Tower Hamlets Women For Peace
David Hoffman will be in conversation with Gaynor Tutani at the Museum of the Home on Wednesday 20th November at 6:30pm. They will be showing photographs and discussing his new book and exhibition ENDURANCE & JOY IN THE EAST END.
This is the only event David is doing in person, so if you want to hear him speak please book now.
East End Peace Women’s Group in action in Dalston
Contributing Photographer David Hoffman‘s astonishing images of women’s protest in the eighties are an enduring and inspirational witness to our unquenchable desire for justice.
“Some of these photographs are of our gang, Tower Hamlets Women for Peace, along with two blokes from Tower Hamlets Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, blocking the Whitechapel Rd near the Cambridge Heath Rd crossing early in the morning of Tuesday 20th Dec 1983. Most of us were nicked and defended ourselves in a remarkable court case at which we were all found guilty but unconditionally discharged.
Other photographs show when we blocked Whitechapel Rd close to the Vallance Rd crossing, sometimes by crossing the road back and forth repeatedly rather than sitting down. We did this whenever we got a message on the Greenham ‘phone-tree’ that Cruise nuclear convoys were on the road. We wanted to publicise this as well as the fact that Whitechapel Rd is a Military Service Route to be taken over as such should our government or the United States government decide to wage a nuclear war.
There are also photographs here of the Blood Money demo outside British Association of Film & Television Arts at 195 Piccadilly where there was a conference of arms traders and manufacturers on International Women’s Day, 8th March 1984. Our Peace Group joined others there to chuck red paint in their general direction. One of the pictures shows the arrest of an older woman in a shawl writing a note on her wrist, who was the one who had the good wheeze – sadly not possible on modern public transport – of hopping onto a bus and chucking her paint from the platform as it passed. Unfortunately, the cops caught up with the bus at the traffic lights.
Various arrests and court cases ensued, of which I remember only my own at which I got off by showing – with the help of David Hoffman’s photos – that my red paint had actually hit BAFTA’s door, not the public pavement I was accused of damaging.” – A Member of Tower Hamlets Women for Peace
East End Peace Women’s Group in action in Whitechapel
East End Peace Women’s Group in action in Hackney
East End Peace Women’s Group in action in Piccadilly
“I started photographing protest and other social issues in the seventies. I was living in Whitechapel at that time and the women I knew were involved in squatting and generally trying to resist the horrors of the Thatcher era. The women’s peace movement really took off with the establishment of the American nuclear missile base in Greenham and East End women were among the most active and committed.
I felt privileged to be trusted with advance notice of some of the actions and to be able to photograph them. These pictures are from the winter of 1983-84 and, if anyone has caption information or memories to share, I would love to be able to add that to these images.”
David Hoffman
East End Peace Women’s Group in action in Whitechapel
Photographs copyright © David Hoffman
Cover price is £35 but you can buy it from Spitalfields Life for £30
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Lovely memories.
With them in spirit, always.
Lapsed member of C.N.D.
Went on my fair share of demo’s in the eighties.
Still believe.
Not far away from me the yanks are smuggling in nukes under our noses.
Nuclear power, no thanks!
Powerful pics.
I know that others will comment on the important actions revealed in these photos. May I take a different tact and comment about the clothing that is used to express the intent of the protests? I was totally captivated by the black hat with painted white peace sign. How the woman had added the strands of ribbons and some feathers? And she “wore” her sandwich board, as part of her regalia. I so appreciate her self expression
At my 30th high school reunion, one of my classmates came covered head-to-toe in regalia that expressed his advocacy for Vietnam Vets. Naturally I was captivated, and we discussed. His leather vest was spray painted on the back with a message, and the front of his clothing was covered in patches and badges. He wore a message bandana, and every garment expressed
his passionate advocacy. Jim told me that he wore this outfit wherever he went, to send a message — to uplift the cause he was so dedicated to — and I especially recall how he described the reaction of Congressmen and government officials he met with regularly. “They always see me coming — and they never forget who I am.” he said in a clear-eyed, gritty way. I’ve often thought of Jim’s sartorial riot of colors and words, disrupting the hallways of government,
as heads turned.
Onward and upward.