The Gaia society

Our society

This is our Gaia society. A community similar to that of a family where people with a passion for Geography, Geology and History join together to inspire each other and better ourselves and the knowledge of the world around us – both past and present.

What do we get up to?

Since the beginning of this academic year, our society has been remarkably busy involving ourselves in many different events and activities. (Photography credits go Grace Gavin and students)

In early January, students and teachers took a trip to London where they ventured around the city and took a tour of the Alexander Exhibition and British Museum. If you are interested in seeing more about the trip, all pictures and information are available in the Gaia teams.

Students also had the opportunity to go on the UCLAN Anthropology trip which ran as part of the History and Geology combined enrichment via Gaia. During the trip, they built a human skeleton, investigated human evolution and looked at cave paintings and artefact

Throughout

What have we got planned?

Everyone within the society is always working hard to plan and organise events and we will have lots planned for the foreseeable future. Below is an example of our Gaia calendar, which is used to track all upcoming events and it is always full of many things for everyone to partake in. Over the next few months, we will be sure to have lots of exciting things happening – I am sure there would be something for you to enjoy!

Although there has not been much officially planned and organised onto the calendar for next term, there soon will be. Keep a look out on our teams and on the calendar to find events that will soon be happening!

If you would like to be part of our society, feel free to join us on Thursdays in A6 for our weekly Gaia meetings. You would be more than welcome, and we would be happy to see you there. For any other information regarding the society, please email our presidents (G001188@Winstanley.ac.uk and G002409@Winstanley.ac.uk) or Silvia Marques at Silvia.Marques@Winstanley.ac.uk

The Baltic Way

By Zoe Stradins

The Baltic Way was a peaceful political demonstration that occurred in 1989, calling for an end to Soviet occupation. Approximately two million people joined hands to form a human chain spanning across the three Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which at the time were occupied by the USSR.

This demonstration was inspired by the ‘Black Ribbon Day’ protests held in many Western cities during the 1980’s. Black Ribbon Day is a day of remembrance for all victims of totalitarian regimes, in particular victims of Stalinism and Nazism, and is still an official day of remembrance in Canada. It is observed on 23rd August, marking the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. This pact was a mutual agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to divide Eastern Europe between them. Germany claimed Western Poland and part of Lithuania, whilst the Soviet Union declared control over Eastern Poland, the Baltic States and part of Finland.

The Baltic Way occurred on the 50th anniversary of the MolotovRibbentrop pact, following the revolutions of 1989 that resulted in the end of most Communist states in the world. It was organised over 6 weeks by the popular fronts of Estonia (Rahvarinne), Latvia (Tautas fronte) and Lithuania’s Sąjūdis. These were the first non-communist political movements since the annexation of the three states by the Soviet Union.

The organisers mapped out the chain to include key cities in addition to the countryside and used radios to ensure that no part of the chain would be broken. At 7pm on 23rd August 1989, the two million participants joined hands for 15 minutes. The overall effect was a 675km line spanning from Toompea in Tallinn, Estonia to the foot of the Gediminas Tower in Vilnius, Lithuania crossing through Latvia and the River Daugava on its way. Even today, it is still regarded as one of the largest peaceful protests in history and played a key role in restoring independence from the Soviet Union in the Baltic States. Lithuania was the first of the states to declare independence from the Soviet Union on 11th March 1990. This was followed by Estonia on the 20th August 1991 and Latvia on the 21st August 1991.

The Baltic Way helped to publicise the Baltic cause internationally and symbolised solidarity among the Baltic people. The activists used the increased exposure to present the debate over Baltic independence as a moral issue, not just a political one and reinforced the idea that reclaiming independence would be restoring historical justice and aid the fall of Stalinism.

The Toxteth Riots

By Amy Moss

The inner city areas of Liverpool (such as Toxteth and Anfield) experienced a significant cultural change in the 1930s. Originally, these urban areas were desirable to live in due to their close proximity to the city centre but during the early 20th century, the ‘professional’ classes moved away from these terraced areas towards leafier suburbs with more space and better public services (such as the Wirral or Crosby) as commuting to work became more common. This shifted the residents of these urban areas as the terraced houses became cheap accommodation for students, the unemployed, and immigrants looking for somewhere to live in the short term. In fact, between 1971 and 1981 alone, the population of Toxteth fell by more than a third. Moreover, many feared that this deprivation would only get worse due to Thatcher’s reluctance to give any more public funding to Liverpool.

Additionally, many argue that the area of Toxteth became a symbol for the decline of the onceindustrial heartland of Liverpool itself. Since the Edwardian era, the city’s working docks had been corroding as Britain’s maritime trade had moved steadily to other ports on the east coast which were closer to Europe. Moreover, since the 1970s, the factory jobs that were meant to replace the dock work had been disappearing too, with Liverpool plants increasingly regarded as disposable branch facilities by manufacturing conglomerates based elsewhere. In fact, Liverpool lost 80,000 jobs between 1972 and 1982. For Black Toxteth residents the unemployment rate is suggested to be around the 70-80% mark.

Furthermore, Toxteth is home to the oldest continuous Black population in Europe. By the 1980s, racial tensions were rising as Black communities grew tired of police mistreatment. Police stop and searches were frequent under ‘sus’ laws which allowed officers to question anyone they suspected of ‘loitering with intent to commit an arrestable offence.’

On Friday, July 3rd, 1981, Leroy Cooper was attending a youth club when news of a young Black motorcyclist’s arrest reached him. There was outrage that the police were ‘at it again.’ Therefore, Cooper and some friends went to the police van to see what was happening. Leroy said that “They [the police] don’t like it when you challenge them. They were saying it was nothing to do with us but it was something to do with us, this was our community, these were our streets.”

Ultimately, this resulted in the arrest of Leroy Cooper on Selbourne Street for 3 counts of assault (Cooper stated to ‘The Echo’ that these charges were ‘ridiculous’). This arrest was watched by an angry crowd and led to a brawl where 3 police officers were injured.

The following evening on July 4th, police mounted extra patrols in the area. This sparked 9 days of rioting (ending on the 28th July). One citizen, David Moore, died after being hit by a police Land Rover, more than 700 police officers were injured, 500 people were arrested and damage to property reached £11 million. It was the first time CS gas (an aerosol spray used as a temporary incapacitant by the UK police) was used outside of Northern Ireland which sparked fear in the community.

The memories of these events remain vivid in the minds of those who were present. In the words of Leroy Cooper, ‘it was like coming back to a warzone, buildings burned out, rows of shops gone’. Cooper claims that the uprising (as many like Cooper prefer to call the events, in order to better represent the political and social context of them) was inevitable because of the tense relations between the community and the police as well as the economic policies of the Thatcherite government of the day. In fact, Leroy claims that the working classes were made to feel like ‘second and third class citizens in their own country’ and that the uprising was ‘historical chickens coming home to roost.’

Following the events, Toxteth was notorious for drug use, unemployment, and deprivation which many attributed towards how Thatcher’s government only committed little funds to the recovery of the area following July 1981. However, today the area is becoming gentrified and there is a serious worry that the events in Toxteth dubbed ‘the most serious rioting in mainland Britain’ will be forgotten. Clearly, the events in Toxteth should not be forgotten and should be regarded as a critical example of tensions reaching their climax in such a tense social and economic political atmosphere.