Cable St, London. Wednesday 12th August 2015
Former Google diversity chief Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe had applied to Tower Hamlets Council for planning permission to open a “Museum of Women’s History” meant to celebrate suffragettes, equal-pay campaigners, and local social struggles, and got a number of historians, academics and others to advise on the project.
It was a shock when the building renovations were completed and those involved as well as the council saw from the frontage that it was instead to be a tourist trap celebrating the gruesome Victorian murders of ‘Jack the Ripper’.
Many local residents, and others including descendants of the poor working class victims of the sadistic murderer where shocked, and even Tower Hamlets Council was moved to protest following its opening. Unfortunately the council found it had no power to close down what was described as a ‘sick horror attraction’.
But the most sustained protests came from anarchist organisation Class War who carried out a series of colourful protests outside the so-called ‘museum’, including this one in which they were joined by Action East End and Fourth Wave and other feminists.
When protesters came to the tourist attraction they found it was hidden behind a heavy metal shutter, with police standing in front guarding it, erected since the previous protest a week ago. This was in breach of planning regulations and they were some time later foreced to remove it.
Among those who spoke at the protest was East End historian David Rosenberg who spoke about the real history of women in the East End, as well as Class War’s Ian Bone and Lisa McKenzie.
After the speeches and a couple of smoke flares the protesters, including some local residents blocked the road for some time though leaving the cycle path open. Police attempted to move them with no success, the women protesting asking them whether they would defend a museum celebrating the murders of police officers.
My final comment in 2015 was:
“Protests will continue until the museum closes down or turns into what was promised, a museum of women’s history rather than of women’s degradation and brutal slaughter. It sensationalises the tragic fate of the working class victims at the hands of a deranged upper class murderer, presenting a voyeuristic experience that sickens anyone with any decency and humanity.”
Unfortunately it remains open.
Many more pictures at Class War protest Ripper ‘museum’ again.
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