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HUNDREDS gathered in Manchester on Friday for the unveiling of the Peterloo monument to mark the 200th anniversary of the massacre.
More than 500 people assembled to commemorate the events of August 16, 1819, when 18 protesters demanding the vote were killed by the yeomanry.
At 1.30pm — the exact time that Manchester’s magistrates ordered the yeomanry to attack — the names of the Peterloo dead were read out, and eighteen plumes of red smoke were released, one for each victim.
The government cracking down on something it can’t comprehend and doesn’t want to engage with is a repeating pattern of history, says KEITH FLETT
The charter emerged from a profoundly democratic process where people across South Africa answered ‘What kind of country do we want?’ — but imperial backlash and neoliberal compromise deferred its deepest transformations, argues RONNIE KASRILS
MOLLIE BROWN reports on this year’s festival in honour of the ‘seven men of Jarrow’ deported to Australia for union activity 193 years ago
LYNNE WALSH tells the story of the extraordinary race against time to ensure London’s memorial to the International Brigades got built – as activists gather next week to celebrate the monument’s 40th anniversary