Dave Morris: Tottenham community activist and anarchist - a 70th anniversary retrospective

A celebration, and a look back at some activities, groups and campaigns over the decades

Footage from event on Saturday 30th March 2024 @ Lordship Hub N17 6NU

Films, Desert Island Discs, photo-display, speeches / music, info table - Hosted by the Friends of Lordship Rec

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

2-8pm   Photo display [See photos at the end of this post]     

3-4pm   Dave's Desert Island Discs - https://vimeo.com/934535511?share=copy

4-5pm   Open Mic for speeches/contributions -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBXEADFu8BA&t=12s   

5-6pm   Sing song - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_ahnuel3mM   

6-8pm   Film Show - extracts from documentaries reflecting some activities/movements involved with eg. Glastonbury 1971, Torness protests, Stop ‘The City’, Poll Tax, McLibel, Sound Bites, Kingsnorth Climate Camp, Haringey Civic Centre occupation, HFRA/Community Action/housing, Lordship Rec, National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces, Spycops - -https://vimeo.com/934531278?share=copy

[See recording below, and full links for each film at the end]

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

Desert Island Discs interview session: 

On Vimeo* - https://vimeo.com/934535511?share=copy

Contributions, thoughts and anecdotes from friends and comrades:

Piano / sax / singalong:

Film show session with Dave's thoughts:

On Vimeo* - https://vimeo.com/934531278?share=copy

*You might be asked to sign up for a Vimeo paid-for account, but do not need to do that to watch the films. You may need to input your email address though.

[See below for links to the full films]

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

Dave's Film Show List

The extracts used at Dave's film show session - reflecting some activities/movements involved with. Feel free to watch any of the documentary films in full.

--------  Glastonbury 1971: 

Play all to the very end (4.10s)

--------  Torness anti-nuclear power protests:

https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/8500   Play from 13.50secs to 15.40s    and 17.50 - 20.06secs...  

--------  Stop ‘The City’:

Play from start to 1.42s..  then 2.30-3.30s.  Then 4.30-5.50s. Then 7.20-8.45s...

--------  Poll Tax, especially Trafalgar Square Defendants Campaign:

Haringey overview (Tony Wood interview)  Play all (7.06s)

--------  McLibel Trial / Campaign:

The McLibel documentary, 2005  

Film is set so it can only be watched on the YouTube site and not here, so click on this link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V58kK4r26yk

Play from start to 4.41secs..   then 1hr to 1.05.55secs     Then 1.17.20secs to end

--------  Sound Bites vegan cookery video:

Play 9m-14m  - including my son Charlie and Tottenham kids with Benjamin Zephaniah.

--------  Kingsnorth climate camp:

[Note: the first link was missed out in the film showing session at Dave's 70th]

Great overview  (total 3.40 secs)  SHOW ALL

Show - I help protestors to defy the policing operation..  Start at 1.20s and play to 3.30s

--------  HFRA/Community Action:

Community Action part 1 .. Play from start to 7.24secs....

--------  Haringey Civic Centre occupation:...

In the chamber (use this)..  Play from Start to 2mins. Then 4min to 5.30m.

--------  Give Our Kids a Future demonstration:

0-1.35s    Then 6.00-10.26 (end)

--------  Our Tottenham - the launch

The launch. Play from start up to 3.23secs...  

--------  Friends of Lordship Rec:

[Note: the first link was missed out in the film showing session at Dave's 70th]

Our film!  Play from start to 1.38s. Then 2.25 - 6.15secs.. then 13.20secs to 15.10secs...  

BBC Countryfile piece.  Play from start to 6.10sec

--------  Michelle's resilient orchards on ITV

Play all - 2.36secs..

--------  Spycops Inquiry:

https://www.itv.com/news/london/2023-06-29/police-units-spying-not-justified-and-squad-should-have-been-closed-down   News report. 

Play all..  3.51secs.  Dave briefly interviewed.

Photographs of photo displays at the event:

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 

Tuesday 11th May, 7.30pm: Celebration of 30 years of radical ideas and campaigning in Haringey and beyond

 

Haringey Solidarity Group
www.haringey.org.uk 

Tuesday May 11th, 7.30-9.30pm - online
A review and celebration of 30 years of radical ideas and campaigning in Haringey and beyond

Introduction/review:  Presentation looking at of some of the activities and struggles the group has been involved in over the 3 decades since the foundation of HSG on May 11th 1991.

Memories/inspiration: Those attending are invited to contribute their memories and reflections, and what lessons and inspiration we have taken from the past

Discussion: Ideas for the future

All former and current HSG supporters are invited to attend and celebrate 30 years of local radical protests, campaigns and movements for a better society that we have been part of or actively supported.  What happened, what was inspiring, what more could have been done, and what needs to be done now and in the future?

