Out of the Ghetto by Joe Jacobs

 

This essential autobiography of a working class Jewish communist in the east end of London is now sadly out of print and fetching very high prices online.

However it has now been made available at Libcom.org for free.

Previously on this blog:

An excerpt from the book on the Spanish Civil War.

Joe Jacobs on the Invergordon Mutiny

After Cable Street - Joe Jacobs, 1940-77 - Meeting

Review: Alan Woodward, After Cable Street – Joe Jacobs 1940 to 1977

Criminal: an untold history of homelessness, resistance and survival

 

open for 10 weeks only from 21st may → 25th july 2026

A historical exhibition exploring 400 years of criminalisation of homelessness featuring new work from 10Foot, Gemma Lees, Matt Bonner, Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives, and Surfing Sofas.

The exhibition, staged in an English perennial meadow at the museum’s site in Finsbury Park, will show that how we think about homelessness today comes from ideas that were created long ago. When people talk about the criminalisation of homelessness, it’s usually the Vagrancy Act of 1824 that is the focus. But there is much more to this story.

Researchers at Museum of Homelessness have identified the Homelessness Big Bang in the early 1600s and the exhibition starts there. Criminal explores the intertwined histories of people made homeless and transported from England, Ireland and Africa to the early plantations. Visitors will be taken on a journey exploring land enclosure, rebellion in the colonies, Elizabethan Rogue literature, Victorian institutions, resistance movements and modern-day disinformation.

The museum’s interior will be transformed into a space of resistance, with Surfing Sofas Publishing House offering people an alternative to social media. Examples of how people are challenging homelessness and housing injustice today will provide inspiration.

The rise of the far right all over the world is being matched by increasing rates of homelessness. This exhibition matters today because criminalisation as a ‘solution’ to homelessness has never gone away. Right now, in 2026, it is ramping up in many places on earth. In 2025, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade advocated for homeless people to be executed via involuntary lethal injection. We have put this exhibition on as a cautionary tale and an act of resistance.

Crucially, we will also look at how people have resisted these criminalisation. Featuring some of the UK’s foremost activists and artists, Criminal will give both the facts and the feelings and will tell you what is really going on both in the past and now.

More information: https://museumofhomelessness.org/whats-on

Rebel Haringey: Standing On The Shoulders of Giants

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants is a project by the Radical History Network of N.E. London to collate and promote the rebel history of Haringey. By producing timelines and highlighting some particularly significant campaigns - from the 1381 Peasants Revolt against the Poll Tax (and again 600 years later!), up to the many local grassroots campaigns over the last 50 years - the aim is to help show that all residents today can learn from and be inspired by past struggles and self-organised movements for positive change. Such local movements are the giants on whose shoulders we stand today as we continue to seek a better future for all.  

We already have compiled or gathered a wide range of leaflets, pamphlets and video-links on some of the key radical and grassroots campaigns and movements of recent decades, many of which are also flagged up on our website - https://radicalhistorynetwork.blogspot.com/   

See an overview here: https://radicalhistorynetwork.blogspot.com/2025/10/rebel-haringey-standing-on-shoulders-of.html  

Also see a Timeline here: https://archive.org/details/ra-hn-rebel-haringey-history-timeline

Online Meeting, Thursday 11th June, 7.30pm

Join this short Zoom Meeting - 

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/88303299871?pwd=UOCLBBvSgiALB13OQvXcXRYhS7lASW.1  
Meeting ID: 883 0329 9871  Passcode: 1381   [If needed]

If interested please contact: Radical History Network <davetottenham@gmail.com>

Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of McSpotlight.org

16th February 1996 - 2026

McLibel defendants Helen Steel and Dave Morris at the launch of McSpolight.org 16th February 1996

www.mcspotlight.org

Media release from some former McSpotlight activists and contributors - Please forward widely

McDonald's, McLibel, Spycops

and People Power  

 

' The McSpotlight site, which opened last week, provides a comprehensive guide to the McDonald's 'McLibel' trial: the original leaflet, the writ, the witness statements, the arguments. It is claimed to be 'the most comprehensive source of information on a multinational corporation ever assembled' - and that doesn't sound like an exaggeration. ' - The Guardian, 22.2.1996

"If Web sites are the asteroids of cyberspace, surely McSpotlight is its Death Star." - InterActive Week, 22.7.1996

30 years ago, a motley collection of young enthusiasts came together determined to use the newly established internet to tell the world the truth about McDonald's and corporations in general - and to stand up for people power. The volunteers were inspired by the UK's 'McLibel' court battle, brought by the McDonald's junk food corporation against London Greenpeace activists, which was becoming the longest and one of the most controversial court cases in English history. McDonald's had been hoping to halt the distribution of 'What's Wrong With McDonald's?' leaflets, and criticisms of its business practices generally. However, in response, a global defiance campaign was ensuring that leaflets which had been given out in thousands before the court case were by 1996 being distributed in millions all over the world. The McSpotlight site took the campaign to another level, ensuring that the public had full and easy access to all the news, information and support they needed to judge for themselves.

The pioneering McSpotlight site - launched to great publicity and acclaim - was one of the first of its kind, its design and content painstakingly created and constructed by hand without the benefit of modern templates. Although the operation wound down in 2005 after the McLibel proceedings finally concluded with a victory for the defendants, the site can still be viewed today as a historic presence, archive and legacy. Many of the links are still functioning. Enjoy!

