Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Take Manchester March 4th October

pinkolady | 05.10.2015 12:12 | Analysis | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles

The march organised by the TUC and People's Assembly on the first day of the Tory Party conference in Manchester was vibrant, noisy and cheerful. But when I read the national newspaper reports on it later, they might have been covering a different demo altogether.











It is a truism that the mainstream press disparages or ignores demonstrators. But I've never seen the press so unanimous in presenting demonstrators as abnormal, thuggish, Other. The only photographs are of people raising their fists and chanting, so that their faces look distorted. Those, and numerous photos of the single Tory who got egged.

This is a demonstration that to my knowledge included teachers, junior doctors, ambulance drivers, fire service workers, local government officials, parents of disabled children, support workers from a local homeless charity, paralegals, junior barristers. Those are just the people I know, or know of. Of course, none of the press interviewed any of them.

There were also travellers, disabled, unemployed people and others who are so victimised by Tory policies that their natural response to the sight of a Tory delegate could only have been a mighty roar of rage. But nobody got much chance to disturb the Tories at their deliberations, because the police had arranged the route of the march so that it steered well away from the conference centre. In previous years, demonstrations have gone right past the entrance.

My guess is that the corporate media demonised the demonstrators out of fear. That fear can be summed up as: Jeremy Corbyn. It is not about whether he will succeed as Party leader, or make Prime Minister, it is simply what he stands for. He has given hope to a lot of people that they can now turn the tide against the privileged elite who have been laying waste to their lives for the past 6 years.

I'm not the only one to think so. At the rally at Castlefields at the end of the march, Mark Steel, comedian, talked about the Establishment being put in fear of a man "who rides a bike and cultivates an allotment" on account of the values he stands for. But it was refreshing that the rally wasn't entirely on the theme of 'let's wait for the Labour Party to get into power' as so many such rallies are. The speakers were not entirely drawn from the range of Usual Suspects either. They included Natalie Bennett, green Party leader; Steve Sweeney, Morning Star; Kay Hutton, CND; Charlotte Church, singer; Julie Hesmondhalgh, actor; the Bread and Roses choir; John Rhys, Stop The War Coalition; Paul Nolan, assistant general secretary of the TUC; Dr Altas Alkulidi, Muslim Society of Great Britain; David Ward, People's Assembly; Owen Jones, People's Assembly; Anita Wright, National Assembly of Women; Matt Rack, Fire Brigades Union; junior doctors, 14 of them; Mark Serwotka, PCS union; Annette Wright, Manchester Trades Council. At least half of these talked about, not 'waiting for Labour', but of people taking direct action to oppose the Tories. Now, that's what should really scare the Establishment.

(Photographs and video footage on  http://www.meanwhile2015.blogspot.com/ I couldn't get them to post on the Indymedia site.)
[EDIT: Images added from  http://www.meanwhile2015.blogspot.de/2015/10/take-back-manchester.html ]

pinkolady

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech