TUC calls for national slavery remembrance day

[Howie]

Press release (400 words) issued 20 Aug 2004

date: 23 August 2004

embargo: For immediate release

Attention: industrial, ethnic, social affairs correspondents

TUC calls for national slavery remembrance day

The TUC is calling upon the Government to recognise the 23 August as the National Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition. This date marks a crucial event in the fight against slavery of an uprising in St Domingo in 1791.

The TUC in the North West is supporting the Liverpool Slavery Remembrance Initiative that is running a number of events across the city to promote the project. The United Nations has marked 2004 as a special year for the commemoration of the struggle against slavery and its abolition.

NW TUC Regional Secretary Alan Manning said: 'The North West TUC fully supports this initiative to remember and recognise the impact of slavery in developing our society and to celebrate the events that lead to its abolition. By calling upon the Government to recognise this important day in our history it sends out a clear message that racism will not be tolerated.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

On the 23 August 1791, an uprising of the enslaved Africans on the island of St Domingo (modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic) began. This revolt was a crucial event in the fight against slavery.

To mark International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, there are a number of events taking place in Liverpool today including:

People of Faith Mark Slavery Remembrance Day - Readings, teachings and scripture, calling for social and racial justice. This event is organised in collaboration with the Merseyside Interfaith Group. 12.45pm on Monday 23 August at St Nicholas Church (Liverpool parish church). Free entry.

Liverpool Commemorates Slavery Remembrance Day - The ceremony will begin with a libation led by Chief Angus Chukuemaka. The event will be compered by Cathy Tyson, with special guests Courtney Griffiths QC and Yvonne Brewster OBE, and performances by the River Niger Orchestra, Tayo Aluko, Sue Yo, Ann Lopez and local school children 2pm on Monday 23 August at the Pier Head in Liverpool city centre.

For more information log on to: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/education/srd/index.asp.

Contacts:

Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248; Pager: 07699 744115; E: [e-mail]

Skills for Life and media enquiries : Dan Ashley T: 020 7467 1372; M: 07880 504 846;
E: [e-mail]

Source: Trades Union Congress

[FKoE]

We should implement a national remembrance day before we are shamed into it..

Liverpool as a major player in the slave trade, should designate a day annually for this, let us lead the way as we have so often had to do in the past .

Cheers Howie for that post mate

[Howie]

New museum to honour slaves
Sep 1 2004
By Mike Hornby, Liverpool Echo

THE lessons of Liverpool's past as the centre of the slave trade are to be commemorated with a new museum.

Two centuries after the trade was abolished in Britain, museum chiefs are planning to create a permanent memorial to the hundreds of thousands transported on Liverpool-registered ships.

It is one of the classic images of the city's past that African slaves were once chained to metal rings in the now-vanished Goree Piazza, close to the site of the Royal Liverpool hospital.

But some historians say slaves never came to the city, instead being taken straight to America and the Caribbean in the infamous triangular trade which made the port rich.

Joel O'Loughlin, managing director of Liverpool's Diversity Centre, is advising National Museums Liverpool (NML) on potential exhibits and themes for the proposed museum.

He has brought expert knowledge gathered from his role as a driving force behind the city's recently completed range of events to mark slavery remembrance.

Mr O'Loughlin said: "It's a natural extension of the existing Trans-Atlantic slave gallery at the Maritime Museum. That was a good start, but it hasn't utilised the full opportunity that slavery remembrance represents.

"It would be unique and an international landmark for Liverpool with massive potential for 2008 and beyond.

"A slavery museum could bring together members of the African community from all over the world as well as America and the Caribbean."

Liverpool entered the slave trade around 1700 and quickly overtook London and Bristol.

Around 40% of all slaves were transported on Liverpool vessels, providing the capital for the docks, the warehouses and the merchants' mansions across the city.

David Fleming, director of NML, says the new museum will be a global centre for understanding the modern day legacy of slavery.

He said: "There's no better place for this museum than Liverpool.

"Slavery seems to have disappeared from a lot of the history books and children don't have to learn about it at school.

"We feel that unless we as a museum deal with the subject, people won't know the truth and the lessons which need to be learned."

The museum is likely to open in 2007 - the bicentenial of Britain abolishing slavery - and be linked to the Maritime Museum where millions of people have already seen the current slavery exhibition which has run for more than 10 years.

Source: Liverpool Echo