Labour Party

One hundred years ago, a big movement grew in the east London borough of Poplar, headed by thirty councillors who went to prison rather than levy extortionate rates or cut services to the working-class population that elected them. ‘Poplarism’ won.

Why did Poplar win? Here are ten key points, which contain lessons for today.

Frost-polished gardens and cold hands in mittens
Cute, cobbled alleyways, steep, narrow twittens
Playgrounds with climbing frames, ropewalks and swings -
Lewes is full of my favourite things

A walk up the Down to see windmills and horses
Vegan pub lunches with gluten-free sauces
Blue cheese and celery, smoked tofu wings -
Lewes has loads of my favourite things

Janine gave this illustrated online talk about the Poplar Rates Rebellion for the TUC Tolpuddle Radical History School on 12 January 2021.

Nadia Whittome

Knows how to hit 'em

When the leader's a drip

She's defying the whip

Janine explains the need for, and the content of, the Labour Party Autism and Neurodiversity Manifesto.

Herbert Morrison
was moderate and worrisome
He had an appropriate grandson:
Peter Mandelson

Peter Mandelson
could not get a handle on
The passionate, radical, principled and quarrelsome:
rather like his grandfather, Herbert Morrison

Today at TUC Women's conference, PCS moved a motion congratulating their members at BEIS for successful strike action, and drawing attention to the appalling conditions that outsouced workers, many of them women, face. I made the following contribution to the debate.

Congratulations to PCS on its brilliant win at BEIS and solidarity with your ongoing sturggles at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and elsewhere.

I made Nadia Whittome's maiden Commons speech into a poem. Here it is:

"I'm here through solidarity 
and hard work in my town
I want to say to Nottingham:
'I will not let you down'

I'll represent this burning earth
- a planet we must save
To speak up for a generation
outward-faced and brave