The 16th of August, marks the anniversary of the infamous Peterloo Massacre, one of the most
significant atrocities carried out by the British authorities against
their own people and one of the bloodiest episodes and most dismal in
British history. The massacre by official accounts is believed to have
involved 18 deaths and injuries to as many as 700 protesters, including many women who paid
the price for exercising their democratic rights to freedom of
assembly.Though the actual death toll was likely much higher.
Peterloo involved the assembly at St
Peter’s Field in post- Napoleonic Manchester (since renamed St Peters
Square.) a crowd of 60,000 to 89,000 peaceful working class pro-democracy (none of them were
armed) and anti poverty protestors had gathered, many in their Sunday
best, proud and defiant amid growing poverty and unemployment, mainly
from the Corn Laws that artificially inflated bread prices, demanding the right to vote at a time
when only 3% were on the electoral register.Manchester , despite its vast population, hadn't a single MP. Trade Unions were already widespread but illegal and were frequently suppressed violently.
The first few decades of the 19th century, enshrined in public
imagination as the elegant age of the Regency, were a time of severe
political repression in England. The Tory government, led by Lord
Liverpool, feared that the kind of revolutionary activity recently
witnessed in France would break out in England – probably in Manchester,
where social conditions were so desperate – and chose decided to stamp
out all dissent and free speech.
The
government was at war with France, which saw Wellington triumph over
Napoleon’s forces at Waterloo in 1815.But as Paul Foot once wrote, the
British government was also waging war against its own people.
The
key speaker at St
Peter’s Field was a famed orator by the name of Henry Hunt, the
platform consisted of a simple cart, and the space was filled with
banners emblazoned with messages calling for - Reform, universal
suffrage,and equal representation. Many of the banners poles were topped
with the red cap of liberty- a powerful symbol at the time.However,
local magistrates peering out a window from a building near the field
panicked at the size of the crowd, and proceeded without any notice to
read the Riot Act, ordering the assembled listeners to disperse.
It would almost certainly have been the case that only a very few would
have heard the magistrates. The official 'guardians of the peace' then
promptly directed the local Yeomanry to arrest the speakers. The
Yeomanry could be described as a kind of paramilitary force with no
training in crowd control and little in the way of proper discipline
similar to the riot police that ran amok at the Battle of Orgreave
during the miners strike of the 1980's. On horseback they charged into
the crowd, and pierced the air with cutlasses and clubs. Many in the
crowd believed the troops had drunk heavily in the lead up to the
assault. In the melee, 600 Hussars who had initially been held in
reserve, were ordered to attack unarmed civilians, with brutal
consequences.They sliced indiscriminately at men, women and children as
they tried to get to the speakers platform. Within minutes, people were
sabred, trampled and crushed. Screams reverberated across the square.
The Manchester Guardian described how " the women seemed to be the special objects of the rage of these bastard soldiers,"
The
massacre was named ‘Peterloo’ in ironic comparison to the battle of
Waterloo, that took place four years earlier.The victims included a two
year old boy, William Fides, who was ridden oer by the cavalry after he
was knocked from his mothers arms, and an an old Waterloo veteran , John
Less, who was slashed to death by the cavalry's sabres.
After
the massacre, it was the victims, and not the aggressors who were
treated as criminals, and feared discrimination by their employers. And
no doubt many of those injured died as a result of their injuries some
weeks or even months later. In those days of primitive medical care and
lack of welfare provision, a serious injury was often a death sentence,
and for a wage earner to be incapacitated equalled the threat of
starvation for a family. At this time many handloom weavers and spinners
were already living in a state of semi starvation.
The
government of Lord Liverpool, backed up the public officials and the
actions of the troops and was adamantly unwilling to apologize for the
appalling violence. Henry Hunt, Samuel Bamford and other radical leaders
were arrested for treason. This capital offence was later commuted to a
lesser one, and they served prison sentences of several years.
