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Manchester Community Choir singing at the Manchester Against Racism Rally

Chris Edwards | 04.02.2004 17:40 | Anti-racism | Culture | London

Two beautiful songs sung by the superb Manchester Community Choir at the Manchester Against Racism launch rally on 15th January 2004.

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

Chris Edwards

Comments

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Some mp3 files of the songs

04.02.2004 19:13

I have added some mp3 files of the songs on the same page as the broadband clip. Click on the above link to go to this page on the Indybay Indymedia site.

Chris Edwards


Dial-up modem encoded video clip of the songs

04.02.2004 19:50

This clip should be donwloadable by ordinary dial-up modems.

Chris Edwards


Dial-up modem encoded clip

04.02.2004 20:54

I have had problems uploading the dial-up modem video clip to UK Indymedia.

So, to see a video clips suitable for dial up modems, go to:

 http://tv.oneworld.net/tapestry?story=1004&window=full

Chris Edwards