Saying something is wrong ........ alternative histories .... part 2

For many of us the 1980s was a scary time.

Uppermost in our concerns were the new generation of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems which sat beside the emergence of hard line leaders in both Washington and Moscow at the very moment when the Superpowers were again upping their support for proxy wars across the globe.

The deployment of Cruise missiles in Britain which took just 15 minutes from launch to hit their targets and the even faster American Pershing and Soviet SS 20s seemed to make the world a very unsafe place.

So faced with this appalling situation many took to the streets and protested.

There were monster demonstrations in London and smaller ones across the country and during the decade, I recorded several that were held in Manchester.

This one started behind Strangeways prison, although where the final destination was I can’t recall.

But someone will.

I do remember it was a very warm sunny day, and that is about it.

Location; Manchester









Pictures; Manchester, 1981 from the collection of Andrew Simpson