Founded in 1970, Pavement was a grassroots collective based in Wandsworth, London, that wrote and edited an eponymous community newspaper and organised demonstrations in support of local initiatives on housing and redevelopment. The Lower Down collective was part of a cluster of local organisations in the Wandsworth/Battersea area. One well-known activist (and Inquiry core participant), Ernest Rodker, a former member of both collectives, provided much of the information below in a written statement to tha Inquiry. Pavement was infiltrated by HN300 'Jim Pickford' and HN298 'Michael Scott'.
Pavement
The Pavement Collective was based mainly around the eponymous Pavement, a socialist community newspaper. The paper ran from 1970 for about 20 years and reporting had a special emphasis on community defenders and campaigns on issues such as housing, race and jobs. It was infiltrated principally by HN300 'Jim/Jimmy Pickford' but also by HN298 'Michael Scott'.
Published once a month, Pavement was circulated on the streets and in sympathetic newsagents, housing estates and community centres. In addition to writing, editing and selling the paper, the collective also sought to challenge the council on policies such as housing and redevelopment, by organising public meetings and demonstrations and writing letters to local and national newspapers.
The collective took action by gathering outside Wandsworth Town Hall on the evenings of council meetings or, rarely, by holding demonstrations near councillors' homes. The number of attendees ranged between just a handful and hundreds, depending on the issue at hand. Meetings around the development of Battersea Power Station, for example, were popular, but gatherings were also organised on the sale of council houses and cuts in council services. The core group of the collective itself, however, was only about ten members strong. Both Pavement and Lower Down had meetings at Battersea People's Aid and Action Centre, as well as members', such as Ernest Rodker's, private homes.
Ernest Rodker, a core participant in the Inquiry and a prominent Wandsworth-based activist also active in Stop the Seventy Tour and Battersea Redevelopment Action Group (BRAG) , said he was 'one of the main motivators' behind Pavement. In his witness statement, Rodker described the collective as a 'grassroots, community initiative' and asserted that most members of the collective 'had known each other over a long period of time and therefore trusted each other'. Rodker's records indicate that 'Michael Scott' was involved in selling Pavement. Undercovers extensively reported on Rodker himself and it is possible that SDS's interest in Pavement was due to his involvement.
Lower Down
Lower Down was a left-wing community magazine circulating in Wandsworth, London, that covered the activities of local activist organisations such as women's and gay liberation groups, claimants' unions and BRAG. The magazine began publication in April 1974 and ran for at least three years, long enough to print an article about the Grunwick strike in Dollis Hill, London. Jim/Jimmy Pickford also reported on the collective behind Lower Down, but there are fewer reports on it than on Pavement.
The Lower Down collective described itself as 'a group of about ten individuals who live or work in the borough' of Wandsworth. The zine was named after the fact that all those involved lived in a basement in Battersea. Although the group disavowed party politics and claimed to consist of 'individuals each with their own political opinions' and that 'no one view predominates' among the members of the collective, it also declared to be 'against poverty, discrimination on racial, sexual or religious grounds, bad housing, high prices, exploitation, landlordism, injustice and so on'. The magazine was sold on the street, in sympathetic local shops and via subscription.
The magazine also published political comic strips, local news and articles on various social movements, such as anti-racism and reproductive rights. Lower Down also ran short adverts for community centres and groups such as People's Aid and Action Centre, Balham Nursery Action Group, Campaign for Homosexual Equality, Men Against Sexism and Pavement.
Sources
Copies of Lower Down and Pavement are deposited with Wandsworth Libraries & Heritage Service.