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I know the nice Bernie guy, I missed the date for punch/buzz, but here you go...
Rock Against Racism - the day Manchester and its bands stood proud against the far right
Tens of thousands of people came together to challenge the scapegoating narrative of racist groups like the National Front.
News
Around 40,000 people filled Alexandra Park for a seminal anti-racism gig which brought reggae and punk acts together (Image: John Sturrock via Manchester Digital Music Archive)
It was the day Mancunians of all colours and classes came together against a common enemy - the politics of hate.
United by a love of music, reggae lovers, punks and skins came together for the Northern Carnival Against the Nazis back in 1978.
Britain was in economic trouble, lurching between oil crises and with industrial relations at an all-time low, the Winter of Discontent was approaching.
Against that backdrop, tens of thousands of people came together to challenge the scapegoating narrative of racist groups like the National Front.
Fantastic images, provided to the M.E.N, capture all the atmosphere of that summer’s day, the 40th anniversary of which falls on July 15.
A young steel band provide the soundtrack of the procession from city centre to south Manchester (Image: Phil Ramsell via Manchester Digital Music Archive)
The Northern Carnival Against the Nazis brought the ‘Rock Against Racism’ movement to the city.
It drew a 40,000-strong crowd to watch bands including Steel Pulse, Birmingham’s homegrown reggae legends, plus local punk bands like The Fall, The Buzzcocks and Mick Hucknall’s Frantic Elevators.
Four decades on, to mark this influential day of activism, Manchester Digital Music Archive - the charity behind the city’s online treasure trove of music and social history memorabilia - have created the We Are Dynamite exhibition, showcasing unseen images, artwork and memories from that day.
The exhibition, which will be made available to the public from 3-22 September at NIAMOS, Chichester Road, Hulme, is being celebrated with a launch event on 14 July at Manchester Central Library, featuring a panel discussion including key figures, like organiser Geoff Brown.
Geoff Brown, of the Anti-Nazi League and fellow organiser Bernie Wilcox, of Rock Against Racism, had been among 3,000 Manchester-based anti-racists who travelled to London in April ‘78 for the first Anti-Nazi Carnival, joining 80,000 others to watch bands like X-Ray Spex and The Clash at Victoria Park, in Hackney.
Brown and Wilcox decided on the train home to do the same thing in Manchester. A small team of volunteers organised the whole thing, convincing Manchester City Council, bands, promoters and sympathetic groups to unite in a stand against racism.
In the months before the event, the Rock Against Racism movement in Manchester had been galvanised by gigs - not just in student areas, but in Partington, Droylsden, Bury and Stretford (including The Fall’s show at Stretford Civic Hall, recorded for posterity on The Fall: Live 1977 album).
Flyposting and badges, with iconic Rock Against Racism and Anti Nazi League artwork, marketed the ‘Northern Carnival Against the Nazis’ on the streets.
Protesters at the Northern Carnival Against the Nazis, 1978, march through Hulme(Image: Geoff Brown, via Manchester Digital Music Archive)
And, by the time it came to the day itself, the scale of the protest and the turn-out was way beyond the expectations of the organisers.
“Everyone wanted to do something to help and we had phone calls every day from activists and people new to politics wanting to lend a hand. In the weeks before things just mushroomed”, Bernie Wilcox said.
“There was a massive buzz around the city and it seemed like everyone walking down Market Street on a Saturday was wearing at least one and often dozens of Anti-Nazi badges. There were loads of different ones - NF = No Fun, Pogo On A Nazi, Skateboarders Against The Nazis, Gays Against The Nazis and Firemen Against The Nazis and many more.”
“There was a lot to do in preparation”, Geoff Brown said. “People were busy making banners, placards and badges as well as booking coaches and selling tickets. Manchester Polytechnic students stapled thousands of sticks of plywood to make the lollipop placards by which the Anti-Nazi League became instantly recognisable.
