Rebel Haringey: Standing on the shoulders of giants

v4. Feedback and further info requested      

Let's celebrate and be inspired by some of the key grassroots movements in Haringey from the last 60 years. Here’s a list of some of those movements….

 Workers struggles: shop floor organisation, disputes and strikes 100th anniversary of the 1926 General Strike eg. in Tottenham and Wood Green. 1984-5 miners strike support. Sorting Offices strike. Visteon occupation. Bin workers (2006). More recent major industrial disputes (specific ones and an overview). Haringey TUC (1965 -), Tottenham Trades Club (incl Jarrow Marchers visit). + Brabant Rd Club.  A current link: HTUC

 Poll Tax: How residents defied and defeated the Government's poll tax  1989-1992. Grassroots organising, street reps, mass non-registration and non-payment, opposing bailiffs, protests, street stalls, 1000 attend largest ever public meeting, helping coordinate the movement throughout London and nationally. See: Poll Tax Rebellion (Haringey)  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdW3GNM089A  

A current link: Haringey Solidarity Group

 Claimants Unions and campaigns: defending claimants rights and benefits   Tottenham Unemployed Workers Movement in the 1930s.CUs in the 1980s (including occupation of the Civic Centre), related campaigns in the 1990s and 2000s, Mothers March 2014.                                         A current link: Haringey Claimant Justice Campaign

Residents Associations: the growth of community self-organisation, mutual aid and a range of activities throughout local neighbourhoods and on estates See: Haringey Tenants Federation 1967. Muswell Hill & Fortis Green Assoc. Broadwater Farm RA estate improvements. Campaigns for safer streets. Street parties. Haringey Federation of Residents Associations doc Community Action - 

[Part 1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cxndtyMBhA  

[Part 2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viVdedjc1yk&list=TLPQMjEwNzIwMjWBDeCZWmNd-g&index=2  Street based mutual aid groups during covid.    

A current link: HFRA

Planning battles: How communities have mobilised against destructive development, and have come up with their own plans Archway Road 1970s victory https://www.onlondon.co.uk/richard-derecki-how-the-archway-motorway-was-blocked/  Parkland Walk saved. Bull Lane Playing Fields. Hornsey Town Hall. Ally Pally STOPP. Wards Corner. Our Tottenham network www.ourtottenham.org.uk.  St Ann's Hospital. Spurs stadium, Love Lane and Nthld Pk. The 2015 anti-HDV campaign/victory. A current link: Our Tottenham

 Parks and green spaces: The rise of Friends Groups to improve, animate and protect local greenspace  Community events and festivals. Lordship Rec community empowerment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjvb9MxxDrw  

Downhills Park saved late 1990s. Demo to save White Hart Lane Rec in 2006 (ish).  A current link: Haringey Friends of Parks Forum

Fighting Fascism  3,000 at the Battle of Wood Green 1977, 1985 Tottenham Hale. 2024's mobilisations   A current link: Haringey Stand Up To Racism

McLibel campaign: how 2 Tottenham activists become the face of a successful global defiance campaign against corporations and censorship An example of anti-corporate campaigning. See documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V58kK4r26yk

Black peoples self-organisation and anti-racism struggles Including around education, and in response to policing. eg. Black Parents Movement 1970s, New Beacon Books / John La Rose, George Padmore Institute, Broadwater Farm - 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88QFY7gG1BA  

Black Lives Matter 2020 - https://www.facebook.com/ReelNews/videos/rally-outside-tottenham-police-station-over-the-disgusting-violent-attack-on-a-y/3637769409641015/                                           A current link: New Beacon Books

 Anti-war  From CND in the 1960s to Stop The War over the last 20 years. Conscientious objection.  A current link: Haringey CND

Women's liberation movement   Including 1970s women's groups, Haringey Womens Centre in the 1980s, women's campaigns eg vs Curzon porn cinema. Plus a nod to the suffragettes.            A current link: tbc

International solidarity  Haringey residents solidarity with people's struggles for peace and freedom all over the world. From 1960s/80s anti-apartheid action to Palestine Solidarity today. Political exile networks and migrant solidarity campaigns.                                                                   A current link: Haringey Migrant Justice

Lesbian/Gay liberation movement  Including 3,500-strong ‘Positive Images’ march through North Tottenham (1987).                                        A current link: tbc

