Greater Manchester Respect

Manchester City Council has reversed its decision to close Levenshulme Baths. It has admitted that it misjudged the level of anger and opposition the closure provoked. Its Finance Committee has produced a solution whereby the Baths will be kept open for the next two years and then replaced with a new facility. This was agreed on Monday, 28 February.

Marie-Angelique Bueler, Friends of Levenshulme Convenor and Chair of the Save Our Baths campaign that has mobilized the community, said, ’the people of Levenshulme, Longsight and Gorton have won a hugely significant victory in stopping this public service cut. It shows the power of protest to shift the agenda away from simply asking which service should close to an alternative option of ways to keep our communities alive when the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition government tries to ruin Manchester.

‘Every person that has spoken out against the closure of the Levenshulme Baths has won today. However, celebration is premature. We know that the ConDems want to cut for years to come and no public service is safe. We know that the Labour council has been trying to close Levenshulme Baths for twenty years. We know that other services are threatened across Manchester and every one that is closed will increase the pressure to close more.

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!


The departure of Hosni Mubarak is a world historic victory for the poor, the oppressed and the exploited of the Arab world - and indeed for the wider world..

For decades we have been told that the Arab masses were apatheitic and impotent, that the best that could be hoped for were venal and autocratic rulers whose job was to support US policy in the region while lining their own pockets. Yet in just a few short weeks the masses of, first, Tunisia and now Egypt have torn this view to pieces

The Conservative-led coalition is a disaster for the people of the northern cities and towns. £109 million is being slashed from the Manchester City Council budget this year with more cuts to follow in coming years. They simply have no right to do this. The government has no popular mandate for trying to wipe out public services to clear the deficit at the expense of the working people of Manchester, Liverpool and the northern towns like Oldham, Blackburn, Burnley and Rochdale.