Fight to Save Historic East End Matchgirl’s Grave

"We have written to the Secretary of State for Justice and await his reply. Please rally your MP to help us at least pause this brutal mounding process...

The Matchgirls Memorial

Patrons: Anita Dobson, Diana Holland, Barbara Plant

www.matchgirls1888.org

The Matchgirls Memorial: Registered Company Number 11858820
87 Brookvale Road, Highfield, Southampton, Hampshire, SO17 1QY

NEWS RELEASE

Fight to Save Historic East End Matchgirl’s Grave

Support from Parliament to Theatre

MPs, Peers, Unions, and Academics are fighting to save a Matchgirl’s grave from JCBs. Manor Park Cemetery is the resting place of working women’s rights campaigner, Sarah Dearman (née Chapman) but the private Cemetery want hers, and other graves, brutally levelled and ‘mounded’ with additional soil to make way for new money-making plots.

Sarah Chapman was a leader of the famous 1888 Matchgirls Strike in London’s East End. The women worked at the Bryant and May factory in Bow and are seen as the founders of modern unionism and inspiration for the Dockers Strike. The Matchgirl’s story has been told in plays and musicals around the world and was commemorated at the 2012 London Olympics.

Historians, women’s groups and unions have joined Sarah’s family to stop the destruction of this important heritage site. However, the Cemetery Directors will not speak to the family or campaigners and intend to cover her paupers grave within weeks. The family have now written to the Secretary of State for Justice and are supported by MPs, Peers, Academics and Unions. Newham Council has asked the Cemetery for discussion. A petition has 7,000 supporters, including star of stage and screen Anita Dobson, herself a Stepney East End girl.

Anita Dobson said “Sarah and these women fought for our workings rights and to destroy her resting place is abhorrent. People want to come here to pay their respects and remember what she and the Matchgirls achieved for us all”.

Mounding is not recommended by the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management. They normally offer advice on alternative methods to increase burial space. In the past, skulls and bones have been visible at the Manor Park site after similar destruction work. The grounds also contain WWII civilian graves including some from the 1943 Bethnal Green tube disaster.

If you have concerns, have family buried at Manor Park, or just want to help, please
CONTACT: Sam Johnson 02380 552 009 matchgirls1888statue@gmail.com

Howard Dawber & the spirit of the East End

This is a touching & gracious message sent by Howard to all Party members in East London (Howard
 is on right of picture outside West Ham CLP selection meeting)

"This is the last email from me.

I have failed to secure a nomination from a Constituency, so I will not be on the shortlist for the City and East London Assembly seat.

I would like to thank everyone who supported me, voted for me and particularly those who stood up at meetings to propose me, or asked their friends to come and support.

It's been a wonderful experience and I have met some great people.

It was an honour to get 152 votes in total across three different boroughs, and to come second three times to different very strong local candidates.

There are some good comrades left in the race, most of whom are friends of mine, so it would be wrong to single out anyone.

Having the chance to represent the people of East London is a huge privilege and responsibility.

This is the most exciting and dynamic part of London, which can claim to be the capital city of planet earth.

The people of the east end are the most entrepreneurial, resilient and inventive I have ever known.

It is the spirit that inspired the suffragettes who used to meet under the lamppost in Barking, the courage of the Bryant and May Matchgirls who went on strike over their conditions, the courage of the Poplar rent strikers, the dock workers, the shipbuilders who formed the first Trade Unions.

It is the spirit that got the East end through the blitz and then gave the women at Ford's in Dagenham the strength to fight for equal pay.

The spirit of men like Will Crooks, who was born in a workhouse but went on to be a Labour Councillor and MP.

The spirit of women like Annie Clara Huggett, who kept campaigning for Women's votes even though she was arrested several times.

The spirit of local Bangladeshi people in Tower Hamlets who stood up to the National Front in the 1970s and 1980s.

And the spirit of Labour activists who stood up to the BNP just a few years ago and kicked them out of Barking and Dagenham Council. For this is the East of London - where local residents came together to defend their Jewish neighbours at the Battle of Cable Street.

And where local people defended their German neighbours from reprisals during World War Two.

Where young and old came together to welcome the world at the 2012 Olympic Games.

I am sure that whoever wins the selection will live up to the spirit of East London.

I hope that they get everyone's full support.

With a Tory Government and a Tory Mayor, we can't afford the luxury of splits and factions within the party.

We need to be one team and one campaign after September.

In the meantime from Barking to Bethnal Green and Docklands to Dagenham, we need to make sure we have a Labour Mayor in May next year so I will be working hard to try to make sure we are in the best possible shape to take on the Tories.

