Rare doings at Camberwell

Radical South London from Past Tense Publications:

there's a brand new pamphlet from past tense publications: RARE DOINGS AT CAMBERWELL: a short tour through Camberwell’s radical and subversive history.

A wild ramble through SE5’s murky past, including a dubious cast, including rowdy fairgoers… proletarian artists… rioting chartists… squatters… General strikers… feminist authors… mad folk… anti-fascists… and the occasional transsexual trotskyist housing officer. Visit Camberwell Fair, banned by the local bourgeoisie in 1855; local asylums Camberwell and Peckham Houses; the Havil Street Workhouse; squatted centres at Dickie Dirts, the Labour Club and Warham Street. Upturned local stones, firsthand accounts and painstaking research: from the General Strike to Reclaim Bedlam; from the Camberwell Secular Society to the struggle against the BNP in the Elmington Estate.

'Rare Doings at Camberwell' is available from past tense for just £1.50 for 66 teeming pages, plus 50p postage and packing... Drop us a line with a cheque for £2 (payable to A. Hodson) to Past Tense, c/o 56a info Shop, 56 Crampton Street, London SE17 3AE...

ALSO AVAILABLE: A revised and improved new edition of the Past Tense favourite, 'NINE DAYS IN MAY: THE GENERAL STRIKE IN SOUTHWARK.'

In May 1926, the leaders of the Trades Union Congress called a General Strike. Nearly 2 million workers all over the country joined the strike, in support of a million miners, locked out by mineowners for refusing to accept wage cuts of up to 25 per cent, after the ending of the Government's coal subsidy. Nine days later, afraid of the losing control of the situation, in the face of massive working class solidarity, the TUC General Council called the Strike off.

This pamphlet describes some of the events of the General Strike in the then Metropolitan Boroughs of Bermondsey, Camberwell and Southwark, now united into the London Borough of Southwark. How the strike was organised locally, how news was distributed, clashes between strikers and police... With accounts from local participants.

Price: £1, plus 50p P&P, available from the above address.