Peace Group Make History

Staff from the People's History Museum in Manchester joined Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group campaigners in Yorkshire Street, Rochdale on Saturday morning (8 February 2014). The museum is collecting materials from contemporary campaigns for peace, justice and equality as part of its 'Play Your Part' project. They were keen both to publicise their project and to record Rochdale's peace campaigners in action.



The Peace Group are urging people to demand that their taxes be spent on decent public services rather than on nuclear weapons. Their leaflets reminded Rochdale's shoppers that "The government spends £2,500,000,000 every year on nuclear weapons", "still plans to squander £100,000,000 on upgrading the unnecessary Trident nuclear weapons system", that "Rochdale's share of the current costs already amounts to £7million per year" and that "the proportionate cost to our borough of so-called 'Trident Replacement' is over £300million". 

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said, 

“We are asking people 'How would you spend Rochdale's £300,000,0000?'. We find that an overwhelming majority want such money spent on essential health, education and social services not on weapons of mass destruction. People in our borough have seen the government impose the bedroom tax, triple tuition fees, cut benefits and freeze the pay of public sector workers. We have seen them force our council to cut essential services, but we know that these cuts would be unnecessary, if the government would stop wasting our money on things like upgrading the Trident system". 

"Nuclear weapons threaten all life on earth. Our goal is to make them 'history', while history shows us that nuclear weapons have not prevented wars, have not prevented terrorism and are a gross waste of public money", he added.  

For more information about the Play Your Part project, please contact Catherine O'Donnell on 0161 838 9190; e-mail catherine.odonnell@phm.org.uk or visit http://phmmcr.wordpress.com/