http://protesthistory.org.uk a book & more by Dr Katrina Navickas Mon, 05 Oct 2020 20:43:05 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.38 http://protesthistory.org.uk/#comment-17382 Wed, 23 Oct 2019 00:31:37 +0000 http://protesthistory.org.uk/?page_id=7#comment-17382 Especially during the repressive era from the mid-17 to the 18, radicals faced violence if they met together in public. Repressive laws, popular reprisals, and infiltration by government spies limited movement organizing, though radical groups periodically rebuilt significant support. Most famously, in August 1819, sixty thousand peacefully gathered at St. Peter’s Field outside Manchester to agitate for universal manhood suffrage, only to be forcibly dispersed by troops. Yet the publicity generated by Peterloo, Navickas argues, helped unify geographically disparate radical movements through “organized demonstrations of mourning, combined with defiance” (p. 87). While forced to typically heed government restrictions on public assembly, dissent took unusual forms, notably during the public bonfires and celebrations of the Queen Caroline Affair of 1820. Radicals increasingly clustered in “outlier spaces” of the sprawling industrial communities, organizing on the margins and awaiting further opportunities (p. 106). 

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