The biggest room in Manchester Town Hall was filled to capacity on 15th January 2004 at the launch of Manchester Against Racism--a new initiative which is currently being repeated in towns all over Britain.

The purpose of the event was to try and broaden the base of the anti-racist movement in the run up to the elections for the European parliament in the summer of 2004. The elections are based on proportional representation which makes it easier for the fascist British National Party to get elected. The BNP already has a substantial base in the small towns in the region around Manchester.

This was no ordinary run of the mill rally. It was also a festival of music and poetry as well as the usual speeches from a cross-section of the local community. There were lots of black faces on the platfrom, in the audience, and among the musicians and poets. It is not very often that this sort of thing happens at British political events which are often rather dull and uninspiring. It reminded me of the way the Chilean workers movement organised when I was there in 1985. They seemed to use music, theatre and poems all the time to get their message across--and very effective they were too. We need to make more use of these emotive cultural methods to move people to action.

A highlight of the event for me was these two beautiful songs by the truly awesome Manchester Community Choir. Anyone can join this choir, I believe.

To see a broadband encoded clip of these songs, go to:

 http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/02/1669473.php