Flatbed lorries were borrowed and diesel generators hired to put on the back, powering the amps of the bands that played throughout the rally. People had to get up at six in the morning on the day of the carnival to get to Strangeways and persuade people not to park their cars there.”
On the day of the carnival, 15,000 protestors marched from Strangeways, where it was believed the National Front had infiltrated the staff, to Alexandra Park, where 25,000 people had gathered for the gig.
Ramila Patel, from Bolton, was a keynote speaker - she was chosen by organiser Geoff Brown to speak at the rally after she faced down National Front leader Martin Webster, at an event in Hyde, back in 1977.
“It was very moving to see the massive crowd in front of me who were there to oppose the National Front”, Ramila, who is now an academic based in Swaziland, said.
Reggae music fills Alexandra Park during the rally (Image: Phil Ramsell via Manchester Digital Music Archive)
“We were united by our love of music and hatred for racism. At the end of the rally we danced to the music blasting from the trucks in front of us all the way to Alexandra Park. Waving our Anti-Nazi League lollipops, the journey from Strangeways to the Carnival was memorable. I will never forget the thunderous welcome from the huge crowd that had gathered in Alexandra Park. It was an emotional moment and I felt an acute sense of solidarity with the crowd.”
John Hall, a member of Rock Against Racism at the time of the rally, said: “I remember we started off, we went from Manchester to walk to Alexandra Park and we were behind - I felt like I was on it - this steel band playing on a float.
“Walking past people you felt hip, you felt part of that movement that was right and the others were wrong. It put everything in black and white. Much more than my little issue of being gay, it made me think about other things like racism and sexism, it was a great training ground.”
Andrew Madaras, who was a student at the time, described being ‘greeted with the sight of ANL & RAR banners, trade union flags and several thousand people of all colours and creeds milling around’ on that day.
“Everybody was very friendly and strangers quickly became friends”, he added. “I vividly remember thinking how even the outside of Strangeways Prison looming in front of us was foreboding and intimidating.
“The march itself I recall as being noisy with lots of anti-NF chants, but overwhelmingly good natured and light hearted. Shoppers and pedestrians we passed would generally either clap or wave in solidarity. I honestly don’t remember any hostility or animosity expressed by anyone we passed.
“As we marched through Hulme I remember the warm welcome we received from local residents and marchers calling up to residents in the flats to come and join us.
“I talked to many people on the march and kept in touch with some of them for several years. Most were locals but there were two girls who had travelled down from Dundee who I got on well with discussing music and politics.”
Racism could be intense amid the economic turmoil of the seventies but Manchester's black community stood proud (Image: John Sturrock via Manchester Digital Music Archive)
Abigail Ward, of MDMArchive, will be chairing the panel discussion on the 15th. She told the M.E.N it was vital to teach young people nowadays the value of taking a stand against bigotry.
“Looking back at the events of 1978, it was clear that the National Front was gaining ground in Manchester, and a climate of racial intolerance prevailed across the UK”, she said.
“Initiatives like Rock Against Racism and the Anti Nazi League were pivotal in establishing anti-racism in our city and beyond. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the carnival at Alexandra Park, we can mark an event that has lived long in the memory of those who organised and attended the gig and rally, whilst considering a new era of challenge for people opposing messages of racism and division.”
We Are Dynamite! is a Heritage Lottery Funded Project. The project launch event is supported by the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust and Manchester Central Library.
Edit: https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...s/rock-against-racism-day-manchester-14877439
Rock Against Racism - the day Manchester and its bands stood proud against the far right
Tens of thousands of people came together to challenge the scapegoating narrative of racist groups like the National Front.
- 16:48, 8 JUL 2018
- Updated13:57, 9 JUL 2018
News
Around 40,000 people filled Alexandra Park for a seminal anti-racism gig which brought reggae and punk acts together (Image: John Sturrock via Manchester Digital Music Archive)
It was the day Mancunians of all colours and classes came together against a common enemy - the politics of hate.
