Marxist. Trade Unionist. Socialist-feminist. Author. Poet. Speaker. Tutor. RMT ex-Exec. Workers' Liberty. Autie. Bi. PUFC fan.
Defending refugees and migrants against a nasty, deadly right-wing assault. No borders!
Two of the poems I performed at the Annual General Meeting of Lewes Organisation in Support of Refugees and Asylum Seekers (LOSRAS) are included in its November 2022 newsletter. The two poems are: Heroes and Hordes Babyface
Janine’s sonnet, Another Country, is included in the anthology Poetry and Settled Status for All, published by Civic Leicester. It is reviewed in Cambridge University’s Varsity.
Artillery rounds and a barrage of shellfire It looks and it sounds like extending an empire Bombing and shooting civilians slain Expansionist Putin invading Ukraine Threatening nukes and rain hell from the skies Dismissing rebukes with chauvinist lies Conscripts uprooting … Read more
Janine performs her poem ‘Babyface’ in Cambridge in 2016.
Published in RMT News, July/August 2021 RMT members have helped to win justice for Osime Brown, a young, black, autistic, learning-disabled man. The union saw this as an issue that deserved our support and solidarity. Janine Booth, Secretary of RMT’s Disabled Members’ … 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
Speaking at an online meeting of rail workers in September, Janine Booth tells the story of the period after the end of the Second World War when black people came to Britain but met opposition from some white workers, until … Read more
published in Solidarity 564 British courts’ application of ‘joint enterprise’ is unjust, and criminalises black and working-class youth. ‘Joint enterprise’ is a common-law doctrine that allows courts to convict not only the person who carried out a crime, but others … Read more
Janine addresses the protest in support of Osime Brown outside the Home Office on Friday 4 September – includes the poems Free Osime Brown and Bearing Down. Please sign Osime’s petition here.
Published in Solidarity 562: Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Home Office on Friday 4 September to demand that Osime Brown not be deported to Jamaica. Led by Osime’s family, the protest was supported by Autistic Inclusive Meets (AIM), … Read more
To see the roots of poverty the plight of the have-nots Don’t look at little dinghies but at massive super-yachts
You have no skills – you’re just a carer, a labourer, an apron-wearer, You smear on cream and dish out pills – you don’t have skills. You have no skills, you just wipe arses, the underside of the underclasses, You … Read more
Edward lived in Hoxton boxed in Stitching boots digging roots Labouring his load on the neighbouring road to new arrivals migrated for survival from Poland, from Russia to the holy crush of London Under the same sky came together, made … Read more
Lansbury’s parents were impoverished Jews from Poland, then part of the Russian Empire, and had fled to the East End of London to escape antisemitic pogroms and persecution. Some in the labour movement welcomed the Jewish refugees, but others … Read more
On the day before Minnie Lansbury’s 130th birthday, Janine Booth speaks about her life at Workers’ Liberty’s London Forum. Venue: UCL Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL More details and (free) ticket booking here. All welcome. This is a … Read more
In response to the news that the Pope wants to change the words of the Lord’s Prayer … Oppressed people Who art in Myanmar Rohingya be thy name The soldiers come And killing is done Of Muslims As it … Read more
– after Edward Thomas’ Adlestrop Yes. I remember Little England – The name, because one squally morn Of rain, the liner drew up there Unwonted, for a port in storm The tour guide paused and pointed as The vessel neared … Read more
Swans are ‘majestic’, the monarch owns them Geese on the other hand are ‘loathsome’. Geese migrate and know their rights While swans are English, snooty and white.
Looks like this, does it, liberation? Isolated from supplies, routes closed, blown from the skies Barrel bombs bowled along alleys Enclaved civilians tweet from their graves, farewells from beneath Rubble, the stones where their homes used to be Aleppo cries, … Read more