Obama tells Manchester crowd cotton workers' solidarity is an inspiration
The former US president spoke at Co-op Live about the Lancashire cotton famine and his Chicago presidential centre in a 90-minute event with Afua Hirsch.
At a glance
- Barack Obama spoke at a 90-minute event at Manchester's Co-op Live arena on Thursday, interviewed by Afua Hirsch.
- He cited Manchester cotton workers who backed Lincoln's blockade in 1862 as an inspiration: 'if they could do it, why can't we?'
- He discussed his Chicago presidential centre and foundation, race in America, and said democracy is fragile.
Barack Obama paid tribute to Manchester's cotton workers on Thursday, telling tens of thousands of people at the city's Co-op Live arena that their support for enslaved African Americans during the US civil war was an inspiration for the present.
The former US president was interviewed by the writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch at An Evening With Barack Obama, a 90-minute event punctuated by cheers, whoops, laughter and applause from the audience.
Obama closed the event by discussing the Obama Presidential Center — a museum, library and education project in Chicago — and the work of his foundation, which focuses on economic inequality, the climate crisis, education and health, with programmes for women and girls, emerging global leaders and journalists in oppressive regimes.
Cotton famine tribute
He said he took hope from the Lancashire cotton famine, when workers in Manchester and surrounding towns backed Abraham Lincoln's blockade of cotton from the enslaving Confederate states.
Obama said he had been "reminded being here at Manchester of just this wonderful story of the cotton workers here at Manchester". In 1862, he said, workers whose livelihoods depended on cotton met at the Free Trade Hall and decided to stand "with those who are fighting for freedom, even if it's going to cost us". They wrote to Lincoln, who wrote back commending them, and Obama asked: "if they could do it, why can't we?"
He added that there was "no guarantee that they were gonna benefit in any way from it" but that "their life was better for that. Even in the midst of hardship."
The Guardian's Cotton Capital series, launched in 2023, explores its founders' links to the cotton trade and transatlantic enslavement.
Race, democracy and Zelenskyy
Hirsch spoke about the impact of Obama's 2008 A More Perfect Union speech, including on her as "a black British person of mixed heritage". Asked how his identity shaped his politics and leadership, Obama said it did so in ways "particular to the United States" and ways that were "more universal", describing race as "this faultline of so much of American history". He said his election did not mean a post-racial America, but marked a moment when the idea that "we the people" means all people "seemed to have been validated".
He described democracy as a journey that needed "continual replenishment", warning that "we tend to forget how recently democracy has taken hold and how fragile it is".
He also said it was a "good thing" for Andy Burnham, the former Greater Manchester mayor, and the prime minister to "have [the Ukrainian president] Zelenskyy here and remind people what's at stake".
Source: The Guardian World.
Questions and answers
- What did Barack Obama say about Manchester's cotton workers?
- He called their story 'wonderful', saying workers at the Free Trade Hall chose to stand with those fighting for freedom during the US civil war even though it would cost them.
- Where did Barack Obama speak in Manchester?
- He appeared at Co-op Live on Thursday for An Evening With Barack Obama, a 90-minute event hosted by writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch and attended by tens of thousands.
- What is the Obama Presidential Center?
- A museum, library and education project in Chicago. Obama discussed it at the event along with his foundation's work on inequality, climate, education and health.
