artist

project:
Stroll into History

location:
Transregional

date(s):
10 August 2003

description:
Dave Beech invites you to take part in a ‘march’ along a small local section of the Pennine Way in honour of the millions of marchers, banner carriers, sloganeers and protestors in history who fought for the freedoms that we enjoy today. Individuals, families, schools and local groups will carry placards containing the slogans of earlier generations of marchers, thereby carrying the hopes and dreams of our grandparents and great-grandparents. They fought for a better world for their children and grandchildren. This is a chance to reflect and honour what they did take another look at what they hoped for us.
The whole event will be made up of short strolls along the Pennine Way that add up like the links of a chain from Liverpool to Hull: a chain of local walks adding up to a national march. The event will be rooted in local communities. Volunteers will be encouraged to discover historical slogans that make sense to their own lives. Assistance will be available and history workshops will be set up to give volunteers extra help when necessary.

If it were not for marchers and protestors, women in this country not have the vote, and neither in fact would the vast majority of men. Marches have been organised to fight against unemployment, racism, war and nuclear weapons, prejudice against sexual preference, inequality between the sexes, and a whole range of other issues. Without these protests, our lives would be far harsher than they are. We benefit from the protests of previous generations. Don’t look back in nostalgia. Look back in the knowledge that our world has been shaped by the past and that we are shaping the world for future generations.

The March is a commemoration of generations of protestors as well as a continuation of those protests; a reminder of the hopes we have lost, a call for victories to be available right through society and across the world. Protests from which the slogans derive may include THE WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE MOVEMENT and WOMEN’S LIB, RACIAL EQUALITY, FAIR PAY, FULL EMPLOYMENT, THE END TO POVERTY, GAY RIGHTS, THE END TO CHILD LABOUR, THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, THE RIGHT TO FORM LABOUR UNIONS and THE CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT.

What do we think today of these historic struggles and their slogans? Are these protests over? If so, were they accomplished or have they failed? Are the victories felt across the world? Are the defeats being fought for elsewhere?

For all enquiries or information contact: Dave Beech dave.beech@virgin.net