Peoples Eastbourne was set up in July 2024 with the aim of celebrating and making accessible to the public, Eastbourne’s Radical History. It was born out of the earlier project, Engels in Eastbourne Campaign, set up in 2015. Both projects now exist side by side and have the same aim.
In 2015, a few of the activists in town organised ‘Protestival’ with Eastbourne People’s Assembly Against Austerity. (A special thanks to Brian Wilkes here). One of the performers, Neil Goodwin, asked us did we know the connection between Eastbourne and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and the Engels Plaque? We knew nothing of this. This is how the campaign began. How could any of us, at that time, not know about the connection? This just had to be set right.
And so, we were on a mission. We went here and there in town to the various history organisations. No, we were told, there’s never been an Engels Plaque in Eastbourne. We put call outs on social media. Did anyone know anything? After a time, we had a response from a man in Canada. Yes, he had been there at the unveiling of the Engels Plaque. Shortly after this we got our breakthrough. We were put in touch with Terry McCarthy who knew the whole story. The rest is history, Radical History, that you will find on this website. We hope you enjoy.
