August 1969 saw the 150th anniversary of Peterloo. Nellie Beer, a leading Conservative councillor, former lord mayor, now chair of the Town Hall Committee, was dismissive. 'I don't think there will be a lot done. I have no very strong feelings about it. There's always somebody who wants to commemorate something.'
Nellie Beer had not done her homework. There was a lot going on. The leading local Communist Party member, AEU district secretary and historian, Eddie Frow, spoke to about a
hundred people on the site of the massacre. The council published a short history,
Manchester's public library produced a portfolio of contemporary documents with
an eight page guide. The Manchester Evening News ran a Peterloo essay contest
for schools, asking for 'a 1,000 words telling the whole graphic story.' There was a concert at the Manchester Sports
Guild featuring Harry Boardman and Leon Rosselson with Michael Foot speaking.
The Library Theatre put on an improvised reenactment with young people. The
local Peterloo gallery held an exhibition of prints specially commissioned from
Ken Sprague.[1]
There was also a sharp argument triggered by two new histories of Peterloo. Joyce Marlow's 'The Peterloo Massacre', written as a popular history,
supported the demonstrators and their cause.
Robert Walmsley's weighty 'Peterloo: the case reopened' supported the magistrates,
presenting the event as a tragedy rather than a massacre. A wonderful scrapbook at the Working Class Movement Library holds around thirty reviews, all taking sides.
W.H Challoner, co-editor of a recent edition of Engels’s ‘Condition of the
Working Class in England’ backed Walmsley and argued
To a generation that
has seen the resurrection of 'The Black Dwarf' and is familiar with the ugly
undertones (and overtones) of today's demonstrations, the prophetic fears
expressed by Colonel Ralph Fletcher of Bolton to the home office in 1818 seem reasonable enough, however exaggerated they
may have seemed to liberal minded historians 100 years afterwards.
While most reviewers opposed Walmsley, the
Conservative controlled council rejected the proposal to rename Peter Street
Peterloo Street. The blue plaque that failed to mention why people gathered
with at least 15 killed and over 600 injured remained. It was not replaced till the Labour
left took control of the council in the mid 1980s.
image: History Workshop Journal