Disability movement In 1972 N8 resident launches UPIAS, a founding body of the modern disability rights movement.. Local involvement in the 1990-1995 Telethon protests and the Disability Discrimination Act?  A current link: tbc

Green/sustainability groups and campaigns  eg from Tottenham Friends of the Earth, to Sustainable Haringey network, and Haringey XR   Current links: Sustainable Haringey and XR

Defending Public Services: Resistance to cuts to community facilities and public services Esp 2009-2012. Haringey Alliance for Public Services - eg https://www.counterfire.org/article/video-haringey-council-occupied-over-cuts-to-public-services-24-feb/  Local Post Offices. Youth Services. Save the Whittington Hospital Campaign.   A current link: tbc

Self-managed radical projects, facilities, bookshops and cooperatives  Promoting and showing alternatives to the status quo. + Radical bookshops eg Libertaria Books 1970ish, Reading Matters in 1980s, New Beacon Books, Bookmarks. 

Community centres: Community building in every sense of the word The rise of community-run Centres in the 1980s. Haringey Community Centres Network campaign for lease-justice over the last 10 years. Kurdish Community Centre defence, 2024. Irish Centre. N London Community House. West Indian Cultural Centre. Cypriot Community Centre. And other buildings incl Tottenham Community Project 1980s, Tottenham Community Sports Centre (1970s-now), Haringey Unemployed & Unwaged Centres (1983-1991). Tottenham Law Centre. Current link: HCCN

Policing: resistance to oppressive policing and police killings   Cynthia Jarrett and Broadwater Farm 1985 + Defence Campaign. Joy Gardner 1993. Roger Sylvester 1999. Mark Duggan 2011 riots, and Give Our Kids A Future march -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up6_qujh7Fw 

A current link: tbc

Decent homes for all: Housing struggles, including tenants action, squatting etc Including Haringey Tenants and Residents Federation in 1967 (paper 'Tenants Voice'), Haringey Defend Council Housing 1990s-now. Sheltered Accommodation protests. Green Lanes Community Inspectors 2012-3. Ladybird Housing Co-op. Squatting. Short life coops. Current links: HDCH & LRU(H)

Youth subcultures and movements  Hippies (eg 1970 Oz anti-censorship victory), soul, punks, ravers, goths, hiphop, grime...  Incl social events and key local venues?

School students  Walkouts: eg. vs corporal punishment 1971 (leading to national ban)?, vs YTS April 1985, and vs Iraq War 2003

College Students  1968 6-week Hornsey School of Art occupation. 2010-11 protests/occupations?

Local Radical/Community Newspapers  Tenants Voice (1967), Haringey Globe (mid-1980s), Free Tottenham Times (mid-1980s), Haringey Community Action / Totally Indypendent (1992-), Haringey Community Press.

Misc Other  Spouters Corners in Wood Green, Seven Sisters and Finsbury Park (1920s to ?). Alexandra Palace 14hr Technicolour Dream (1967), Thousands attend Reclaim The Streets street party and occupation of Tottenham High Rd (1998). Right To Food March 2023.

Note: The Radical History Network of North East London has documented some of the movements above.  https://radicalhistorynetwork.blogspot.com/search?q=Haringey   They are self-organised grassroots empowerment movements for improvements and change.  Further info & comments welcome – RaHN <davetottenham@gmail.com>

How residents defeated the Poll Tax in Haringey, and countrywide.. (1988-1993)

An unfair and hated tax

In the late 1980s the Government had decided to implement a new tax to replace local government taxation systems. It was immediately seen as a tax on the poor, and an extension of government powers over the population. The government named it the 'Community Charge', but protestors dubbed it 'the Poll Tax', drawing parallels with the legendary Poll Tax mass uprisings in 1381 which successfully defeated the idea for 600 years!


Mass opposition

It was first introduced into Scotland in 1988, causing uproar, massive defiance, and popular independent local campaigns in every neighbourhood encouraging non-cooperation and non-payment. A majority refused to pay.

Inspired by hatred of the government after the long industrial battles with miners and printworkers in the mid-1980s, and inspired by Scotland, a mass movement grew up in every community in England in the build up to the registration procedure (1989) and the implementation date of April 1st 1990.


