Figure 8: Artwork by Andrew Alan Matthews. Video available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_ioLgZVfiI
Concluding Thoughts.
Understanding the Moss-Side riots from the perspective of Moss-Siders is important when challenging the institutional narrative from the 80s that embodied casual racism. It brings the challenge of such narratives within academia to light in the era of BLM and undoing the demonisation of the northern working class. Although 40 years ago, discussions of and arguments against institutional racism are globally relevant today.
The legacy of the riots continues in the demonisation of Moss-Side, but also in the continued production of cultural artefacts related to the riots. Author Joe Pemberton’s book Forever and Ever Amen (2000), discusses the life and experiences of a young boy growing up in Moss-Side, alongside flashbacks to life in St Kitts.[i] He cites his reason to write the book as being due to the legacy of Moss-Side being different to how he experienced it.
I saw an article about troubles in Moss-Side, Manchester and there was an overwhelming feeling in me saying, ‘Hey, I don’t remember Moss-Side, where I was born, being like that’, and therefore the urge to redress the balance in my own way came and was expressed in my writing.[ii]
This post has aimed to introduce more personal, cultural sources of the Moss-Side riots in order to balance the institutional narrative previously produced. Such sources sit well with the developments in existing scholarship and can only serve to deepen our understanding of notable events such as the Moss-Side riots.
End Notes
[i] Joe Pemberton, Forever and Ever Amen (Headline Review: 2000).
[ii] Robert H Crawshaw, Corrine Fowler, Lynne Pearce, Postcolonial Manchester: Diaspora Space and the Devolution of Literary Culture (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015), p.279.
Bibliography.
Primary
Andrew Alan Matthews, ‘Moss Side Riots in the Eighties’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_ioLgZVfiI.
Alan Benet Hytner, ‘Report of the Moss Side Enquiry Panel to the Leader of the Greater Manchester Council’, Race Relations Resource Centre: Central Library- Man/PO.2/HYT 1996542.
Moss Side Defence Committee, ‘Hytner Myths: A Preliminary Critique of the Hytner Report by the Moss Side Defence Committee’, Race Relations Resource Centre: Central Library- Man/PO.2/HYT 1996430.
‘Moss Side Riots- Short Archival Film’, accessed at https://vimeo.com/328869130
Nally, Michael, ‘Eyewitness in Moss-Side’, in John Benyon, ed., Scarman and After: Essays Reflecting on Lord Scarman’s Report, the Riots, and their Aftermath(Leicester: University of Leicester, 1984), pp.54-62.
‘News Special: Moss Side Riots 25 Years On’, Manchester Evening News, 18 January 2013, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/news-special-moss-side-riots-1035294
Osuh, Chris,‘Grayling’s Comments on Moss Side Condemned’, Manchester Evening News, 26 August 2009, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/graylings-comments-on-moss-side-condemned-928267
Secondary
Crawshaw, Robert H.; Fowler, Corrine; Pearce, Lynne, Postcolonial Manchester: Diaspora Space and the Devolution of Literary Culture (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015).
Fraser, Penny, ‘Social and Spatial Relationships and the ‘Problem’ Inner City: Moss Side in Manchester’, Critical Social Policy 16 (1996), 43-65.
Frost, Diane; Singleton, Alex; Phillips, Richard, ‘Researching the Riots’, The Geographical Journal 179 (2013), 3-10.
Hirsch, Shirin, Swanson, David, ‘Photojournalism and the Moss Side Riots of 1981: Narrowly Selective Transparency’, History Workshop Journal 89 (2020), 221-245.
Joyce, Peter, Wain, Neil ‘Disaffected Communities, Riots and Policing: Manchester 1981 and 2011’, Safer Communities 11 (2012), 125-134.
Pemberton, Joe, Forever and Ever Amen (Headline Review: 2000).
Peplow, Simon, Race and Riots in Thatcher’s Britain (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019).
Word Count: 1594.