My letter in today's Guardian:
Black History Month might be a good time to confront the Guardian's record of supporting the confederacy's "self determination" in the American civil war. The Manchester Guardian repeated confederate propaganda against the liberator Abraham Lincoln, writing that "it was an evil day both for America and the world when he was chosen President of the United States" (October 10 1862).
Even on the news that Lincoln had been assassinated, the Manchester Guardian said "of his rule, we can never speak except as a series of acts abhorrent to every true notion of constitutional right and human liberty" (April 27 1865). Among Lincoln's acts so abhorrent to the Guardian was the Proclamation of Emancipation (January 1 1863). In 1862 cotton workers rallied against slavery in Manchester Free Trade Hall. The Guardian complained that "the chief occupation ... seems to have been to abuse the Manchester Guardian" (David Ayerst's The Guardian Omnibus 1921-1971). James Heartfield London
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/oct/16/blackhistorymonth-humantrafficking