However, the story doesn't end there, because much has happened over the last 20 years, including another huge and lengthy battle between campaigners (including London Greenpeace) and the establishment. This has resulted in what is becoming the longest and most expensive official Public Inquiry in UK history, with the spotlight this time on the Metropolitan Police and the scandal of 40 years of secret undercover police infiltration of campaign groups, including London Greenpeace (LGP). And guess what? - the police and McDonald's were secretly and unlawfully colluding against London Greenpeace, and accessing confidential legal advice being provided 'pro bono' to the McLibel defendants by barrister Keir Starmer (then a radical lawyer, now UK Prime Minister). This collusion was clearly an abuse of legal process and perversion of the course of justice, and is now being pursued at the Public Inquiry. Many of those who were involved in McSpotlight and the McLibel campaign are currently involved in that Public Inquiry. [See all the relevant references below]

The need to challenge the power of corporations is greater than ever. McSpotlight stands as an inspiration and a testament to what has been achieved, and what still needs to be achieved.

What has been achieved over the last 30 years

• As part of the global McLibel information and defiance campaign we achieved the complete public humiliation of McDonald's (at the time probably the world's most prominent multinational corporation), and the defeat of their efforts to suppress criticism
  
• As part of the efforts by London Greenpeace activists and others we achieved the exposure of the scandalous 40 year long secret spycops operation infiltrating LGP and hundreds of other left wing and campaign groups. It is currently the subject of the UK's longest ever Public Inquiry. In particular London Greenpeace activists tracked down and outed spycops who infiltrated London Greenpeace and the McLibel campaign, including police officers Bob Lambert and John Dines.

What is yet to be achieved

• Abolition of McDonald's
  
• Reclaiming of the internet as a public service, with corporate influence and control removed
  
• An anarchist planet, without corporations and Governments, run by and for its peoples based on freedom, sharing and respect for the environment
  
  

Calls to Action

Please support the following groups, campaigns and movements - Let the resistance continue and flourish!

• Liberate the internet: Electronic Frontier Foundation - https://www.eff.org And: Free Software Foundation Europe - https:/fsfe.org
• Oppose police repression: https://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.org.uk
• Organise together for grassroots collective people power in every neighbourhood and workplace
• Spread genuine alternative and anarchist ideas -https://www.anarchistfaq.org/afaq/index.html

Above statement by some former McSpotlight activists and contributors

*     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     

Key references/milestones/links 1996-2026:

** 16 Feb 1996: Public Launch of McSpotlight by the 'McLibel 2' in Leicester Square
- Video clip of the launch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V58kK4r26yk&t=2280s [38 - 40mins]                         
- Summary of the launch: https://www.mcspotlight.org/media/launch.html 

** 16 Feb 1997: McSpotlight Ist anniversary Press Release / Overview of the first year
- https://www.mcspotlight.org/media/1st_birthday.html

** June 1997: McLibel trial verdict: 'The £10m McBlunder' 
https://www.mcspotlight.org/media/press/mirror_20jun97.html

** 2005: McLibel proceedings final victory in the European Court: 
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V58kK4r26yk&t=4670s   'It has been described as the worst corporate PR disaster in history' .. 'They say the resistance will continue'.  [1hr.17min.50secs - end]

** 2005: McLibel documentary (viewed by 29m people)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V58kK4r26yk   

** July 2013: London Greenpeace police infiltrator Robert Lambert outed
- C4 programme clips of Lambert being challenged in the street, with his admission of helping produce the What's Wrong With McDonald's? factsheet (subject of the McLibel action). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ2SFqny9So

** Undercover Policing Public Inquiry
- Helen Steel and John Dines: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/02/unmasking-the-spy-cops-how-women-found-the-truth-about-men-who-tricked-them-into-relationships
- The McLibel 2 and and Keir Starmer: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/oct/15/undercover-policeman-admits-spying-on-keir-starmer-when-he-was-a-barrister    
- ITV documentary on women (including Helen Steel) targeted by spycops: https://www.itv.com/watch/the-undercover-police-scandal-love-and-lies-exposed/10a5198/10a5198a0001
- Police and McDonald's collusion and perversion of the course of justice: Statement of Dave Morris to the Public Inquiry: https://www.ucpi.org.uk/publications/dave-morris-t2p2-witness-statement/

** McDonald's continuing controversies:
- McDonald's products link to deforestation in the Amazon: Soya feed for chickens, 2020 report: https://www.theguardian.com/guardianweekly/story/0,,1752430,00.html    And in 2019 using beef from deforested amazonian land: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/sep/17/leading-burger-supplier-sourced-from-amazon-farmer-guilty-of-deforestation
- April 2016 there were 300 protests in 40 countries against McJobs' conditions. https://fightfor15.org/video-massive-global-protests-on-414-because-mcjobs-cost-us-all/
- 2018: McDonald's UK workers' strike over zero hours McJobs: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/may/01/mcstrike-mcdonalds-workers-walk-out-over-zero-hours-contracts
- 2023-2025: McDonald's scandal over bullying of UK workers: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jan/07/mcdonalds-workers-legal-action-harassment-claims

** 2025: BBC Radio 4 major documentary series 'The People vs McDonald's'
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002h38n

** February 2026: McSpotlight and McLibel activist testifies to the Public Inquiry about being targeted by spycop: 
- https://campaignopposingpolicesurveillance.com/2026/02/10/ucpi-daily-report-4-feb-2026-grd-evidence/

** 15.2.2026: 25 years of Fast Food Nation, including McLibel
https://observer.co.uk/culture/interviews/article/eric-schlosser-were-still-living-in-fast-food-nation