Mayors for Peace

Recognising the peace-loving and anti nuclear feelings of our area, Hebden Royd Town Council (HRTC) affiliated to Mayors for Peace some years ago.  This international organisation, with over 1,600 members, was started by the Mayor of Hiroshima to bring together a network of towns and cities to work towards the elimination of all nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately, HRTC is not a big council, and what with one things and another - including taking over the running of the local cinema - we have not been able to play an active part in the organisation.

I wanted to change this, but didn't have an opportunity to do so until last Friday. Happily, I was invited to a meeting of the 'European and Irish Chapter of Mayors for Peace' in Manchester City Hall. I was a bit intimidated by the use of the word 'chapter', which sounds rather grand. HRTC is just a town council. As mayor, I don't even have a car and a driver and have to take the bus or the train to go to events, or ask my wife, Aeisha, for a lift. So, I travelled to Manchester last Friday by train arriving at the devastation of Manchester Victoria station, which is currently being re-roofed, and is temporarily a hell-hole of scaffolding, leaks, cramped spaces, chaos and dirt. I think the hope is that it will become some sort of bustling shopping centre, like Kings Cross. Then I crossed central Manchester to the town hall by way of the central library, which is the greatest public library building in England, and which has recently been renovated - largely, it seems, by removing the books and replacing them with interactive displays and a brightly-lit café. To be frank, I was shocked at first, but then deeply impressed by the music library, where people can play digitalised scores on electric pianos.

Anyway, after this, I walked over to committee room four in Manchester City Hall, for the start of the meeting.

I'd brought my chain but didn't wear it, as I'm not really comfortable with official regalia, though I appreciate the respect which it attracts and try to be worthy of wearing it. However, the Lord Mayor of Manchester entered in her chain. 'Oh'. I piped up,' Should we be wearing our chains'. 'Not if you don't want to', she said. 'Do you want me to take mine off?' and she handed it to an attendant.

There were representatives at the meeting of the Lord Provost of Glasgow, a Glasgow councillor, a representative of the Mayor of Leeds, the Assistant to the Leader of Rochdale MBC and others. Thankfully, the Mayor of Otley Town Council was there, so I wasn't left feeling like I'd crashed the wrong party.

The debate concerned the constitution of the group, the activities we were undertaking and our links with Hiroshima (including through the distribution of seeds from a tree that survived the blast in 1945). It was interesting to hear how much work goes into promoting peace in different councils (though I doubt it costs much on the rates, as it is often tied to other activities including tourism, with peace trails and the like).

I was left feeling very emotional because I thought politicians were no longer really engaging with internationalism and peace. In fact, there's lot of them still about, trying to promote these values, and really, really passionate about it. I was delighted that the group was keen to badge my talk about the anti-war movement in the upper Calder Valley in 1914-15 with the 'Mayors for Peace' logo. I shall be giving it again in Halifax library at lunchtime on 24 March.

Afterwards, we were shown around 'Sensory War', the exhibition on at Manchester City Art Gallery till 22 February. It's brilliant, but it includes a lot about facial disfigurement and some drawings by Hiroshima survivors representing their experiences. Some of them are naïf, but others are highly skilled contemporary drawings, referencing traditional Japanese techniques to devastating effect. There was also a number of pieces by Iranian artists about chemical warfare, based on their experiences of the Iran-Iraq war, which were superb.

Amazed and daunted, I stumbled out of the exhibition after about an hour. But I will return.

Mayors for Peace website