Organised resistance throughout Haringey

Haringey was one of the first areas in England to launch a strong campaign. In 1988 independent and radical activists called for mass non-payment and defiance of the tax. 30 residents attended the first planning meeting at the Unwaged Centre in Tottenham and very quickly the campaign spread like wildfire. Many local anti-poll tax groups met weekly or fortnightly, co-ordinated through delegate meetings of Haringey Anti-Poll Tax Union.

The next 4 years saw possibly the most vibrant, sustained and uncompromising mass popular movement in Haringey's, and the UK's, history. This is some of what happened:

· simultaneous weekly street stalls all around the borough
· regular mass door-to-door leafleting calling for total non-cooperation with registration, payment, court notices and eventually bailiffs.. over half a million leaflets and window posters distributed in Haringey alone (including all 90,000 homes getting a leaflet/poster on the eve of the implementation of the tax).
· a network of over a dozen smaller neighbourhood groups and up to 500 street reps
· regular public meetings, including one with 1,000 people in Hornsey Town Hall
· many local pickets, protests, burning of forms, 2 or 3 marches and a mass rally of 1000 people blockading the Civic Centre and the road outside on the night the Council set the tax rate - the highest in Britain!
· organised and systematic back up support for people facing threats, fines, bailiffs and even imprisonment
· trade union opposition to the tax, in some cases refusing to implement aspects of the process
· constant efforts to link up effectively with other campaigns around London and the whole country. Haringey groups played a key role in developing London and national initiatives, communication and solidarity.

As a result, 50,000 Haringey adults refused to register at all, and eventually 97,000 refused to pay despite the whole range of threats and intimidation from the Council and the Courts.


Co-ordination and protest across the country

In early 1989 Tottenham Against the Poll Tax was the main group behind a London-wide meeting which led to the setting up of the London Federation of Anti-Poll Tax Groups - TAPT was elected as the secretarial group. Later that year HAPTU initiated and co-ordinated a national conference in London attended by 70 APTs and Federations, who continued to work closely together to ensure communication & co-ordination across the country.

On March 31st 1990, the day before the tax was to be implemented, over 200 Haringey residents met up at Turnpike Lane tube to travel together to join over 250,000 people marching through Central London calling for mass non-payment and resistance to the tax. It was a carnival atmosphere. As the demonstration passed Thatcher's headquarters (Downing St) there was a confrontation with police, and it soon turned into a battle with mounted police and riot units. Eventually, Trafalgar Sq became a battleground as thousands of people fought police for control of the square and the area around it. The anti-poll tax movement gained world-wide coverage.

Up to 500 activists from all over the UK (including Haringey) were arrested during and after the demo, and many faced heavy charges. Politicians and the media attacked the anti-poll tax movement. The police called for a ban on such demos. However, HAPTU and other independent groups helped set up the defendant-run Trafalgar Square Defendants' Campaign which supported all those arrested and helped them fight their cases, as well as campaigning for the anti-poll tax movement to back those arrested. Initial meetings were held in the Tottenham Unwaged Centre. It was a very strong and significant campaign, including a solidarity march of 3,500 people to Brixton prison to support poll tax prisoners there and around the country.


18 million refuse to pay, and Thatcher resigns

The stakes were very high. Gradually the whole movement backed the campaign, and their call to demonstrate again in Trafalgar Sq. This uncompromising and principled stance echoed the continuing public defiance of the tax. The movement stayed united and defiant, and public support increased.

By the following year 18 million were refusing to pay the tax. Thatcher resigned, largely as a result of the damage to her credibility and strategy over the poll tax fiasco. The new Prime Minister John Major eventually announced that the tax was uncollectable and would be scrapped - to be replaced by the current Council Tax.

However, the movement needed to continue in order to defend those facing threats and repressive measures for the next few years. This we did in Haringey. The main Haringey groups decided to develop into general Solidarity Groups, continuing poll tax work as part of a commitment to support a wide range of independent radical struggles and local initiatives. The groups eventually merged into Haringey Solidarity Group, which has continued to be active ever since.


The aftermath

This historic victory showed that:

- the right to public services shouldn’t depend on systematic robbery of working class people of their income
- any oppressive law or measure can be defied and defeated by mass non-cooperation
- grass roots self-organisation with public support can be inspirational and an unstoppable force for change
- the right to protest can be defended
- radical ideas and ways of working do not need to be marginal, but can be mainstream and a real alternative to electoral politics

There is also the power of collective folk-memory, even across 6 centuries, that an unjust measure can be beaten. That demonstrates the importance of celebrating our radical history.


