Ripper museum founder calls protesters bullies after they call off demo
Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe vows to keep controversial east London venue open as Class War group cancels anti-gentrification rally over arrest fears
The founder of a Jack the Ripper museum in east
London
has vowed “not to give in to bullies” after anti-gentrification protesters called off a demonstration following an attack on a breakfast cereal cafe.
Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe, 42, said he had received death threats after his museum was targeted by the activist group Class War, which apparently organised a protest that saw the
Cereal Killer cafe in Shoreditch, east London, smeared with graffiti last weekend.
Speaking outside the museum on Cable Street on Sunday, Palmer-Edgecumbe said: “We are absolutely staying open. I’ve been a victim of bullying at school and the one thing I learned is that you should never give in to the bullies. There’s no way I’m going to give in to them.”
He said he sympathised with the protesters’ concerns about soaring housing costs in east London but added that their cause was undermined by attacks on the cafe and his museum.
Several police officers were guarding the museum, which opened this summer, although there were no signs of trouble.
One local activist, Martin Wright, 62, used a megaphone to complain that the museum was “a freak show” and that Jack the Ripper and the Kray twins were “a lurid footnote in the history of the East End”.
“It’s not just the Ripper museum. That’s just a symptom of the disease – it’s not the disease of Manhattanisation. We’re competing with millionaires for everything – space, accommodation,” he said.
Wright, who was at the Cereal Killer protest last Saturday, said the anti-gentrification activists would return to demonstrate in the area.
Class War, who had organised the museum protest, said in
a statement on its Facebook page
that it was cancelled because police were intending to make “large-scale arrests”.
The note, which urged activists to stay away, added: “We would be highly irresponsible to our comrades if we put them at risk of arrest. We are therefore cancelling [Sunday’s] demo.”
Class War, an anarchist group founded in 1982, had planned to demonstrate against the museum’s perceived glorification of sexual violence.
The demonstration was intended to be a follow-up to the attack on the Cereal Killer cafe, which saw anti-gentrification protesters throw paint-bombs and write “scum” in graffiti on the cafe window. Two upmarket estate agents nearby had their windows broken during the melee.
The group has attracted publicity since last week’s attack as well as the attention of Scotland Yard, which has appealed to the public to help identify offenders behind the criminal damage.
Police are also
investigating threats made to the cafe owners, brothers Gary and Alan Keery, since the demonstration.
In its statement, Class War said: “We believe the police are intending to make large scale arrests tomorrow – egged on by a press campaign and the mass presence of journalists from round the world.
“We would be highly irresponsible to our comrades if we put them at risk of arrest. We are therefore cancelling tomorrow’s demo.
“The success of the fuck parade has gone round the world – we have the utmost respect for all our comrades who made it so. We will not compromise that victory which has given heart to so many.
“We are fighting a class war. We will fight on our own terms when and where we want to – on our terrain when we can win. We choose the time and place for our mobs to gather … we do not now think tomorrow is one of them.
“In all this, the message the Women’s Death Brigade want to send out about the Ripper Museum will be totally lost and hijacked by journos and cops working together to identify and arrest people.
“It has been an exceptional week. We believe the phenomenal worldwide coverage is ‘cos the dams of deference are breaking – the paint bomb at the cereal cafe was the lightning rod for anti-gentrification struggles worldwide. We love you comrades.”
A spokesman for the Jack the Ripper museum said: “We are pleased the protest has been called off by Class War. It highlights the mass of support small, independent businesses are getting from the public against this radical mob.
“We would like to thank the police for their assistance during this time, in protecting small, local businesses; businesses that employ local people, and bring awareness and trade into one of the poorest boroughs of London. We invite Londoners to come and visit us today to show that as a city we won’t be bullied.”
