Pippa Catterall, Professor of History and Policy, wrote an article for The Guardian that discusses the ordeals which occurred after ‘Poplarism’ began to spread in East London in the early 1930s.
In the article, Professor Catterall explained how George Lansbury, leader of the Labour Party from 1932 to 1935, and his council were arrested for refusing to pay the central government with the money they had raised for services. This included the police, to contribute towards unemployment benefits, poverty relief, as well as a promise of a £4 minimum weekly wage for municipal workers, also extending to women.
She wrote: “Poplarism was a threat to the established order. It was a revolutionary promise to “spend money on the working classes”. Their decision to go to jail was “an expression of sacrifice”. Lots of these people were Christian socialists – the word ‘sacrifice’ really meant something to them. They believed that looking after the wellbeing of the poor was something worth standing up for.”
Read the full article in The Guardian.
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