CityLife

Moss Side Caribbean Carnival will be feelgood response to riots

Actor Chris Bisson with children at the Zion Centre who will betaking part in the Caribbean Carnival.

Actor Chris Bisson is on his way to an editorial meeting about a film marking the 30th anniversary of the Moss Side riots.

No doubt, all the work on the Project 81 archive he has chaired – a multi-media collection of written, photographic and documentary material put together to complement this weekend’s Moss Side Caribbean Carnival – would be finished if this week’s riots hadn’t suggested that history was repeating itself.

There is a tangible frisson in the air as CityLife and Chris talk that hints at the rampage Manchester was to endure several hours later. And though Chris is obviously disappointed that rioting is back on the agenda, 30 years on from the ugly scenes that destroyed Moss Side back in 1981, he is also unsurprised.

“It’s very clear in people’s minds that 1981 was a political uprising, and people don’t see these recent events as the same,” says Chris. “It’s just looting and it’s not helpful at all.

“There are obviously questions that need to be answered at council level about youth services, but there isn’t a one size fits all solution to this problem.

“There is a lot of debate about poverty being one cause of the riots, but there are people in similar situations of poverty who face the same problems, but they tackle them in a very different way – they find work and other proactive means to improve their lives.”

The 1981 uprising was very different, and Project 81 is a response to their 30th anniversary. “Project 81 came about because of a set of circumstances after the financial crash which was pointing the country in a certain direction: the Labour government going out, the fledgling Tory government coming in, big austerity measures,” he says.

“A view was taken that the Moss Side events were about to become relevant. It seemed like it was a familiar moment in time and it seemed like we were heading in this direction.

“There are a lot of similarities between now and then; and there are a lot of things that have changed.

“The police service is a very different entity to then; they’re partners on Project 81 and that shows how far we’ve come, that they can handle those difficult questions and criticisms about how they used to be because they’re confident about how they operate today.

“We’re not saying everything’s perfect, and the violence aimed at the police is because things like Stop And Search are back on the agenda and are hot topics for youth today. And that’s what caused the riots in 1981.”

The two-day unrest left tremendous scars on the community – some of the events, says Chris, remain “open wounds”. But Moss Side has become a more progressive community since, successfully ridding itself of a major gun crime problem and internally supporting a wide range of community and youth projects.

And despite all the troubles it has seen, it also hosts Manchester’s premiere event celebrating black culture – the Caribbean Carnival of Manchester, held this weekend in Alexandra Park, off Princess Road.

Organised by Chris’s dad, Mike, the carnival begins with a colourful procession through the Moss Side and Rusholme area before taking over the park for two memorable days of music, performance, food and funfairs. There is, says Mike, even a Zumba troupe.

The procession begins at the park at midday tomorrow before heading out towards Rusholme via Withington Road and Moss Lane East. For the first time, it travels through the new Moss Side shopping area on Hulme High Street and the full length of the Curry Mile before heading back to the park down Platt Lane and Claremont Road.

Sadly, organisers have already warned that this may change as a result of the latest disorder.

Among this year’s headliners back in the park are singer and songwriter with The Specials, Neville Staple, plus St Lucia’s Soca-Calypso-Zouk group 2nd Phase and steel and horns
ensemble Bigg Benn Band.

Barry J, Stylo G and Funky D bring the soca, dancehall and hip-hop sounds while a huge number of local, national and international artists keep the music coming from midday until late all weekend.

It is sure to be a welcome antidote to the troubles of the past week and negative headlines caused by the riots in Manchester and Salford.

“The whole of England’s trying to get on this stage,” says Mike. “We’ve got a waiting list from here to London!

“The Caribbean Carnival is peace, it’s love, it’s enjoyable, it’s vibrant, it’s energy. It brings the sea and sand to Moss Side.

“The bigger picture is people take away that the carnival is a real part of their heritage; it doesn’t matter whether they’re black or white, they learn about what the carnival is and why it’s an important part of the Moss Side calendar.

“Manchester is a melting pot of diversity and you need to bring together all these different cultures – our new friends from Africa and different parts of the world, Somalia for instance.
“We also have a youth stage, which last year was like a mini Glastonbury.

“We were refused funding towards that youth stage this year, but we feel it’s an integral part of the festival.

“I got it off the ground last year and decided there was no way it was going to go down because the youth have been requesting it for 10 years.”

A troupe of young people, brought together under the Project 81 banner to artistically reinterpret the Moss Side riots, will travel with the parade and Chris agrees that it is vital that Moss Side’s next generation gets involved.

“There’s a disconnect between the generations,” says Chris, “and it’s important for the younger generation to understand what the older generation lived through in order to understand the freedoms they are afforded now.

“You ask people, ‘Why did the riots start?’, and you get a different answer from everybody – there is no definitive truth, there is just a collection of truths and Project 81 has tried to bring together those many truths to make a display and films and archive for people to use in the future.

“If you call it a riot to certain members of the Moss Side community, you’ll get a very strong rebuttal – they’ll tell you it was an uprising against oppression.

“People see things very differently. I think 30 years is a good time to reflect on this: people can look at it more rationally and understand the reasons why something happened, and take responsibility for what happened.”

The £100,000 Project 81 archive (assembled with the support of Heritage Lottery, GMP, MEN, BBC, ITV, North West Film and Sound Archives, Manchester University and the Police Museum) should, says Mike, help people to understand the strides the community has made and what good it can do collectively.

“Project 81 isn’t just to remind people about rioting, it’s about the good that the police have done by sitting down with the community,” says Mike.

“Since those riots, the place has improved, but have attitudes changed? We’ve got to examine that, and how the media portrays it.”

Caribbean Carnival of Manchester, Alexandra Park, Princess Road, Saturday 13/Sunday 14 August 2011, free entry.
For more information go to manchestercarnival.co.uk.