Please register: (its free - the zoom link will be sent nearer the date) -  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/haringey-solidarity-group-30th-anniversary-reviewcelebration-tickets-152275465015 

Please pass this on! 

Note:  We are also planning a face-to-face celebration event in the Hub in Lordship Rec, N17, on Sunday afternoon 27th June - with films, food, stalls and an exhibition. Details to be firmed up.

Public Meeting on Haringey Solidarity

Saturday October 29th
@ Park View School, West Green Road Tottenham N15
As part of the London Anarchist Bookfair* at the above venue

Haringey Solidarity: Lessons from 4 decades of radical anti-authoritarian community action in Haringey
Organised and introduced by members of Haringey Solidarity Group and the Radical History Network of NE London

A look at some local campaigns and organisations from the late '70s onwards fighting back against capitalism and the State and trying to create a better world. Including strike support, unwaged struggles, anti-poll tax movement, women's struggles, anti-racist action, anti-police campaigns, community/neighbourhood self-organisation, lesbian and gay liberation, libertarian and anarchist activity, housing action groups and campaigns, resistance to property developers, defence of public and community services and facilities, radical community centres and projects... and more. We will also note where local groups and campaigns have linked or federated with similar ones around London and the UK. Followed by general discussion. 

We particularly welcome people who live or work in Haringey, and also others from round the country who may want to be inspired or to share some of their own experiences/successes etc.

*Times and locations (rooms) for bookfair meetings will be given on the final programme in due course.
Other bookfair meetings (with a likely radical-history connection) confirmed so far include:

Anarchist solidarity and anti-war initiatives in the nineties 
A recollection from Croatia
There is no objective history. There are only different interpretations of what has happened and a very clear idea that the “ordinary”, “little” people are the victims of all systems, whether these systems are founded on this or that ideology, nationalism, religion… The wars that took place during the nineties in Europe produced only victims. Victims were caused by the media propaganda, nationalism, the states and their leaders, local thugs, different obeyers, the ones who “carried out the orders”… In a situation like that, of mass war psychosis, there were still pockets of resistance to the conflict, to nationalism, against hate and the war itself, although it was all around us and became the integral part of our lives. It became the new normality. This talk will look at anarchist solidarity, different anti-war initiatives and their influence during the nineties.
Organised by: Antipolitika

What have the anarchists ever done for us?
All the answers to all the questions you have ever had about the world-wide anarchist movement over the past 150 years. Who are the anarchists anyway, and what do they want? How did Marlon Brando get things so badly wrong? Why do Greek anarchists love sausage? How did the long-running anarchist controversy over facial hair finally get resolved? Where in the world do Edelweiss Pirates come from? All this and more, including the all important: What have the anarchists ever done for us?
Organised by: Kevin Eady

Working Class Anger in West London
AngryWorkers give an update about their workers inquiry from the warehouses and factories in west London. We will share our experiences of proletarian existence in all it's most modern, 'hidden', and exploitative forms. We will be talking about: work regimes; housing; gender divisions; migration; our practical efforts (solidarity meetings and newspaper), as well as how we can collaborate with others.
Organised by: AngryWorkers (www.angryworkersworld.wordpress.com)

New Frontlines Against Prisons 
Situating prisons at the base of gender, race, and class, this workshop explores recent anti-prison struggles in England, Wales and Scotland. Introducing the UK Government’s new project for US-influenced mass incarceration with nine new mega prisons on the horizon and large workshops to exploit prison labour. Learn about the growing resistance to prisons as a frontline of anti-state struggle.
Organised by: Empty Cages Collective (www.prisonabolition.org)

Fighting for Free Public Transport with The Traffic Power Structure
Planka.nu was founded in 2001 by a Swedish based activist network to fight for free public transport. Thanks to creative direct action, witty public interventions, and thought-provoking statements, the network has become a leading voice in Scandinavian debates on traffic
Organised by: PM Press and Planka.nu (http://planka.nu/)

Red Rosa: a graphic look at Dr Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was an economist, lecturer, journalist, poet, painter and uncompromising revolutionary socialist. In a talk illustrated with excepts from the best-selling graphic biography (Verso 2015), cartoonist Kate Evans gives a flavour of Dr Luxemburg’s life and work and explores the contemporary relevance of her legacy. Some gratuitous nudity. Only in cartoon form.
Organised by Kate Evans (www.cartoonkate.co.uk)

