How the (Tory) Manchester Council marked the 150th anniversary of Peterloo in 1969
On the 150th anniversary of Peterloo in 1969 Manchester Council was, unusually, run by the Tories. The unpopularity of Harold Wilson’s Labour Government had led to a Tory landslide in 1968 local elections.
The Secretary of Manchester Labour Party had inquired, according to a Guardian report of March 28th 1969, of the Town Clerk whether anything was planned for the anniversary.
The report notes that Alderman Mrs Nellie Beer, the Tory chairwoman of the Town Hall Committee had opined ‘I don’t think a lot will be done. I have no very strong feelings about it. There is always somebody who wants to commemorate something’.
Ms Beer apparently wanted to celebrate something constructive, in particular the 50th anniversary In 1969 of the first Atlantic air crossing which she described as ‘a fine achievement of two very young people’.
By contrast Deputy Leader of Manchester Labour Group Norman Morris countered that Peterloo underlined that ‘the working-class would have to fight for any amelioration of their conditions’.
The Guardian report noted that ‘any celebrations are likely to be a minor key’. This included the Central Library compiling a bibliography on the subject and mounting an exhibition’.
In the event a commemoration was held in the Free Trade Hall in August 1969 with folk singers including Leon Rosselson and speakers such as Michael Foot but it was certainly not organised by the Council.
Update
promoter of 1969 Peterloo concert was “Manchester Sports Guild” which ran Manchester’s main jazz, folk and blues venue on Long Millgate. (I suspect then as now there was a fair degree of intersection between folk audience and trade unionists) library.folknorthwest.co.uk/peterloo.htm
Thanks to @langrabbie on Twitter
Update 2
Leon Rosselson has kindly provided a note of the event
I found the programme of the event. It cost one shilling. 16 August 1969. It seems to have been something of a theatrical performance, scripted for the most part, with a narrator, songs interspersed with dramatic interventions – readings from the speeches of Henry Hunt and Samuel Bamford, extracts from the Manchester Gazette, the Manchester Mercury & the Times, the names of those killed… The songs mentioned in the programme, sung by Harry Boardman who was local, included The Handloom Weavers’ Lament, The Frame Knitters’ Petition, Four Loom Weaver, The Handloom Versus the Power Loom &, of course, With Henry Hunt We’ll Go. According to the programme, I finished the first half`: “Leon Rosselson presents some of his own songs which will bring to the audience the fact that even today there is still some struggle to be waged & won.” So no wiser as to which songs. Palaces of Gold almost certainly.
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