration will begin at 1pm, with a solemn reading of the names of the 15 people who died, including as much biographical detail as is known for each of them. The 15 readers include Maxine Peake, John Henshaw, C P Lee, Sefton Mottley, Dave Haslam, George Borowski, Robert Poole, Stella Grundy and Manchester Lord Mayor Paul Murphy.
There will then be a reading of the speech Henry Hunt began to give as the yeomanry closed in on the central platform and then brandished their sabres before attacking the crowd. The Open Voice Choir will also be singing a recently rediscovered song written in Lincoln Prison by Samuel Bamford, one of the 1819 organizers - which has not been performed in public since the commemoration in 1821.
In front of the Convention Centre, which was the focal point of the 1819 rally, a giant map of the routes people took from all over the region to St Peter's Field will be constructed on the plaza, with picnic blankets representing each place, including Salford. St Peter's Field itself will be indicated with a giant 15ft Liberty Cap sculpture - the cap being one of the most potent symbols of the day, and a target for the soldiers' sabres. People are being asked to wear period dress if they want and to bring blankets and a simple meal like bread and cheese to get into the original spirit.
As a warm up to the event, this Monday, 10th August, local radical historian Michael Herbert will be speaking about the Peterloo Massacre at the Central Reference Library in Manchester at 1pm.
"I am delighted to have been invited to speak by Central Reference Library where I have been researching for over forty years" says Michael, who is a trustee of the Working Class Movement Library and the author of a number of books on local history including Up Then Brave Women: Manchester's radical women 1819-1919.
UPDATE: 10th August: Christopher Eccleston will be attending to read the speech from Henry Hunt
Peterloo Picnic
Sunday 16th August 12:30
Manchester Central Convention Centre (GMex)
For more information see www.peterloomassacre.org/news.html
Facebook event page www.facebook.com/events/1455219664794734/
Contact the campaign contact@peterloomassacre.org
* Michael Herbert talk on the Peterloo Massacre
Monday 10 August 1pm.
Central Reference Library, Manchester
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