Will Crooks: A celebration

Will Crooks: A celebration.  Tuesday 29th May, 6:30pm - 8:30pm at St. Matthias Community Centre,

This event will celebrate the 160th anniversary of the birth of Will Crooks:-  Trade Unionist, the fourth Labour Member of Parliament and first Labour Mayor of Poplar.

Speakers will include Nick Raynsford, Member of Parliament for Greenwich and Woolwich and David Edgar, councillor for Limehouse.

RSVP to: ramona.iosip@canarywharf.com or 020 7418 2462.

 

Check out Will Crooks and Pathe News (above) of his funeral in 1921.

Quote about Will Crooks "I once heard him say that a non-Union workman who tried to gain personal advancement at the expense of his mates was like a man who stole a wreath from his neighbour's grave and won a prize with it at a flower show!"

"On the knocker" for Labour's Abbas for Mayor: Uniting the East End

Last night I went out door knocking for Labour in Limehouse ward, Tower Hamlets.  The team was led by local Labour Councillor, David Edgar.

There was a number of Labour teams out canvassing in various parts of Tower Hamlets that night. 

One local resident helping out was a fellow UNISON Housing officer who worked in Haringey.

There were lots of low rise blocks with no lifts, so plenty of healthy exercise going up and down stairwells.  Once again I thought why pay for an expensive gym to get fit when you can go canvassing for Labour for free! - perhaps the Party ought to charge?

I felt we had a really good response on the door step.  People wanted a real Labour Mayor to work with real Labour Councillors and real Labour MP's to fight the impending Tsunami of CONDEM slash and burn cuts about to engulf the borough. 

During the canvass I asked David why politics in Tower Hamlets is so, so boring, why nothing ever happens in the borough, why everything is so unexciting, drab and predictable.  David immediately replied that it is because everyone in the local Party loves each other, are always in total agreement and have never a bad word to say about each other.

:)

(campaign office is at 349 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9RA - 3 mins from Bethnal Green tube and is open for canvassing and leafleting from 10am-6.30pm every day until the election.  Or you can ring 0207 729 6682 or email abbas4mayor@gmail.com for further details).

Bow Boys

Ayub has already posted this picture of Candidates outside last night’s selection meeting. However, “extracting the michael” slightly. It reminds me somewhat of the famous Peter Sellers “lift gag”. Right to left John Biggs (London Assembly member GMB), Cllr Ayub Korom Ali (UNISON nominee), Cllr Alex Heslop (UNISON), Mohamed Munaf Zina Zeena, David Edgar (T&G), a local member whose name I did not catch (who said that he had been visited at his home by 31 candidates so far!) and Dr. Hasanat M. Husain MBE.

Dan McCurry and Abdus Shukur were the only other candidates that I remember seeing. There are, I think, 3 more selection meetings. Bow West meets 7pm tonight at St Paul’s, Stephens Road, E3.