Marxist. Trade Unionist. Socialist-feminist. Author. Poet. Speaker. Tutor. RMT ex-Exec. Workers' Liberty. Autie. Bi. PUFC fan.
Stuff about the city where I (used to) live and (still occasionally) work!
– a discussion and comparison of and commentary on tactics then and now – 1921 and 2021 One hundred years ago, the Labour council of the east London Borough of Poplar went to prison rather than inflict cuts or rate … Read more
How did Labour win big in the local elections after the First World War, and why did this lead to the rates crisis in Poplar in 1921? About this Event Before 1919 Labour had but a toe-hold in local government … Read more
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 … Read more
Janine gave this illustrated online talk about the Poplar Rates Rebellion for the TUC Tolpuddle Radical History School on 12 January 2021.
Janine Booth tells the story of a working-class borough’s fightback against austerity and thirty councillors who went to prison for refusing to levy rates that their citizens could not afford to pay. Celebrate the centenary of an inspiring struggle which … Read more
A version of this was published in Solidarity 568: This story of colour bars in the UK railway and bus industries begins after the Second World War, when Britain had a labour shortage and people moved to Britain in increasing numbers … Read more
Thomas McColl and Janine Booth on London Live on 16 April 2018, promoting the anthology, Poems for Grenfell Tower. Includes a video extract of Janine’s poem, Bring it Home.
One last time before we split let’s go and sit in the grassy bit in the churchyard astride the log throw sticks for the dog and look at the playground and the place where the nursery stood Before we’re gone … Read more
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 … Read more
Badly kept, back swept Cracks crept along the paving and the window panes Split plastic seats hung from rusted chains in the playground we found next to the car park with the gate on its hinges where tyres were punctured … Read more