On this day: Poplar 100 (@Poplar_21) header
On this day: Poplar 100 (@Poplar_21) profile picture

In 1921, the Labour borough of Poplar took on the unfair rating system and won. This account tweets a day-by-day account in its centenary year.

Poplar, East London
Joined December 2020
First meeting of Poplar Borough Council since the councillors’ release from prison; reappoints committees, enters minutes of prison meetings into the record; thanks supporters. ow.ly/8ezy30rqDS7 #otd
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Prime Minister David Lloyd George makes a statement to parliament on the government’s proposals to address unemployment. ow.ly/iV6J30rqDS6 #otd
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Representatives of London borough councils meet at the Ministry of Health and agree a new system of financing under which poorer boroughs will receive the most relief. ow.ly/5fmm30rqDS5 #otd
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London County Council meeting discusses the Poplar precepts, reform of the rating system and equalisation of the rates. ow.ly/GQIx30rqDS4 #otd
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Conference to discuss reforming London’s rating system agrees a proposal that will form the basis of legislation. ow.ly/QnKF30rqDS3 #otd
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‘Monster’ demonstration in Victoria Park welcomes Poplar’s triumphant councillors home from prison, where they had spent six weeks for refusing to levy a portion of the rates that their impoverished borough could not afford. ow.ly/Ik5W30rqDS2 #otd
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Labour Party representatives meet Minister of Labour Macnamara to discuss unemployment. ow.ly/4u7q30rqDS1 #otd
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John Scurr tells Poplar’s victorious campaigners that ‘The future of the world depends not on kings and statesmen, but on people like you’. ow.ly/kCHG30rqDS0 #otd
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Freed Poplar councillors George Lansbury, John Scurr, Charlie Sumner and Sam March meet Health Minister Alfred Mond prepare for the conference on reform of the rating system to be held on 17 October. ow.ly/i7wn30rqDRY #otd
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Solicitor WH Thompson argues at a University Socialist meeting that if other borough councillors had acted as Poplar had, then they could have won without councillors having been jailed. ow.ly/61Q530rqDRZ #otd
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Released Poplar councillors are welcomed home by thousands at a meeting at Bow Baths Hall, having won their freedom without backing down on the issue of rates equalisation. ow.ly/p2lS30rqDRX #otd
Court hearing agrees to release the Poplar councillors from prison to attend a conference to resolve rates inequalities. ow.ly/i9pv30rqDRW #otd
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Poplar’s imprisoned councillors write to the borough’s schoolchildren, explaining their actions. ow.ly/9Qil30rqDRV #otd
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Conference on the future of Ireland begins at Downing Street; supporters of self-determination demonstrate outside, including a deputation from Poplar. ow.ly/lNYF30rqDRU #otd
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In Brixton prison, George Lansbury is ill in bed; other councillors in Brixton and Holloway prisons receive visits from friends and family. ow.ly/YRsp30rqDRT #otd
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‘Unemployment Sunday’: huge meetings take place, including five thousand at Bow Baths Hall in Poplar borough, thirty of whose councillors are in jail for defying the unfair rating system. ow.ly/HL4330rqDRS #otd
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Daily Herald reports that on the preliminary agenda for November’s London Labour Party AGM, three motions criticise the Party leadership’s lack of support for the Poplar rebellion. ow.ly/ooyq30rqDRR #otd
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Memo from Alfred Mond to the Cabinet sets out proposed terms of settlement of the rates dispute with Poplar council. ow.ly/7lzC30rqDRP #otd
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Minister of Labour reports that 1,376,768 people are registered as unemployed at the labour exchanges. ow.ly/R6Dl30rqDRQ #otd
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Bethnal Green Borough Council votes to print thirty thousand leaflets explaining its actions to local residents. ow.ly/Ipsz30rqDRO #otd
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