When I was a young boy, my grandfather told me a story of a bus depot, a mass picket line, and a scab bus being turned on its side by an angry crowd. Later I realised he was telling me about his highlight of the 1926 General Strike.
A union railwayman all his working life, he never made it into the history books, nor did his wife’s twin children who, born a year after the strike, died because no doctor could be afforded. My family’s history is nothing out of the ordinary for working class lives — the sort of lives you can see reflected in the halls and archives of the Manchester People’s History museum (www.phm.org.uk).
In a country awash with stately homes and museums covering everything from pencils to witchcraft, the government can no longer find £200,000 to fund the Manchester People’s History Museum, one of the few institutions in Britain dedicated to telling the history of ordinary people’s lives and struggles.
The government has said a number of museums will face cuts. But the People’s Museum, with its programme of exhibitions reflecting the struggles of ordinary people, especially attracted the ire of the Tories. One exhibition, “A Land Fit for Heroes”, looked at lives in World War One, and included pacifism and conscientious objectors. For the Tories that is clearly off message when we are expected to be solely reminded of the historic sacrifice of the fallen dead, and not of those who opposed the barbarous war.
The labour movement needs to fight this cut. If it is not possible in the short term the trade union and labour movement should find extra resources to support the museum.
The People’s History Museum tells an important story that of the struggle of ordinary people who have fought, lost, and sometimes won, but above all fought.