This summary has mainly been drawn from the pamphlet 'The Poll Tax Rebellion In Haringey' which was written and published collectively by members of Haringey Solidarity Group in 1999

Haringey Solidarity Group - some activities past and present [1990-2005]

In an attempt to look forward at where HSG fits into any political strategy in Haringey, we first thought we would look back. So, here is a look at what we have done over the last 15 years based on the minutes of our monthly meetings. The information is huge, so this can be no more than a brief and a bit chaotic look. I have tried not to see things as “successes” or “failures”. Where one person will see failure, another will see success. And vise versa.

The obvious place to start, as it was the forerunner of HSG, was the anti Poll Tax Campaign. Much has been talked about this campaign [see our booklet], so I won’t say much. However, we were one of the only local anti Poll Tax groups who stayed together after the defeat of the poll tax. This was a very positive decision. It’s a shame more groups didn’t do likewise. If they had, maybe……. In 1998 we played a large role in organising a national gathering in Bradford, and more recently the local groups Community Action. If the 100 or so anti poll tax groups around London had formed into independent community action/solidarity groups back in 1990 maybe we wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel as we seem to be doing. But, hey, we live and learn…

In April 1991 we had the first meeting as Haringey Solidarity Group and by January 1992 we had formed three separate groups around the borough in Tottenham, Green Lanes, and Wood Green. Not being able to sustain three separate groups we all came back together as HSG in September 1994. I have attached the first (and present) set of aims and principles of HSG. In 1991 we had sub groups of HSG for: the environment; housing; publicity; transport; women; anti racism; industrial; police monitoring; council monitoring; and disability issues. There were something like 30/40 active people though. In the early days we were using an office in West Green Road. Later 1997 we opened up our own office just of Green Lanes, which we have just decided to give up due to the costs involved..

Looking back it’s ironic to see present day issues cropping up. In 1993 we were campaigning (and won) against the council taking parts of our parks for financial gain. In 1994 we were already trying to stop the slow invasion of Controlled Parking Zones and Red Routes. And in 1995 we talked about the future of the Independent Working Class Association (IWCA), which the Hackney Independent group has recently formed out of. Then there is the continual racist attacks we have been a small part in trying to fight: Broadwater Farm Defence Campaign; Tottenham Three Campaign; Joy Gardner, Michael Menson, Roger Sylvester, Winston Silcott Campaign, and most recently the police harassment of Delroy & Sonya Lindo and their family. After 15 years: same harassment different targets. But, at least we have been there to help where we can, sometimes in fairly minor ways.

We have always tried to support other struggles and all we can do here is name a few. If anybody wants more detail just ask. We have supported workers in struggle for the last 15 years where we can. There has been the Arnaouti bakery workers; council workers; postal workers; Building Workers Group; Hillingdon workers; Liverpool Dockers; and of course one of the major campaigns we were involved in the JJ Fast Food workers dispute in Tottenham (see booklet on this for fuller details).

There have been dozens of campaigns we have been part of as well. As a flavour some are: anti MacDonald’s campaign, endless campaigns and demos against Council cuts, campaigning against harassment of local prostitutes, fighting the 1996 Asylum Bill (Act), against the Private Finance Imitative (PFI), campaigning against the unsustainable redevelopment of the Hornsey Waterworks; anti-war / anti-arms trade stuff; going down to Newbury to support the road protestors; helping set up a Haringey Squatters Group; being par of the group in the 1990s who were fighting the Council’s plans to privatize Alexandra Palace and it’s parklands; police monitoring and publicity; trying to help and support other groups around London and the UK who wanted to form HSG type groups; The campaign against the Child Support Agency in 1993/4; supporting the setting up of the Haringey Furniture Project; and putting teams in for a London wide 7 a side football competition.

There have also been a number of campaigns we have started and run in Haringey (sometimes linking up with other groups to form London or nationwide campaigns). Again, because of space, I will be brief. We had a very active claimants group which not only campaigned against the JSA, New Deal and Project work, but for better conditions for workers in job centres. We were linked with other groups to form the nationwide Groundswell claimants network. We met nationally for 2 or 3 years and organised two large London demos. This was one of the first times we had managed to link claimants and job centre workers in one campaign.

