West Ham Ward Councillor Surgery Saturday 6 June 10am to 11am

My next Newham London, West Ham ward, virtual Councillor surgery is tomorrow (Saturday 6 June) from 10am to 11am. Please email John.Gray@Newham.Gov.uk and I will contact your by phone, or by Zoom, or by Skype or by GoToMeeting or by Teams. 

You can always contact me via email outside this time and I will get back to you as soon as I can. 

Picture above is of one of my West Ham Councillor predecessors, Ben Cunningham and the "Plaistow Land-grabbers"  https://www.johnslabourblog.org/2010/06/what-will-harvest-be-abbey-gardens-fair.html

The Plaistow Land Grabbers

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Hat tip to a great post by "E7 Now & Then" on "The Plaistow Land Grabbers" who are an largely forgotten but important part of the radical history of West Ham. A second post is to follow.

In a protest against unemployment, local plumber and local Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF) councillor (wearing white hat on left), "Ben Cunningham, and 14 unemployed workers to march on a piece of council-owned, vacant land of approximately three acres, just south of the railway line between Upton Park and Plaistow, on 13 July 1906 - and occupy it".

Check out what happened and more about our local radical history of direct action (pros and cons) here and I look forward to the second installment. 

“What will the Harvest be?” Abbey Gardens Fair & the “Plaistow Landgrabbers”

Pictures are from a really enjoyable afternoon I spent a few weeks ago at the summer fair of the “Friends of Abbey Garden”. This is on the actual site of what was once the medieval Langthorn Abbey. For many years this 2000 sq feet plot of land was a waste ground but it is now a community led park and very attractive communal garden in my ward.

The original Abbey was actually “sacked” during the Peasant’s revolt but became one of the richest Abbeys in England before it was closed during the dissolution of monasteries in 1538.

The garden also celebrates the “Plaistow Landgrabbers” (see black and white picture). In 1906 unemployed workers squattered on land nearby to prove that the unemployed did want to work. The Council eventually reprocessed the land and local Councillor Ben Cunningham (see on left wearing white hat) spent 5 weeks in prison for contempt of court for supporting the protest. If you look again to the left of the original back and white picture you see the “What will the Harvest be?” slogan which has been adopted by the Abbey garden.  Double click collage to bring up detail.

As well as a tour - I was able to enjoy some freshly baked homemade cakes and take back some garden grown organic veg via the “honesty stall" (bottom left).