The Bonnot Gang
Over a six month period from December 1911 to May 1912, 35 year old mechanic and thief, Jules Bonnot, and his young anarchist associates in crime, caused panic across France with their audacious robberies, and the shooting of 2 police officers. Four were killed in shoot-outs with the police and 3 executed by guillotine, while several others were sent to Devil’s Island (from where they later escaped). Richard Parry will talk about this notorious gang of French and Belgian anarchists to coincide with the launch of the second edition of his book by PM Press.
Talk by Richard Parry (see PM Press for book details: http://www.pmpress.org)

What is Anarchism? + Wildcat Anarchist Comics with Donald Rooum
Wildcat Anarchist Comics collects the drawings of Donald Rooum, mostly (but by no means entirely) from the long-running “Wildcat” cartoon series that has been published in Freedom newspaper since 1980. Donald will be presenting new editions of What is Anarchism? and Wildcat Anarchist Comics.
Organised by: PM Press (www.pmpress.org)

The Hammer Blow: How 10 Women Disarmed a Warplane
On 29 January 1996, a small group of women broke into a British Aerospace factory in Warton and disarmed a Hawk warplane bound for use in Indonesia's then-ongoing genocide in East Timor. Charged with committing over £2m of damage, they spent six months on remand before being acquitted of all charges by a jury. On 29 January 2016 Peace published The Hammer Blow Andrea Needham's gripping inside account of this seminal direct action that has inspired countless activists across the globe. Come and hear her talk about this action and its lessons for today.
Organised by: Peace News (www.peacenews.info)

For full list and updates see the website *- Meetings tab. http://www.anarchistbookfair.org.uk/
* Now with added Tweets!

UPDATE:
This year’s London Anarchist Bookfair will be on Saturday 29th October from 10am to 7pm. 

Venue: Park View School
West Green Road, London, N15 3QR 

All stalls and meetings are now booked and scheduled. For details of the meetings at the Bookfair check out the “meetings” page on this website. You can also get a programme from Freedom or Housmans bookshops and other social spaces or on the day.
                                                                                                                                                                  

Room	Building	Floor	11-12	12-1	1-2	2-3	3-4	4-5	5-6
Lecture theatre	Learning Centre	Ground		Revolutionary Working Class Politics is back	Prints in resistance	Syrians in Revolution and War		Technology and the Future of Work
LG4	Learning Centre	Ground		Veganarchism	Liberatory Technology	Fighting for Free Public Transport	Wildcat Anarchist Comics	Anarchy: Rules!	Free Chelsea Manning!
LG5	Learning Centre	Ground		Participatory Economics	Haringey Solidarity	Class Anger in West London	New Anarchist Research Group	Anarchist Accounting	Insurrection! What about production ?
LG6	Learning Centre	Ground		2017 Earth First! camp	Co-operative Housing and Work	The Hammer Blow	Milan Rai on Anarchism	Anthropology, Ecology and Anarchism	Unwaged Workers’ Organising
	Floor		11-12	12-1	1-2	2-3	3-4	4-5	5-6
LF4&5	Learning Centre	First	Engaging with Conflict	Capitalism, Anarchism & Mental Health	The Politics of Birth	Anarchism and the struggle against the borders		Red Rosa	Gender, fundamentalism and activism
LF6	Learning Centre	First	Authoritarian arguments & anarchists	The Substance of Capital	Universal Basic Income	The Bolshevik Myth Reloaded	Referendums	Blessed are the Peacemakers?	Natural appeal
	Floor		11-12	12-1	1-2	2-3	3-4	4-5	5-6
DG5	School	Ground	Anarchism and black bodies	Undercover Policing	Disabled People Against Cuts	Wildcat Strikes and Flying Pickets	Suffer the Little Children	Resisting Workfare	What has Anarchism done for us?
	Floor		11-12	12-1	1-2	2-3	3-4	4-5	5-6
F4	School	First		Decoding Chomsky		Antimilitarism in Croatia	Fenix Didn't Raise From the Ashes	CNT France	The "movement" in France
F5	School	First		After Brexit, Populism, Corbynism etc.…	Political climate in Turkey	Decriminalise sex work	What's "direct action"?	Bulgarian Anarchist Movement	Greece and refugees
F6	School	First		The Bonnot Gang	Land and Anarchism	Can anarchism save the planet?	Climate vs. Green Capitalism	Refugees not welcome here	Rojava - it’s complicated
F7	School	First		The Case for Protest Anonymity	Stand up against the Technoworld	What is Anarchist Education		Art & Anarchism	South London in Struggle
F8	School	First	Meet the Anti Fascist Network	New Frontlines Against Prisons	Activist burnout and mental health	The state of education in Britain today		Capitalism and the car	FREE SPACE
	Floor		11-12	12-1	1-2	2-3	3-4	4-5	5-6
SRA3	Learning Centre	Ground		Putting together the next issue of Strike! Magazine

Boycott Workfare conference: 30th May

Message from Haringey Solidarity Group:

<< OK, the elections are over...but the fight continues. So, come along to the Boycott Workfare conference on 30th May at the London Welsh Centre (details here) and let's start preparing to fight the onslaught that could be coming our way. The Tories might have a majority but so did Thatcher when she introduced the Poll Tax and look what happened there. It can happen again. If we stay strong.

