ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the development of radical policies by the Poplar Guardians from late nineteenth century until the abolition of the Boards in 1930. It argues that Poplarism represented a deliberate attempt to use the existing institutions of local government, as represented by the Boards of Guardians, to protect and maintain working-class living standards in the periods of crisis, 1903–1906 and 1908–1909, and in the continuous depression of the 1920s. Poplar's radicalism as regards welfare was not confined to the treatment of unemployment, but as this was increasingly the major issue in social policy in the period, the chapter focuses on this aspect. The ideas of the labour group as regards social policy and unemployment were not always consistent, as they evolved gradually in response to a series of problems, but certain recurrent points can be distinguished. The view of the 1920s as a period in which substantial gains were made by the unemployed, has been modified by Alan Deacon.
