Windrush Square party to ‘celebrate’ the death of Margaret Thatcher in Brixton

mthatcherHundreds of people have signed up to an event on Facebook that aims to celebrate the death of Margaret Thatcher today at 5.30pm.

The former Prime Minister died aged 87 after a stroke, it was announced earlier today.

A Facebook event, organised by the Brixton Socialist Workers’ Party, was published just hours after the news broke, and by 3pm there were more than 200 confirmed guests.

An organiser wrote on the social networking site: “A party to celebrate the death of Thatcher and our continuing commitment to fight the legacy she left and that continues to devastate the lives of ordinary people everywhere.”

The planned party has been condemned by political leaders. Chuka Umunna, MP for Streatham, told Brixton Blog: “Holding a party to celebrate the death of any person is totally wrong and in extreme bad taste – to do so in respect of Baroness Thatcher on the day of her death is utterly disgraceful.

“The people organising this dreadful event do not speak for or represent the people of Brixton, the overwhelming majority of whom will have nothing but sympathy for a family that has just lost a loved one.”

The leader of the Conservatives in Lambeth, John Whelan, also condemned the party.

He told Brixton Blog today: “This is despicable. People are entitled to their feelings but this is in extremely poor taste.

“Whatever your personal views of her performance no one can deny her importance as the first woman Prime Minister and a global statesman who led this country through difficult times.”

Cllr Whelan said he has written to the leader of Lambeth council to ask for the flags at Lambeth Town Hall to be flown at half mast out of respect.

Responding to the Windrush Square party, Twitter user Lasse Olshausen said: “Celebrating anyone’s death never a good thing. Rather, after day of respectful tacit, remember those who suffered under her.”

Another, Jon Biles, said: “I didn’t like her but I’m pretty disgusted at that.”

Will you be attending the party, or do you think it’s bad taste? Let us know at newsdesk@brixtonblog.com.

31 COMMENTS

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  2. I danced in Windrush Square last night. I’ll dance on her grave, if i can. I’ll dance on John Whelan’s grave. And Chaka Ummuna’s grave. And Martin McGuiness’s grave. Fuck all politicians. I grew up in Yorkshire. My grandad was a miner. i lived in Brixton for decades (sadly forced out by the middle class taking over the area), it is still my real home though. For all the sputing of those ‘community’ lamenting last night’s party, it represents the spirit of the Brixton i remember and will always love. Love to all who were there last night, and those who couldn’t be there – brilliant to see old faces!

    looking forward to more serious fun next Wednesday…

  3. those who are so much in favour of these spending cuts, are the ones who wont be affected by them,that is the problem with these selfish tory people,they dont care about the poor as long as they are alright jack,i remember the cruel 80s when thatcher was in power,these latest rounds of spending cuts by cameron and osbourne against the poor are much worse than when thatcher was in power,i see dark days ahead,very dark days.

  4. Was it really necessary for the mindless morons who “celebrated” last night to daub red paint on the shop front of Foxtons Estate Agency and for two of them to be arrested for public order offences? These louts do not represent the vast majority of Brixtonians who are tolerant, welcoming, and friendly people proud of their diverse community. And at one point I counted more journalists than protesters.

    • Yes why do people target Foxton’s when there is a perfecttly acceptable target accross the road at Starbucks.

  5. This thread is totally symptomatic of the grasping yuppie underclass that’s been snaking its way into Brixton over the last couple of years; a Thatcherite morass of greedy speculators who don’t belong here and who long-term residents will eventually expel by sheer virtue of the local character.

    • utter rubbish. Your self-indulgent sentimentality is complete nonsense and also incredibly short sighted.

      • Short-sighted for whom, Will? People who’ve made this area their home and invested in the local community or gimlet-eyed vulture capitalists who want to bleed the local culture and property market dry then move on and destroy somewhere else? Long-termism didn’t figure in Thatcher’s plans when she sold off the country’s assets for sod all. Don’t go pretending they figure in yours.

      • Yawn. greedy speculators, are you having a laugh? Change is inevitable in life. Leroy, you sound like the London equivalent some sort of swivell-eyed landed gentry toff who wants to keep everything the way it has been for… err.. the last 30 years? Or is it 40 years – is that your definition of what the “REAL” brixton. Where do you draw the line? As it happens, I have lived here for 10 years and I have invested in various local projects. So I want to protect our community as well. But I accept that change is inevitable in life.

      • Changes that further enrich the wealthy and leave the poor struggling to survive are changes Brixton can do without. Foxtons and a soup kitchen opening at the same time says it all. Try investing in the latter. You might learn something.

  6. I am so ashamed of my fellow Brixtonians who celebrated her in such a crass way. No one should ever celebrate someone’s death, not even Osama Bin Laden. You just don’t do it. It just goes to show the childish ignorance the socialist idoits have of the world around them. Thank you Margaret Thatcher, you made our country great again.

    • “my fellow Brixtonians…” How long have you lived here, Will? Obviously not long enough.

      • At what point is permisson granted to associate yourself with the local Brixton community? I moved to to the area seven years ago and very much see myself now a member of the community.

        I felt last night’s activities were nothing more than a street mob to crash causing pointless vandalism. Is samshing up a charity shop and kicking in bus doors an act of protest? No. Is it celebrating the death of Thatcher? No. It is celebrating the community? Absolutely not. Is pissing up againt the wall of the library a mark of respect for the surrounding neighbours? No.