Boycott Workfare are asking people to sign up in advance so they know how many to cater for and allocate space.>>

List of workshops happening at the conference

Organising against workfare in your town or city: 

How groups have had a huge impact and ways to get started in your town.

It can seem a daunting prospect to start a campaign against a workfare provider or business when sometimes there is only you and a couple of mates. What can a couple of people do? How can you sustain a campaign? Who's going to take notice of you? But, this is exactly how groups like those in Edinburgh & Haringey started many years ago, and these groups now having a huge impact against Workfare and sanctions. And it’s how most groups start. Just look at the rise of Housing Action type groups around the country. Most were started by a few people who knew each other. Come and listen to groups who have just started out and others who have been going for years. The workshop is for us all to share experiences, learn from each other, help those out who are thinking of setting a group up and mutual support.

Challenging sanctions and mandation

Over half a million people were sanctioned last year, and unless we fight every sanction we now risk three years without even a subsistence income. This session explores the key facts that people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance need to challenge sanctions. We’ll look at both the formal processes and ways we can collectively put pressure to overturn sanctions as well. We hope people will go away equipped to support each other to fight every sanction!

Knowing your right to Access to Work support, before going on Work Placements

We can use Access to Work as a stalling tactic for avoiding work placements. If disabled people need support to work, such as equipment or a support worker, or can’t use public transport, they can apply to Access to Work. Big employers have to pay themselves so may think twice about taking a workfare placement on if it’s going to start costing them.

Take part in this workshop with Andy Greene of Disabled People Against Cuts to explore ways disabled people can resist forced unpaid work placements.

Taking on Workfare

Together we have brought a flagship government policy to near “collapse”, but with all three main political parties and UKIP firmly committed to workfare and sanctions, we need to keep pushing. Take part in this workshop to share information on the shape of workfare at the moment: where it is taking place and the latest tricks of the providers. We’ll map out workfare’s weaknesses and find the places we can push together to bring it down once and for all.

Universal Credit: The time for welfare and housing campaigners to come together

Universal Credit is slowly being rolled out nationwide, Job Centre by Job Centre. People on “in work” benefits will soon face the same evil job seeking and sanctions regimes that those of us on JSA and ESA have had to endure for years. For people in low paid work, it could mean facing workfare or losing housing benefit. Could this be the present government’s “Poll Tax” moment when different groups come together to destroy a hated piece of legislation? Come and share knowledge about Universal Credit, explore ways to make sure people know what it could mean for them, and discuss how we can bring people together to put a stop to it.

Tactics to resist and navigate the Work Programme

A few different companies have contracts to deliver the Work Programme, the flagship two year workfare scheme. They’re all supposed to follow the same regulations. These can be used against them. There are lots of ways not to cooperate with the Work Programme.

Come to get information from groups and individuals about what Work Programme providers don’t have the power to demand, and the personal data they can’t force you to give them – and more on how to avoid and overturn benefit sanctions they inflict. We’ll hear from welfare action groups in Edinburgh and elsewhere about what can be achieved by insisting on your right to be accompanied to appointments.

This workshop is for everyone to share strategies for stalling and changing the activities that providers try to impose, and for resisting their demands about attendance, unhelpful training, and unpaid work placements.

Keeping Volunteering Voluntary: Workfare stops when there’s nowhere to send people

For workfare to happen, the government needs charities and voluntary groups to take placements. But more and more voluntary organisations are standing up and saying no. Over 550 have signed Keep Volunteering Voluntary’s pledge not to take part and the word is spreading. With most national charities now out of the schemes, we need to get the word out at a local level where charity workfare placements are still rife.

Come along to this workshop with Kevin and Penny from Keep Volunteering Voluntary to explore the key arguments to challenge the voluntary sector’s involvement, to share which tactics and approaches have been successful so far, and to plan how to take the campaign further and win!

Staying strong: Supporting each other through the emotional impact of punitive welfare reforms

When we work in mutual support groups, before we ever overturn a sanction or force a workfare user to pull out, we are already doing something important: sharing our experiences and offering emotional support. The reality is hard: the punitive culture at job centres, ever-present threat of sanctions, and the psycho-coercion of workfare providers take a heavy toll on people’s wellbeing. This session is an opportunity to share our experiences of working in groups dealing with these issues and discuss good ways to share support and look after ourselves and each other.

http://www.boycottworkfare.org