Marxist. Trade Unionist. Socialist-feminist. Author. Poet. Speaker. Tutor. RMT ex-Exec. Workers' Liberty. Autie. Bi. PUFC fan.
Changing the world for the better
Janine will run a workshop on organising at work at All the Rage, an annual socialist feminist one-day event. All the Rage agenda 11:00am – 12:15pm All the Rage Plenary: Feminism and the Rise of the Far Right Speakers: … Read more
Join us online for the launch of the new issue of radical mental health magazine Asylum. Launching the new Asylum The online launch of the Winter 2024 issue (volume 31, number 4) of Asylum will feature: contributors speaking about their … Read more
As citizens vote in the Presidential election in the USA, an anthology of poems opposing Donald Trump is published in the UK – and it includes Janine Booth’s poem, ‘Hallelujah President Trump’.
At Kindergarten in Lviv The sirens sound, the children risePut on their coats and follow teacherAway from danger from the skiesAir raids are a schoolday feature Put on their coats and follow teacherToddle through the honeycombAir raids are a schoolday … Read more
What Doctor Kendall ordered (as Labour’s Work & Pensions Secretary plans to send Work Coaches to visit mental health in-patients) You think you need some space to breathesome peaceful time awayBut no! You need some handy hintsto spruce your resumé … Read more
Villanelle: Tough Decisions
Governments must make tough decisions
Sorry choices, hard selections
Daring shares and long divisions
a guest poem by Vicky Thomas St George is cross. The soldier saint says He’s at a loss To understand these days. You who take his flag And use his name As some kind of brag – He is ashamed. … Read more
If you get your wayIf the foreigners are kept at bayIf we wind the drawbridge and mine the beachesReach a state of monocultureCreate an all-white social structure Would your wages rise? Or would you find to your surprise your payslip doesn’t grow … Read more
Ta-ra Penny
Let’s hope that the end of Ms Mordaunt
turns out to be some sort of portent
of Conservative death
the Tories’ last breath
and spares us from more of their torment
Nancy Astor
in fancy plaster
in copper not in alabaster
Labour’s general election manifesto offers little more than vague mentions to disabled people, and drops many of the party’s specific pledges.
A personal view published in Asylum magazine, Summer 2024.
The UK Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday 17 April that UK law allowing employers to discipline (but not sack) workers for striking is in conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The human species includes people with minds of all kinds. Neurodivergent people face exclusion, discrimination and disadvantage. How can Marxism help us to understand neurodiversity and how to achieve liberation for neurodivergent people? How will the experiences of neurodivergent people … Read more
Neurodiversity – a left-wing perspective On Monday 25 March, Janine spoke at an online open meeting hosted by Lewes Labour party members, setting out a left-wing perspective on neurodiversity. You can watch a video of the talk, and the ensuing … Read more
A poem in the Welsh poetic form of Clogyrnach (which is remarkably similar to a limerick), written in support of Unite the Union’s strike ballot of steel workers employed by Tata in South Wales, whose jobs are under threat.
Janine will be speaking about neurodiversity at March’s ‘open meeting’ organised by Lewes Labour activists. ‘Different people have different brain wiring. Those with a minority brain wiring – such as dyslexic, autistic and dyspraxic people – face discrimination at work … Read more
A poem in the Welsh poetic form of Cyhydedd Fer, written in support of Unite the Union’s strike ballot of steel workers employed by Tata in South Wales, whose jobs are under threat.
Menopause at work hit the headlines on 22 February as the Equality and Human Rights Commission issued new guidance on the issue. However, the guidance only affirmed what the law has been for the last fourteen years, and the fact that news coverage trumpeted it as a breakthrough can only mean that employers have not been following the law.
Janine’s annual poetic performance at Ealing Trades Union Council’s International Women’s Day celebration. There will also be speakers and music, and a good time will be had by all. Venue: to be confirmed