History - Janine Booth

Deeds Not Words: Celebrating Female Activists Throughout The Ages

My illustrated talk about Minnie Lansbury, followed by several poets, myself included. At Kingsley Hall, Bow, East London. Facebook event here.

This article is the first section of the Workers’ Liberty pamphlet ‘Comrades and Sisters’, about socialism and women’s liberation. It tells the story of women’s struggle for liberation: from the French Revolution and the birth of feminism, through the fight for … Read more

Understanding the PPP Arbiter’s Draft Directions

On 17 December 2009, the PPP Arbiter published an important document, which may turn out to be a staging post in the collapse of Tube Lines and – following 2007’s similar collapse of Metronet – of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) … Read more

Death Knell for London Underground PPP?

From ‘Solidarity’ newspaper, January 2010: A decision by the PPP Arbiter in December may prove to be a fatal punch to private infrastructure company Tube Lines and the whole ‘Public-Private Partnership’ set-up on London Underground. The New Labour government imposed … Read more

Lessons from London Underground’s History

March 2010: Both London Underground and Tube Lines – and, no doubt, many other companies – will tell us that they “have to” cut jobs because of the economic crisis. But a look at London Underground’s history shows that this … Read more

Nazis and Nailbombers: Fighting the Fascists

from the pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999. On 30 April 1999, a nail-bomb killed three people and injured dozens more. It exploded in the Admiral Duncan pub in Old Compton Street, the heart of gay … Read more

Guilty and Proud of it: extracts

from Solidarity 156, 30 July 2009, origianlly posted here Janine Booth’s recently published book “Guilty and Proud Of It!” is a story about how a group of socialist Labour councillors in Poplar, East London, refused to bow to the “norms” … Read more

The Story of Section 28

This abridged version of an article published in Workers’ Liberty, December 1997, was included in the Workers’ Liberty pamphlet Radical Chains: Sexuality and Class Politics, published in 1999. In 1987, the anti-gay law Section 28 made its first appearance in … Read more

West Coast Franchising Chaos

In 2012, the awarding of the franchise for the West Coast railway route descended into chaos, when the government gave the job to FirstGroup in preference to Virgin, then admitted irregularities and started all over again. Two limericks: 1. A … Read more

Respect for the Dead?

Written on the occasion of the death of Margaret Thatcher in 2012. Today I mourn the passing of those who deserve our tears The many many victims of Margaret Thatcher’s years The teenage generation, hopes destroyed without a care Like … Read more

‘Guilty and Proud of it’