The event would also usher in a series of draconian laws that further
restricted the liberties of the population.It would lead to the
suppression of public expression of opinion, debate , gathering and
dissent.The populace did not decline into apathy,
however. A large public outcry ensued, and an effort was made by various
reformers to document the truth of what had occurred in the center of
Manchester on that fateful day. Peterloo led directly to the formation
of one of Britain’s leading progressive newspapers, the Manchester Guardian (now the more watered down Guardian).
The aftermath of the event would in itself unleash a wave of public
anger and protests, which eventually was to lead to the Great Reform Act
of 1832, which led to limited suffrage and to today's parliamentary
democracy. Many historians now acknowledge Peterloo as hugely
influential in ordinary people winning the vote and credit it with
giving rise to the Chartist movement, and strength to other workers
rights movements. We should never forget on whose shoulders we today
stand, a reminder that what rights that we have today were hard one.
In
Italy, in the aftermath of Peterloo, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley
having heard of the horror, his outraged response was to compose his
powerful political 91-verse poem, The Mask of Anarchy. The word
anarchy then meant something quite different to how we view it today,
Shelley used it to describe the chaos of tyranny, in which no one but
the very few who own and control society can plan their lives for
themselves.
The poem was written in
the ballad tradition. Ballads in the early 19th century were verse
narratives, often set to popular tunes and typically sold on the streets
as a cheap disposable form of literature. They often focussed on
tragedies, love affairs or scandals. By adopting this style,Shelley
could be seen to be speaking with the voice of the common man.
The Mask of Anarchy recounts
a nightmare in which the three Lords of the Tory Cabinet parade in an
awful possession, murdering and deceiving while Britain dissolves into
anarchy. He rouses the people to free themselves from their oppressors,
by supplying them, among other things, with a powerful definition of
freedom.
He begins his poem with the
powerful images of the unjust forms of
authority of his time: God, the King and Law, and he then imagines the
stirrings of a radically new form of social action. The poem mentions
several members of Lord Liverpool's's government by name: the Foreign
Secretary, Castlereagh who appears as a mask worn by Murder, the Home
Secretary,Lord Sidmouth., whose guise is taken by Hypocricy, and the
Lord Chancellor,Lord Eldon whose ermine gown is worn by Fraud.The crowd
at this gathering is met by armed soldiers, but the protestors do not
raise an arm against their assailants:
Stand ye calm and resolute,
Like a forest close and mute,
With folded arms and looks which are
Weapons of unvanquished war,
And that slaughter to the Nation
Shall steam up like inspiration,
Eloquent, oracular;
A volcano heard afar.
Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you-
Ye are many - they are few."
That closing verse is perhaps one of the best known pieces of poetry in
any movement of the oppressed all over the world such is it's
resonance.Encouraging people to rise up and challenge the tyranny that
they are facing every day of their lives, against the undeniable
injustices.faced by the many at the hands of the few. The rallying
language of the poem has led to elements of it being recited by
students at Tiananmen Square and by protestors in Tahir Square during
the revolution in Egypt in 2011.It would inspire the campaign slogan "We
are many, they are few" used by anti Poll Tax demonstrators in
1989-90, and also inspired the title of the 2014 documentary film We are Many, which
focussed on the worldwide anti-war protests of 2003, Labour leader
Jeremy Corbyn has also memorably used the final stanza.
Shelley’s friend and publisher, Leigh Hunt did not publish the poem
until after Shelley’s death fearing that the opinions in it were too
controversial and inflammatory. The Masque of Anarchy has been
described as “the greatest political poem ever written in English” by
people such as Richard Holmes. It inspired Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience which
in turn influenced the anarchist writings of Leo Tolstoy.Percy Bysshe
Shelley believed that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the
world.”He would remain a serious advocate for serious reform for the
rest of his life, and would come to serve as a prophetic voice and
inspiration to those, like the Chartists who created significant
movements for peaceful reform, alongside generations of activists to
this present day. Many
years later his powerful poem is as relevant in austerity gripped
Britain as when it was first written and reminds us that Poetry can
serve to inspire and motivate people and change and influence ideas. It
is one of the most powerful tools we have.