        I don’t agree with her or the reputation she left behind, but this so-called celebration achieved nothing expect disgruntlement.

    • ‘My fellow Brixtonians’ – You aren’t from here. Why don’t you piss off back to the shires.
      It’s time to reclaim Brixton from these latte sipping parasites that have turned up since the yuppie culture, that the evil dead witch created, came to town. Time to chase them out of our area.

      • What to you intend to do, build a mote around Brixton to stop anyone new getting in?

        How small minded. Grow up. Sounds very Conservative and anti-immigration…

        Brixton is small part of London, the capital city. London is full of diversity – languages, cultures and backgrounds – that is what makes it such a great city. People flock to the city from all over the country and from all over the world. Many choose to live here. What is your issue with that?

        You don’t ‘own’ a community. The people do, as a collective. You aren’t entitled to one. You build and grow one. Your views sound very unaccepting.

  7. The sad thing is that Scargill has to take some of the blame for the miners strike (in the 80’s) lasting as long as it did. His pride got in the way and I did not want to under any circumstances negociate with a women. The ruthless way in which Maggie went after the union was something no man had been capable. The strike only ended when the poor taxi driver driving so call scabs to work was killed by a concrete block. Heath and Callaghan the three day a week and the winter of discontent being the final straw. The unions were running the country. I remember my mum having to cook on a parafin stove bake beans. You would be sitting in your house the all of a sudden no electric or gas. People complain about the tube strike imagine that times five with services that are more essential to keeping the country going being on strike. Thatcher was no saint, evil as the come on foreign policy. Growing up as a young person in the 80’s when I left school I moved to London for up North to look for work, I was no fan of Norman Tebitt but years earlier he said you need to get on your bike and look for work. I had the vision to realise as a personn of colour I would have a better chance of getting work, the North was quite racist even in the late eighies. Mining towns and manufacturing towns have a lot to be angry about, her policy on hign interest rates to keep inflation low causing a strong pound meant our proucts became expensive, hence closure of many factories and businesses moving abroad. Industrials up North were not replace with anything. Instead overseas companies came to invest here in the late eighties, but only London has really benefited from this. As I walk through Brixton just after eleven I could not understand why some fool was putting the fill sign off at the Ritxy cinema. Look like rent a mob had been brought in, did not recognise many old school locals down there which was very telling.

    • That’s funny, Dee, cause I recognised plenty. If you’d hung around you’d have seen the Ritzy letters rearranged to read ‘Community is the key’; something most people who comment on Brixton Blog as opposed to Urban 75 seem to know nothing about.

    • Kinnock was on Newsnight last night blaming Scargill for dragging the miner’s strike on far too long. Reckoned Thatcher had offered pragmatic solutions but Scargill was too stubborn to compromise on anything, turning it into an all-or-nothing conflict which he ultimately lost.

  8. the socalist workers party are the only people who speak up for the working class poor in this county,how you lot dont get that is beyond me.nobody cares about the working class poor so i give a thumbs up to the socalist workers party for there direct action.

  9. I hope all those who celebrated catch a terminal disease. Okay she didn’t please everybody but which political system does. All politics have plus and bad points.

  10. Disrespect at celebration? Thatcher is no longer a person but an icon of neoliberalism. Her legacy is the cabal of right wing extremists that have taken over our government.

    She will not be remembered by the welfare state because there will be no welfare state to remember her.

  11. When the uk media gloated over the sinking of the Belgrano, how many of these wimpylibs objected to the disrespect to the victims? The world is a better place without Thatcher.

  12. One of the many reasons I will soon be moving out of Brixton. Disgusting behaviour. Celebrate the death of a previous Conservative leader whilst having voted them back into power so recently? How about tackling the present Government heads and the problems the present governmental leaders are bringing about rather than celebrating the death of one who no longer has an influence over their actions? Pointless, disrespectful and inhumane to the core.

    • Whilst I agree that it’s somewhat ghoulish, it’s probably worth pointing out that although YOU may have voted Tory at the last election, a vast majority of this country did not, which is why we have ended up with a coalition that is not the choice of the people. You do both yourself and this country a disservice by pretending otherwise.

  13. I don’t think you can underestimate the harm that she did and further harm she set in motion to communities across Britain. The legacy she left is being suffered by residents of Brixton and across the country today.

    I don’t believe in evil and I won’t call her such but she symbolises the worst of right wing govt we’ve had since then. I didn’t care that she was alive. I don’t care that she’s dead. The harm was done a long time ago. I’ll be there in solidarity with everyone who is the victim of a government who are demonizing the poor. This govt is her legacy. Her death is nothing to respect, her life nothing to celebrate.

    I’m saving my disgust for this government and its vile policies.

    • Seems a little uncalled for. Just remember that the population voted her in a general election – it’s not like she seized power. It’s also not possible to know how the country would have turned out had she lost. The 70’s weren’t some halcyon days of perfection as far as I remember. Irrespective of what happened in this country the rest of the world would have gone their own way and there are mixed views on the failure or success of her work reform. My own grandparents benefited for example from being able to buy their council house and it’s hardly Thatcher’s fault that successive governments- of either stripe, failed to replenish social housing stock.

      Finally, her friends and family have still lost someone close to them and to revel in that is repugnant.

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