Star date: 13th May 2021

FROM HOMELESS SQUATS TO NURSERIES AND COUNCIL CUTS

The team at the Salford Star is very conscious that the media writes history, and if the press don't cover something it almost never happened. And so, for 15 years we have been covering demos, campaigns and protests to make sure that the community's struggles are also written into history.

Here, we feature some high and low profile campaigns that have coloured Salford over the last decade and a half, from the fight for Hope Hospital maternity, to the homeless squats, St George's demos, plus loads of anti-cuts protests and, oh, Hazel Must Go...

Full details here...   

"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles" stated Salford resident Friedrich Engels in the Communist Manifesto that he co-wrote with Karl Marx 173 years ago… 

Nothing has changed really, and what we've seen in Salford over the last 15 years has been more history of the class struggle; communities struggling against their services being cut, closed or privatised; people trying to find an affordable place to live; neighbours trying to stop the demolition of their homes, the destruction of their green spaces or the over development of their city.

When the history of Salford is written, these campaigns, demonstrations and protests have to be there, and what the Salford Star has tried to do over the last 15 years is to document them, certainly for the last 12 years, in real time. The thinking seems to be that if it didn't get covered by the media, it didn't happen. The Salford Star made sure that ordinary people's struggles did get covered by the media, and history will record that it very definitely happened...

The very first campaign ever covered by the Salford Star in print issue 1 in 2006 was the fight to save Hope Hospital Maternity Unit. There were demos, protests, and all sorts of skulduggery going on behind the scenes with the Salford MPs. Finally, in 2011, the decision was made to shut the unit, although there was a small birth centre left, which subsequently moved to Ingleside.

By issue 3 in 2007, Salford Council and its New Deal for Communities was trying to de-home the excellent Oaklands Nursery in Kersal in order for developers to move in. Parents dressed as kiddie tv characters, Tweety Pie and Father Christmas invaded the Council's 'democracy day', while Postman Pat delivered a petition to try and stop the nursery cull. The campaign to save Oaklands Nursery was successful in that it got new premises and is still open and thriving today. 

In more recent times, the fight to save Salford Council's five outstanding nurseries was also won, after the Council originally intended to close them. Following a public meeting with hundreds of angry parents and supporters humiliating the City Mayor and his Children's Services Lead Member, the Council actually and very weirdly joined the campaign against itself, calling on the Government to finance the nurseries, and later finding the money to keep them open.

Tweety Pie was also called into called into action on what would be the future site of MediaCityUK. Here, as reported in print issue 5, Tweety was protesting against Peel Holdings bringing in hawks and falcons to clear the area of some rare and protected birdies, including the Little Ringed Plover, a schedule one species...

The Star correspondent and dock area eco expert, James Walsh, wrote that the "environmentally damaging activity" was enough to "send a shiver down Bill Oddie's spine". 

The birdie banishment was right on the spot of the future Blue Peter Garden. So a petition was created to Save Salford's Wildlife and taken to the BBC Springwatch event in Manchester where kiddie's favourite, PC Plum from Balamory, was only too pleased to sign...

Meanwhile, pupils, staff and the community were fighting to save St George's School in Little Hulton, as featured on the front cover of print issue 7, complete with the biggest demo in Salford's living memory. Salford Council tried to charge the campaigners for marching around the streets of LH, while the school's football pitch was farmed out to, er, a sheep farmer. The battle was won but the war was eventually lost when the Diocese pulled the plug.

Earlier, in print issue 4 (2007), the Star had exposed the mining of peat bogs on Peel Holdings' land in Astley Moss East. Salford Council, which now bigs up the peat bogland, claimed that the peat extraction wasn't happening – although our photos told a different story, with images of diggers shovelling peat and tubes bleeding the land dry. Peat mining finally became a political issue in 2011 with a protest walk on the Moss led by MP Barbara Keeley and was stopped in 2012.

And just as Salford Star went online in 2009, the MPs expenses scandal reared up with its poster girl, our very own MP Hazel Blears, leading to the Hazel Must Go campaign and comedian Mark Thomas holding a protest outside her house near Salford Royal Hospital.

Indeed, the campaigns, the demos and the protest have never stopped...Barton Moss was huge (and covered elsewhere). The homeless camps in Manchester pricked everyone's conscience as they led to squats in the city centre and, later, Salford. The direct action by homeless activists led to Andy Burnham and co finally trying to sort out the Dickensian mess.

In Manchester, with support from Salford activists and trade unionists, there were also demos against the Government, including against the Bedroom Tax, and huge demos against the Tories whenever they came to have their conference in the city. There was even an almost spontaneous demo against Trump when he first got elected, followed by the big red double decker anti-Trump bus touring Salford.

However, most of the demos covered by the Salford Star were against Salford City Council, usually with the support of Salford City UNISON...heartbreaking campaigns like Save The Grange, the last children's residential home in the city for severely disabled children, Save Lower Broughton Children's Centre, the campaign against closures of senior citizens' day care centres.

We had the Save Boddan Lodge Over 60s Club protest that saw elderly campaigners playing bowls and line dancing on the Civic Centre lawns. The Salford Jam Butty Camp Campaign also took over the lawns of the Civic for a protest. We also had the USUC (yep, say it loud!) campaign protesting against cuts to mental health service drop-ins – and occupying Salford Council Chamber...

...And when Salford Council tried to ban a protest day on its lawns against cuts to transport for adult disabled people, the event, starring Bez and James Davenport, went ahead anyway, despite dark arts propaganda placed in other media outlets about weeping brides and such. The Rally On The Lawn was attended by over 300 people and the riot police didn't show up to evict lots of wheelchair bound adults and children.

There were loads more lobbies, demos, protests, sit-ins and camp on the lawn-ins down at the Civic Centre. And every time Salford Council created a budget there would be members of its own staff barracking councillors and mayors, protesting against yet more cuts while the spending on prestige projects continued unabated...

To find more details on all these protests and more just enter a keyword into the search engine at the top of the front page on this website

For a full background on the closure of the Salford Star see previous articles...

Salford Star To Close After 15 Years – click here

The Star Is Born – click here 

Alice's Story: Injustice From South Africa to Salford – click here

Salford Stars – Part 1 – click here

Salford Stars Part 2 – click here

The Battle of Barton Moss – click here

Nigel Pivaro Looks Back Over 15 Years of the Star – click here

Planning Scandals and the Affordable Housing Crisis - click here