Celebrating the centenary of the 1921 Poplar rates rebellion.
Submitted by Janine on
This information panel (picture), written by Janine, has been posted by Tower Hamlets Council to accompany the newly-renovated Hale Street mural, which pays tribute to the Poplar councillors. The text is below.
After the ‘Great War’, London’s East Enders lived in extreme poverty.
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Today (1 September 2021) is the centenary of the first arrests of Poplar's rebel councillors.
More about this auspicious occasion and its relevance today in my article on Labour Hub.
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A century ago, in August 1921, Labour Councillor Jack Wooster told crowds demonstrating in support of Poplar's rebel councillors that "Sympathy without relief [the name back then for welfare benefits] is like mustard without beef".
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Sympathy without relief
is like mustard without beef
or lettuce without leaf
Submitted by Janine on
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.
Submitted by Janine on
Published in Solidarity 588, 14 April 2021
Long before ‘Black Friday’ became the name for the first day of the Christmas shopping season, it was the name that the labour movement gave to the day on which trade union leaders inflicted a defeat on their own movement. It happened exactly one hundred years ago, on 15 April 1921.
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Published by Women's Fightback 25, Winter/Spring 2021
Our story is set just after the first world war in Poplar, an east London borough with a population of 160,000 people crammed into the docklands in the bend of the River Thames (Poplar) and the area just north of it (Bow).
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Janine gave this illustrated online talk about the Poplar Rates Rebellion for the TUC Tolpuddle Radical History School on 12 January 2021.
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Back in 2009. Docklands publications The Wharf published this review of Janine's book, 'Guilty and Proud of it: Poplar's rebel councillors and guardians 1919-1925'.
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In 1921, thirty Labour Councillors in Poplar went to prison to protest at an unfair rating system that penalised poor boroughs. They eventually won their fight. Here are the parting messages from the Councillors (well, most of them, anyway) as printed in the Daily Herald on 1st September 1921, the date that arrests began.
Submitted by Janine on
At 3pm, Janine speaks on a panel about Minnie Lansbury and the Poplar rates rebellion in a seminar taking place immediately before the premiere of a new play on this subject at 5pm.
Venue: RADA Studios, 16 Chenies Street, London WC1E 7EX