United by a love of music, reggae lovers, punks and skins came together for the Northern Carnival Against the Nazis back in 1978.
Britain was in economic trouble, lurching between oil crises and with industrial relations at an all-time low, the Winter of Discontent was approaching.
Against that backdrop, tens of thousands of people came together to challenge the scapegoating narrative of racist groups like the National Front.
Fantastic images, provided to the M.E.N, capture all the atmosphere of that summer’s day, the 40th anniversary of which falls on July 15.
A young steel band provide the soundtrack of the procession from city centre to south Manchester (Image: Phil Ramsell via Manchester Digital Music Archive)
The Northern Carnival Against the Nazis brought the ‘Rock Against Racism’ movement to the city.
It drew a 40,000-strong crowd to watch bands including Steel Pulse, Birmingham’s homegrown reggae legends, plus local punk bands like The Fall, The Buzzcocks and Mick Hucknall’s Frantic Elevators.
Four decades on, to mark this influential day of activism, Manchester Digital Music Archive - the charity behind the city’s online treasure trove of music and social history memorabilia - have created the We Are Dynamite exhibition, showcasing unseen images, artwork and memories from that day.
The exhibition, which will be made available to the public from 3-22 September at NIAMOS, Chichester Road, Hulme, is being celebrated with a launch event on 14 July at Manchester Central Library, featuring a panel discussion including key figures, like organiser Geoff Brown.
Geoff Brown, of the Anti-Nazi League and fellow organiser Bernie Wilcox, of Rock Against Racism, had been among 3,000 Manchester-based anti-racists who travelled to London in April ‘78 for the first Anti-Nazi Carnival, joining 80,000 others to watch bands like X-Ray Spex and The Clash at Victoria Park, in Hackney.
Brown and Wilcox decided on the train home to do the same thing in Manchester. A small team of volunteers organised the whole thing, convincing Manchester City Council, bands, promoters and sympathetic groups to unite in a stand against racism.
In the months before the event, the Rock Against Racism movement in Manchester had been galvanised by gigs - not just in student areas, but in Partington, Droylsden, Bury and Stretford (including The Fall’s show at Stretford Civic Hall, recorded for posterity on The Fall: Live 1977 album).
Flyposting and badges, with iconic Rock Against Racism and Anti Nazi League artwork, marketed the ‘Northern Carnival Against the Nazis’ on the streets.
Protesters at the Northern Carnival Against the Nazis, 1978, march through Hulme(Image: Geoff Brown, via Manchester Digital Music Archive)
And, by the time it came to the day itself, the scale of the protest and the turn-out was way beyond the expectations of the organisers.
“Everyone wanted to do something to help and we had phone calls every day from activists and people new to politics wanting to lend a hand. In the weeks before things just mushroomed”, Bernie Wilcox said.
“There was a massive buzz around the city and it seemed like everyone walking down Market Street on a Saturday was wearing at least one and often dozens of Anti-Nazi badges. There were loads of different ones - NF = No Fun, Pogo On A Nazi, Skateboarders Against The Nazis, Gays Against The Nazis and Firemen Against The Nazis and many more.”
“There was a lot to do in preparation”, Geoff Brown said. “People were busy making banners, placards and badges as well as booking coaches and selling tickets. Manchester Polytechnic students stapled thousands of sticks of plywood to make the lollipop placards by which the Anti-Nazi League became instantly recognisable.
Flatbed lorries were borrowed and diesel generators hired to put on the back, powering the amps of the bands that played throughout the rally. People had to get up at six in the morning on the day of the carnival to get to Strangeways and persuade people not to park their cars there.”
On the day of the carnival, 15,000 protestors marched from Strangeways, where it was believed the National Front had infiltrated the staff, to Alexandra Park, where 25,000 people had gathered for the gig.
