Minnie Lansbury — a different sort of Labour councillor

Submitted by Matthew on 28 February, 2018 - 12:35

A meeting organised by Lewisham Workers’ Liberty Wednesday 28 March, 7.30 Amersham Arms, New Cross.

Minnie Lansbury was only 32 when she died in 1922, but she had a full and inspiring life.

She was one of the Poplar Labour councillors who carried out extensive reforms in the interests of the borough’s working class and, when the council began to struggle financially, led a mass campaign for poor boroughs to receive more funding.

Defying the Tory-Liberal coalition government, she went to prison as a result along with 29 other councillors (including four other women). They won!

Before that she was assistant secretary of the East London Federation of Suffragettes, led by Sylvia Pankhurst. She was a member of both the Labour Party and the Communist movement.

The speaker Janine Booth is author of Guilty and Proud of It!, a book about the Poplar council rebellion, and the pamphlet George Lansbury, Minnie Lansbury and Modern Feminism.

In November 2016, Janine gave the fourth annual George Lansbury Memorial Lecture, on the subject of George Lansbury, Minnie Lansbury and their relevance to modern feminism.

The text of the lecture has now been published as an A5 pamphlet by the George Lansbury Memorial Trust.

• Buy it for £2.50 per copy + p&p here

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