#RepealPeel
This is a campaign dedicated to reclaiming our public space, the public history of Manchester, countering hate and repealing the statue of the loathsome Robert Peel. In our city, Manchester, a statue of Robert Peel stands proudly in Piccadilly Gardens. Our focus is on not what he thought or what he said — but what he did. In the case of Peel , he was a towering figure in parliamentary politics. He used his power and influence as a prominent MP to try and stop the emancipation of slaves throughout the British West Indies.
Sign the petition: http://chng.it/8gyxkQxD
Who Are We?
We are an anti-racist and anti-fascist intersectional movement. Our members represent a modern and inclusive breadth of ethnicities , religious beliefs, sexualities and genders. In 21st century society, despite women, ethnic minorities and the poor having the vote, they continue to live in a symbolic landscape that erases from sight and sound that vast majority who lived and died on the underside of ‘empire’. This presents serious issues about the issue of heritage in postcolonial Britain, in particular the city itself as a museum. As one historian has stated ‘in the rehearsal of the world view of the winners, they do not just obliterate the losers, they rehearse permanently the violence of domination.’
Our Demands
Acknowledge and reckon with the colonial and exploitative history of Manchester — ‘Cottonopolis’ — and its dependency upon the plantation economy and the imperial systems of trade. This includes recognising the centrality of sugar, slaves, and planters to the economic bonds that developed between the British West Indies and Manchester during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries;
Memorialise and grieve over the human beings who suffered and died as a result of the genocidal slave trade, the exploitative plantation economy, and come to terms with the economic, sociocultural and political capital that Manchester gained during from these systems of exploitation;
Remember the people who courageously resisted slavery in the British West Indies and organised themselves and created a mass movement dedicated to abolition and emancipation in Manchester;
Finally come to terms with, and attempt to make reparations for the brutal legacy of slavery and empire, which continues to have a mournful and ever-present influence on 21st century British society;
Honour the memories of those who died trying to gain their freedom by evangelising anti-racism, anti-fascism, and notions of freedom, equality and human dignity.
#RepealPeel 