We also need to campaign to keep a universal postal service and to stop the Tories destroying Royal Mail. 

Sign up to support the CWU campaign at:

http://www.cwu.org/peoplespost.html

That's all from me. I hope to see some of you soon.

Fraternally,

HOWARD

Howard Dawber for City and East

http://www.dawber.london/

Writeidea: East End literature and history event

Next Weekend is the start of the Writeidea free Reading festival taking place in Tower Hamlets (11-16 November). Check out details here. I was interested to read that the "match girls" threatened "Jack the Ripper"!

The Gilda O' Neill Memorial Lecture. Striking a Light: Looking for the Real Matchwomen - Friday 11 November 2011, 7pmThe story of the unexpectedly successful strike of 'matchgirls' against a powerful employer continues to exert a strong hold on the public...
David Rosenberg: Battle for the East End - Saturday 12 November 2011, 2pm75 anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street Throughout the 1930s, Oswald Mosley's blackshirts increased their campaign against the Jewish...
Matthew Parker: The Sugar Barons - Sunday 13 November 2011, 2pmFamily, Corruption, Empire and War in the West Indies 'The Sugar Barons' tells how the West Indies became by far the most valuable and important...
Is Class an Issue in Fiction? - Monday 14 November 2011, 7pmAlex Wheatle and William Nicholson in conversation. Alex Wheatle Alex Wheatle is an award winning British novelist, playwright and DJ who has...
Dreda Say Mitchell: Geezer Girls and Hit Girls - Tuesday 15 November 2011, 7pmWomen in crime fiction. Dreda Say Mitchell is an award winning crime novelist and all-round media personality. With her 'Geezer, Gangster and Hit...
I & I The Natural Mystics: Marley, Tosh and Wailer with Colin Grant - Wednesday 16 November 2011, 7pmStir it up! The Wailers are the undisputed kings of reggae and their music still has a massive influence across the world today. Bob Marley, Peter...
Total Sin: What Makes London Interesting? - Thursday 17 November, 7pmPanel discussion with Catharine Arnold, Paul Willetts and Jonathan Kemp. Paul Willetts Paul Willetts is the author of 'Members Only: The Life and...
33 Revolutions per Minute with Dorian Lynskey - Friday 18 November, 7pmA conversation with Dorian Lynskey on his book about protest songs in the twentieth century followed by live music from Tower of Dad. Dorian...
Michael Rosen's Storytime - Saturday 19 November, 2pmA workshop for children aged between 6 and 11 years. Michael Rosen Michael Rosen is a poet, scriptwriter, broadcaster and performer and has been...
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Exhibition - Saturday 12 - Saturday 19 November 2011An exhibition of letters and posters from the Robert Tressell family archives. Robert Tressell's 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' is one of...

Hat Chris Weavers and the Tower Hamlets Labour Party e-newsletter.

“The Spark of Rebellion in Bow and Mile End”

"Walk the streets where strikers, suffragettes and rebel councillors made their stand for the rights and dignity of ordinary working women and men from the 1880s to the 1920s. Find out what they did, who led and supported them, and why they should be remembered and celebrated. Places on this walk will be strictly limited to 30 on a first-come first-served basis. £7/£4".

2.30pm on Sunday September 12th.

See East End Walks.  Hat-tip Andy at Socialist Unity

The Belles of Bow

I came across an advert for this historical walking tour organised by the Museum of London. I assume the walk will go past the “Lord Morpeth” Public House in Old Ford Road which is built on the site of what was a Toy factory set up by Sylvia Pankhurst (picture is from the old pub sign). This pub is a poplar venue for “leaving do’s” by local workers which I have frequented once or thrice (or more). I work from a office only about a 10 minutes walk away.

Nearby was the site of ex-public house called the “Gunmakers Arms” which Sylvia used as a crèche and soup kitchen for the local poor. She renamed it the “Mothers Arms”.

Check out this site for extracts of Sylvia’s journal.

Check out this link to the last time(s) I posted on Bow Belles.

Sun 8 Mar, 2.30-4.30pmThis walking tour with Blue Badge Guide Rachel Kolsky follows in the footsteps of Sylvia Pankhurst, who chose east London as the starting point for her campaign for women's suffrage. Pankhurst established a creche, restaurant and model toy factory in the area, believing that East End women were key to the success of the Suffragette movement. The route highlights Suffragette supporters and workplaces including the famous Bryant & May match factory, site of the Match Girls' strike of 1888.Book in advance £8, 18+