Labour Party history

Newcastle Workers' Liberty public meeting: Guilty and Proud of it! Poplars Rebel Councillors (with Janine Booth)

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Date: 
5 October, 2011 - 21:00 - 23:00
Location: 

The Settle Down Cafe, Thornton Street, NE1 4AW (5 mins from Central Station)

Description: 

Janine Booth (Worker Liberty and RMT activist) will introduce the story of Poplar Rebel Councillors and Guardians (and you'll be able to buy a copy of the book as well)
The meeting will include projection with photos of the events, Settle Down Cafe will also we serving drinks, cakes, food and the like. The venue is on ground floor with one or two steps.
In the aftermath of the First World War, thirty Labour councillors went to prison rather than accepting inequitable taxes.
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With unemployment rising in 1921 in Bow, Limehouse, Millwall and Old Ford, Poplar Borough Council could not help provide relief drawing only on the limited wealth of one poor London borough.
Poplar councillors, including future labour leader George Lansbury, demanded that rates from richer areas should help.
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Workers Liberty North East, will be holding monthly public meetings from now on. Contact us newcastle@workersliberty.org if you want to be on our mailing list, and we will keep you informed

Julia Scurr: a fighter for every poor woman

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Author: 
Jill Mountford

Poverty and all its associated miseries can crush and starve the human spirit, but it can also be the kindle that starts raging fires in individuals and movements. Julia Scurr (née O’Sullivan) was born into, grew up with, and lived with poverty and all the miseries it lavishly spreads so freely; but crush and starve her it did not.

The militant working-class suffragist

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Author: 
Jill Mountford

“Women do not want their political power to enable them to boast that they are on equal terms with the men. They want to use it for the same purpose as men – to get better conditions. Every woman in England is longing for her political freedom in order to make the lot of the worker pleasanter and to bring about reforms which are wanted. We do not want it as a mere plaything…”

(Selina Cooper, Wigan Observer 1906)