We worked with lecturers and students at the College of North East London in Tottenham to fight both cuts to the college and attacks on staff conditions. Linking staff and students was an important part of this one that came from them not us. Tottenham Law Centre was threatened with closure by Haringey Council. Because of our links with the local community we help over a year or so to fight this closure. Without HSG the campaign wouldn’t have been as effective. In 1995 we were part of a larger Haringey campaign to Fight Against Cuts in Education. Again, we linked with other groups around the borough. We were instrumental in planning & calling the initial meeting of a Haringey Anti Racist Group after a number of racist incidents in Haringey. We planned the meeting (with others and secured the venue so those attending felt safe. Unfortunately this group declined quickly once they sought respectability and became the Haringey Anti Racist Alliance, elected steering committees and wanted a lot of council input. It became no more than a talking shop and soon collapsed.

We campaigned against the destruction of some of Downhills Park to make way for private football pitches which would then be hired back out to the people of Tottenham. And we won this one. We were instrumental in starting and part running the Haringey Local Exchange & Trading Scheme (LETS). This worked independently for a few years but eventually joined the larger North London LETS, as numbers were falling. We started a local anti-advertising campaign, campaigning to get billboards removed whilst encouraging 'subvertising' of them. We have continually, over the last 15 years, campaigned against elections both locally and nationally, by trying to leaflet flypost and inform people as to their pointlessness. Each time we tried to use the opportunity to show local people there is a different, and in our view, better way of organizing their lives and communities.

In 2002 we held a week of events around Mayday week. This included stalls, leafleting and a highly successful local Mayday conference. This included producing 15,000 copies of a new free local paper. We've also publicised and taken part in many London Mayday events and national anti-capitalist / anti-G8 protests, and many other countrywide events and initiatives. Every year we do a national mailout to similar local radical groups and centres to encourage better communication and co-operation.

Five years ago some members of HSG came together to form a housing co-op. Although they still do not have housing, the group have stayed together and tried continuously to find land in Tottenham to build a housing co-op and community space. Most recently, it was HSG who initiated the Haringey Against ID Cards campaign, by calling the first public meeting of the group in Tottenham. Some of us are involved in local residents' associations and the group has been able to support them and the Haringey Federation of Residents Associations.

Just a few of the other things I can think of in no particular order were. Women within HSG formed a successful women’s group for 2 or 3 years. We also formed a men’s group to challenge our attitudes as men and look at claims of oppression and overbearing within HSG. This group didn’t last very long! Michael Portillo dared to have a party to celebrate him being a politician for 10 years in Haringey (at Alexandra Palace). After some fierce campaigning work we got a large noisy crowd to the event. The party was “spoiled” for a lot of those attending as the crowd threw eggs, flour, tomatos and more at those attending. Gordon Brown also attended a meeting in Wood Green and was met with customary eggs and stuff. Oh the good old days! And loads of us raised money for the group by working behind bars at festivals. Money which we used to pay for everything we did and also managed to donate to a lot of other groups who needed it including setting up a 'bust fund' to support any Haringey activists arrested.

Throughout the last 15 years there has been one thing consistent within HSG, although this ebbs and flows depending on how strong the group is. That is our solidarity work and propaganda. HSG has produced dozens of leaflets and posters in huge quantities. We must have produced at least 10,000 posters and 100s of 1000s of leaflets on a huge variety of issues. We have regularly been on street corners, at festivals, going door to door giving out this literature. On top of this we have had two regular newsletters “Haringey Community Action” and “The Haringey Independent”. The former got up to 12 pages and 12,000 copies four times a year. There was also a newletter called “Tottenham Free” but before HSG’s time.

We have consistently put up posters all around the borough informing people about a number of issues and generally rabble rousing. Whenever we have heard of racist or fascist graffiti or posters they been removed very quickly. Over the years we have run many stalls, and at our height we had a telephone tree of 40 people so we could react to issues immediately. And every month without fail we mail out our minutes and a range of independent local and national literature to all local residents on our mailing list (currently 120). Lastly the office and our PO Box have come to the rescue of many a group. The office had been used by a number of other groups, as has our telephone, photocopier and postal address.

RaHN: New general leaflet just out

available here
Free to forward, put on websites, print out (2 sided and 3 way folded!), and distribute at any events, venues and mailing lists...
Text as below (not necessarily in that order).

