Today is the 198th anniversary of one of the most significant events of British history with regard to the legacy of industrial oppression passed down to the present day that MJR was formed to address. The Peterloo massacre took place on August 17, 1819 when a cavalry charge was ordered into 60,000 people who had gathered peacefully at St Peter’s fields, Manchester, to protest for greater parliamentary representation. 18 died and 700 were seriously injured. Historian Michael Herbert has said the event: “was about political reform as a response to hunger, unemployment and poverty, which has inescapable parallels with food bank Britain in 2017.” [image Manchester Archives+]
John Edward Taylor, the founder of the Guardian, was present that day. Read his eye-witness account here.
