Catalogue Number
NMLH.2026.18
Object Name
poster
Title
VIRAJ MENDIS WILL STAY
Place
Hulme, Manchester; Sri Lanka
People
Viraj Mendis; Sri Lankan Tamils; Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG)
Events
Viraj Mendis demonstration
Date
1988
Description
Yellow landscape poster with black images and writing, print of a screenprint. The poster shows stylised hands and arms in the bottom right corner, holding flag poles. The flags take up most of the image. One of them reads 'VIRAJ MENDIS WILL STAY // NO TO DEATH IN SRI LANKA! // NO TO POLICE ATTACK ON THE SANCTUARY! // NO TO DEPORTATIONS'. The other flag, flying slightly below this reads 'DEMONSTRATE!'. Text beneath the flags notes the time and date of the demonstration, 28 May, Albert Square Manchester. Likely from 1988.
Viraj Mendis was a Sri Lankan activist who claimed the right of sanctuary at the Church of the Ascension in Hulme, Manchester, England during the 1980s. He was a supporter of the Sri Lankan Tamils and the UK's Revolutionary Communist Group, which he claimed would endanger his life if he were sent back to Sri Laka.
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