We’re associated with...

Haringey Independent Cinema
West Green Learning Centre, Park View Academy, West Green Road, N15. Show alternative films on the last Thursday of every month at 7pm
www.haringey.org.uk/hic

Haringey Solidarity Group
PO Box 2474, N8. Radical network of activists engaged in community campaigns. www.haringey.org.uk/content

London Anarchist Bookfair
Over 3,000 people attend every October and we usually have a stall and/or meeting.
http://anarchistbookfair.org.uk

Bruce Castle Museum
Lordship Lane, N17. Haringey’s local history archives are based there, and there’s an annual Haringey Local History Fair every February.
www.haringey.gov.uk/brucecastlemuseum

Housmans Bookshop
5 Caledonian Road, N1. ‘London’s premier radical bookshop’. They hold regular meetings on topical subjects or to launch a new book etc.
http://www.housmans.com

Radical History groups
We also link up with other Radical History groups across London including Hackney Radical History Network and Past Tense.

RaHN meetings
Meetings are normally held on a Wednesday, and currently occur every three months or so. We meet at 7.30pm at Wood Green Social Club, 3 Stuart Crescent, N22 - normally in room 1. The club is just opposite the Civic Centre on the High Road, at the start of White Hart Lane, 50yds from the main road (100yds walk from the bus stop at Wood Green tube station).

Blog
We have a very popular blog and archive which we add to regularly.
http://radicalhistorynetwork.blogspot.co.uk

Get involved

Please contact us to be added to our email list to receive updates about RaHN and radical history news. You can also get actively involved in our work. 

Contact us
radicalhistorynetwork@gmail.com

Graphic   Gert Arntz, whose woodcut is featured on the front of this leaflet, was a ‘council communist’, who decided the pictogram as a means of communication for the non literate. 

[picture of duplicator] Gert Arntz, Krise, 1931

Radical
History Network
of North East London

Celebrate our history, avoid making the same mistakes - and get inspiration to help create a better society for the future

http://radicalhistorynetwork.blogspot.co.uk

Past meetings have included...

·         Community Empowerment in Parks and Open Green Spaces (in Haringey, north East London and beyond...)

·         ‘Everywhere and Nowhere’: General Strikes, Solidarity Strikes and Industrial Solidarity

·         The Past, Present and Future of Radical Pamphleteering. (Organised in commemoration of the life and work of Alan Woodward)

·         The Housing of the Working Class in Haringey

·         The London Support Committee for the Liverpool Dockers Strike

·         The Fight Against the Poll Tax in Haringey 1988-90

·         The Old Age Pension from 1908 to the Present

·         London Chartism and the 1839 Insurrection

·         The Spanish Revolution 1936 – 1939

75^th anniversary meeting

·         The NHS is 60

·         Ford Motor Company versus the Workers - a short history of the conflict

Details of next meeting usually enclosed

Alan Woodward & his archives
Alan Woodward, former co-convenor of the Network, died on 20 October 2012. Alan left an extensive personal archive of radical reading matter behind him collected over a lifetime of radical working-class activity and campaigning. He wanted this material to be maintained as a local archive, open for people to use, research and read, under the administration of a libertarian group. In the long term this should be used as the basis of a local radical history library.

There are currently discussions about short, medium and long term housing of the archive. We are particularly interested in finding a Haringey-based venue, so if you have any suggestions please get in contact.

Bookstall
We have a bookstall which we take to various local and London wide events. We distribute small books and pamphlets produced by the group or members of the network - for free, or for sale, or for small donation.

Aims & Procedures
Our aim is to look at subjects that are local, topical, radical or of special interest. Most of our contributors are local people with specialist knowledge or experiences – and everyone is encouraged to chip in with their own views. The aim is to learn about past struggles and campaigns and relate them to present day events and movements.

We usually prepare an A4 information sheet for those attending in order to summarise the details, allow pre-reading and emphasise the importance of the subject.

Each meeting is scheduled to last 1½ hours with ample chance for discussion + up to date local reports and coming events. A facilitator is elected for each session.

Meetings are currently running every three months or so, and tend to be agreed at the one before to allow time to organise the next.

We publish documents as and when required.

 Our intention
To bring people together and spread awareness of our collective struggles in the past in order to celebrate our history, avoid making the same mistakes, and get inspiration to help create a better society for the future

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