Full text of Shelley's Mask of Anarchy can be found here:-
http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/PShelley/anarchy.html
An earlier post on Shelley can be found here :-
https://teifidancer-teifidancer.blogspot.com/2017/08/percy-bysshe-shelley-august-4-1792-july.html
The terrible events that happened on August 16th, 1819 were recently dramatised by director Mike Leigh in his historical drama Peterloo. In
this gripping account he presents a devastating portrait of class and
political corruption which develops our understanding of how the working
poor in Britain have coped with oppression . It is a necessary film
for our times, .which should be shown up and down the country in schools
so that our children can learn more about this shameful piece of
British history.
This sobering but enthralling blast from the past, superbly shot by the
director's regular cameraman Dick Pope, sees Leigh seamlessly move
between the lives of disparate characters in the years after Waterloo: a
family of weavers headed by Maxine Peake's matriarch: the Westminster
government and gluttonous Prince Regent (an unrecognisable Tim
McInnerny), fearful of losing his head to the forces of revolution;
venomous Manchester magistrates determined to quash any radicalism; and
moderate reformists and supporters from the local press, who invite
tub-thumping speaker "Orator" Hunt (a terrific Rory Kinnear) to address
the masses on that fateful day. Though the film is of considerable
length, it's never plodding - Leigh leavens the mood with pointed humour
and subtle mockery, whether it's in the pomposity and idiosyncrasies of
the ruling classes, Vincent Franklin's apoplectic reverend magistrate
or Hunt's smug, southern snobbishness. The climactic massacre is
unheralded and low key, yet once the mayhem unfolds, it's easy to be
reminded of recent crowd crises like Orgreave, the Poll Tax riots and
Hillsborough. No doubt, Ken Loach would have been more strident with the
material. To his credit, Leigh manages to take quirky slice-of-life
drama to impressively epic heights and express a quieter indignation.
But it's indignation, nonetheless.
Peterloo
has since become a rallying cry for the working class and radicals, a
symbol of the vile nature of the ruling class. Thousands marched through the streets of Manchester at the weekend and called for action in a demonstration to commemorate the Peterloo Massacre, Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was among those who addressed the crowd during speeches at St Peter's Square.He received rousing cheers when he expressed solidarity with workers fighting back against exploitative employers.
The gathering came amid a spiralling cost of living crisis, with energy bills and fuel prices soaring over the past year, and further sharp increases expected to follow in October and next January. It also took place against a backdrop of widespread industrial action for workers across the country, as repeated calls were made for a 'summer of solidarity.'
Following his appearance at the event Mr Corbyn wrote on Twitter, "At todays commemoration of the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester we sent a strong message, We need an immediate wealth tax with our energy, water, rail and mail in public hands to bring down bills and help us build a fairer society of peace, justice and shared wealth"
Repesentatives from the RMT union which has been striking over pay and conditions for its members this summer, were in attendance at the event. Other unions including Unite, Unison and the Fire Brigades Union were also present.
Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union president Ian Hudson said tht in the current Tory leadership contest, fewer people are voting than had the right to participate in parliamentary elections at the time of Peterloo.
He said that "people have the right to food, not to foodbanks" and called for the abolition of reviled zero-hours contracts, which leave those on them with no guarantee of work or wages.
The lessons that we draw from Peterloo remain as valid today as ever, that we do not forget that
our rights have been won by others and must be constantly defended. A
time to pause and to consider this significant moment in history when
our working class ancestors were slaughtered whilst peacefully
protesting for basic civil rights that we today, take for granted.We
must continue to display our defiance. More than that, in today's
society with the Conservatives current draconian Policing Bill, it’s a
reminder that Peterloo was about
demanding basic democratic rights and that all these years later a Tory
Government is still trying to restrict them and take them away from us and are continuing to attack peoples rights to free assembly and their continuing assaults on the weak and vulnerable among us, it is a
timely reminder of how governments are still not averse to attacking its
own people and we should put Shelley's words into practice and rise
like lions, because we are many and they are few.
Print of the Peterloo Massacre published by Richard Carlisle
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