CARLISLE Socialist Party is holding a meeting at 7pm tonight to discuss the Peterloo Massacre and its relevance today.
In 1819, about 60,000 working-class people from around Manchester, mainly families with picnic in hand, assembled in St Peter’s Field to hear parliamentary reformer Henry Hunt demand voting rights for workers.
The British establishment answered this peaceful gathering’s call for democracy with a lethal cavalry charge which left 15 dead and more than 650 injured.
Robert Charlesworth, who will speak at the open meeting, said: “The rights of working class people to vote, strike, join a union, meet together and publish or openly speak their opinions were not handed down to us by a benevolent ruling class but had to be fought for until their resistance was overcome.”
The meeting will take place in the South End Club on St. Nicholas Street.
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