Ramila Patel, from Bolton, was a keynote speaker - she was chosen by organiser Geoff Brown to speak at the rally after she faced down National Front leader Martin Webster, at an event in Hyde, back in 1977.
“It was very moving to see the massive crowd in front of me who were there to oppose the National Front”, Ramila, who is now an academic based in Swaziland, said.
Reggae music fills Alexandra Park during the rally (Image: Phil Ramsell via Manchester Digital Music Archive)
“We were united by our love of music and hatred for racism. At the end of the rally we danced to the music blasting from the trucks in front of us all the way to Alexandra Park. Waving our Anti-Nazi League lollipops, the journey from Strangeways to the Carnival was memorable. I will never forget the thunderous welcome from the huge crowd that had gathered in Alexandra Park. It was an emotional moment and I felt an acute sense of solidarity with the crowd.”
John Hall, a member of Rock Against Racism at the time of the rally, said: “I remember we started off, we went from Manchester to walk to Alexandra Park and we were behind - I felt like I was on it - this steel band playing on a float.
“Walking past people you felt hip, you felt part of that movement that was right and the others were wrong. It put everything in black and white. Much more than my little issue of being gay, it made me think about other things like racism and sexism, it was a great training ground.”
Andrew Madaras, who was a student at the time, described being ‘greeted with the sight of ANL & RAR banners, trade union flags and several thousand people of all colours and creeds milling around’ on that day.
“Everybody was very friendly and strangers quickly became friends”, he added. “I vividly remember thinking how even the outside of Strangeways Prison looming in front of us was foreboding and intimidating.
“The march itself I recall as being noisy with lots of anti-NF chants, but overwhelmingly good natured and light hearted. Shoppers and pedestrians we passed would generally either clap or wave in solidarity. I honestly don’t remember any hostility or animosity expressed by anyone we passed.
“As we marched through Hulme I remember the warm welcome we received from local residents and marchers calling up to residents in the flats to come and join us.
“I talked to many people on the march and kept in touch with some of them for several years. Most were locals but there were two girls who had travelled down from Dundee who I got on well with discussing music and politics.”
Racism could be intense amid the economic turmoil of the seventies but Manchester's black community stood proud (Image: John Sturrock via Manchester Digital Music Archive)
Abigail Ward, of MDMArchive, will be chairing the panel discussion on the 15th. She told the M.E.N it was vital to teach young people nowadays the value of taking a stand against bigotry.
“Looking back at the events of 1978, it was clear that the National Front was gaining ground in Manchester, and a climate of racial intolerance prevailed across the UK”, she said.
“Initiatives like Rock Against Racism and the Anti Nazi League were pivotal in establishing anti-racism in our city and beyond. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the carnival at Alexandra Park, we can mark an event that has lived long in the memory of those who organised and attended the gig and rally, whilst considering a new era of challenge for people opposing messages of racism and division.”
We Are Dynamite! is a Heritage Lottery Funded Project. The project launch event is supported by the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust and Manchester Central Library.
Edit: https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...s/rock-against-racism-day-manchester-14877439
Last edited:
M
M
mat
Guest
1.618034
Well-Known Member
Fair enough.
Here's hoping today is the last straw for a significant number...
It just might be.
Ricster
Well-Known Member
Whoever the Russians wanted the people to vote for?
Ricster
Well-Known Member
Now I'm warming to you
Ricster
Well-Known Member
Start a new thread man. Would definitely like to talk about this, the financiers of Nazi Germany, which leads to the modern day and why we have the world the way it is today.
It's for another thread though as its a vast topic and would derail this one
Ricster
Well-Known Member
Along with Prescott Bush, Morgan and Rockerfella.
Have a look who took the fall for financing Nazi Germany during WWII. I'll help, he owned Union Bank.
Back to Trump the "Tangerine Wankstain"
Best plaquard from the demo's
ChicagoBlue
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I can see now I was foolish to waste my time on you, because you appear incapable of critical thought and logical debate. Thanks for the information.
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