London Greenpeace, McLibel, Poll Tax and local Community Action - Dave Morris reflects on nearly 50 years of activism (March 2023)

Dave Morris was invited by the Co-Directors of Greenpeace UK to do a talk/discussion on 30th March 2023 at their HQ. It was attended by 30 Greenpeace office staff and at least another 25 online.  He was asked to speak about his experiences and thoughts about the McLibel case and campaign, about London Greenpeace (which had been set up in 1971, 6 years before Greenpeace UK), and about his nearly 50 years as a community activist - mainly in Haringey.  

He was invited as Greenpeace UK are reviewing their priorities as an organisation and as part of that considering the importance of community organising and action, including by their local support groups. They also want to be more involved in and supportive of current wider movements.

Dave speaks for about 15 mins, followed by 45 minutes of questions and discussion. He was able to distribute paper copies of the original, inspirational Greenpeace Broadsheet produced by Peace News in 1971, a 4pp History of London Greenpeace, and information about the Friends of Parks movement across the UK (as he is currently the Chair of the National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces). A free youtube link to the McLibel 2005 documentary was circulated beforehand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V58kK4r26yk 

Alan Woodward autobiography now online

A post on this blog in January looked at where Alan Woodward's publications about past and present struggles could be found online.

Two more are now available:

Poor Boy's Tale: Alan's autobiography covering 1939-1997 is now online as a PDF at Libcom. It is a 256 page book which covers Alan's political and personal life as well as his progression from Leninism to libertarian socialism.

After Cable Street: Joe Jacobs 1940-1977 examines the period in the life of this Jewish working class militant after his classic "Out of the Ghetto" autobiography. It is now available online at Splits and Fusions archive. 

As Splits and Fusions say, After Cable Street:

"...contains a wealth of information on the far-left, libertarian and councilist milieu.

In this case actual biographical details of Jacobs’ life are few and the pamphlet focuses much more on the politics of Solidarity and its European co-thinkers and related groups.

There is a substantial discussion of the ICO (Informations et correspondances ouvrières) and the Echanges & Mouvement network of which Joe Jacobs was a British correspondent."

Alan Woodward's publications online

Alan was one of the original organisers of the Radical History Network of NE London and as the RaHN Convenor he organised and wrote up summaries of dozens of local talks and meetings on a whole range of past disputes and struggles to ensure that the voices of those who took part in them would continue to reverberate and help us all in our struggles and movements today. He took RaHN stalls to many local and national events. 

He sadly died in 2012 and there is a tribute to him in a previous post on this blog by Dave Morris. Indeed, all the previous posts on this blog about Alan can be found via this link.

Alan's personal archive is stored safely at the Bishopsgate Archive in London and is available to view.

He was a prolific publisher of pamphlets and books on revolutionary history and struggles, some of which have now been scanned and made available online as PDFs by Splits and Fusions Archive, who have published two posts on the subject:

Joe Thomas, Alan Woodward and Workers Council Socialism

Workers Socialism, Libertarian Socialists and Socialist Libertarians

Publications include:

An End To War And All That?

As We See It Now

Declaration newsletter (five issues of at least eight)

Ford Visteon Enfield Workers Occupation: an eyewitness account

Life and Times of Joe Thomas: the road to libertarian socialism

The Deeper Meaning of The Struggle: an outline history of the international Shop Stewards Movement and socialism

The Path Not Taken: welfare history and libertarian perspectives

The Political Economy of Workers Socialism

Workers Control: the why, where and whens of workers councils

Workers Socialism: A short guide

Alan's autobiography, ‘Poor Boy’s Tale’ (Vol 1 – ‘the first 60 years’) is available from Housmans Bookshop.