Stories from Speakers Corner: from Karl Marx to Tommy Robinson

Article by Steve Hunt

This article is reproduced with the permission of the author. It has also been published here:

"Freedom Magazine" March Edition, published by The White Rose www.thewhiterose.uk

Steve writes to me:

I’ve got a plan to do some face-to-face marketing of this magazine. I’ve ordered 20 copies and will go down to Speakers Corner and see what happens. I know one guy, Heiko Koo, is a hardcore Marxist and has been going down to Speakers’ Corner since the 1980’s. He’s one of the guys who organises the Karl Marx London Walks. I plan on having a friendly chat with him. I also plan on going on the Karl Marx London Walk.

I’ve had 20 articles published in “Freedom Magazine”, covering a variety of related topics, including The Peasants Revolt, Brainwashing (Ancient and Modern), Freedom of Speech, Education: Past, Present and Future, Challenging Authority, Challenging the Experts etc etc.

STEVE HUNT

Stories from Speakers Corner: from Karl Marx to Tommy Robinson

Introduction

Imagine you are about to be executed. You are given the opportunity to say a few last words. What would you say? This question relates directly to the existence of Speakers Corner, and the connection will be explained shortly.

In America there is a long tradition of the condemned being offered a final meal and the opportunity to say a few final words. Some of these final words have been bizarre, some humorous, and some deeply profound. In 1887, George Engel, an anarchist, was implicated in a bomb attack which killed 7 people. Just before he was hanged he said: “Hooray for Anarchy.

This is the happiest day of my life”. In 1966 James French was sent to the electric chair for murder. His last words were: “How about this for a headline for tomorrow’s papers… ‘French fries’? “. The last example is from 1992 when the murderer Robert Harris was sent to the gas chamber. His final words were “You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with the Grim Reaper”.

The reason why Speakers Corner is associated with executions, is that it is very close to a famous site used for over 600 years to hang criminals. And it was a long standing tradition that the condemned were allowed to speak. The location of the gallows was very near present day Marble Arch in North London. The last execution at this site was in 1783. However, the location continued to be used for public speaking and protests. Speakers Corner itself was established in the mid 1800’s, in Hyde Park. It has been used by many famous people. One of them was Karl Marx …

Karl Marx and Speakers Corner

Karl was an asylum seeker and arrived in London in 1849. As a result of his radical journalism, he was expelled from Germany, France and Belgium. In London, he lived in several locations including Chelsea, Soho, Kentish Town and Hampstead. He remained in London for the rest of his life.

Living conditions were very basic and money was a continual problem. In fact Karl’s wife Jenny said: “I just wish dear Karl had spent a bit more time acquiring capital, rather than just writing about it”. There were several particularly low, embarrassing moments. One was when Karl decided to pawn the family’s silver. The silver originally belonged to his wife. A pawnbroker believed that these items had been stolen and Karl ended up spending a weekend in jail. On other occasions his wife Jenny pawned his overcoat and even his trousers.

Karl’s work habits were chaotic and erratic. He often went from long periods when he refused to get out of bed, to prolonged periods of frenetic activity. His work was often fuelled with the aid of excessive consumption of beer, wine and cigars. The end result was a considerable body of work. This included the turgid text of the book “Das Kapital”. It consisted of over 1,000 pages, in multiple volumes. There are records of Marx speaking at Speakers Corner, but no reliable records of what he actually said. However, from his writings it’s clear that Marx was a strong advocate for the freedom of the press, as this quote reveals: “The freedom of the press is the ubiquitous, vigilant eye of a people’s soul, the embodiment of a people’s trust in itself”. He was also strongly against censorship as this statement reveals: “Censorship is the most perfect expression of the fact that the State does not trust its own citizens”.

One person who probably did plough his way through “Das Kapital” was Vladimir Lenin. He was in London in the early 1900’s. Like Karl, he lived in very modest circumstances. Lenin was taught English by an Irishman from Dublin. Lenin did speak at Speakers Corner but by all accounts was difficult to understand. This was not just because of what he said, but also because of his strong accent which was a strange mixture of Russian and Irish. Years later, when he was involved in the Russian Revolution he was criticised by his fellow Bolsheviks. He was told that he was not able to tolerate dissent and did not believe in Free Speech. He said to his comrades: “Of course you have Free Speech. You are free to say whatever you like. And if you do, I’m free to have you shot”. It was not clear if this was an attempt at humour. Now we know how the Bolsheviks behaved, this seems highly unlikely.

Since Lenin, Speakers Corner has hosted many famous people. Some from the 20th century include the Suffragette Christabel Pankhurst, the playwright George Bernard Shaw, and the writer George Orwell. Orwell’s description of Speakers Corner was particularly vivid:

“It is one of the minor wonders of the world. I listened to Indian nationalists, temperance reformers, Communists, Trotskyists, the Socialist Party of Great Britain, free thinkers, vegetarians, Mormons, the Salvation Army, and a large variety of plain lunatics”.

In the 21st century there were a few appearances from controversial activist Tommy Robinson.

Tommy Robinson and Speakers Corner

In 2009 Tommy Robinson founded the EDL (English Defence League). This was in response to the Islamisation of his home town, Luton. One statistic he frequently states is that when he was born, in 1982 Luton had one mosque. Over 40 years later it has more than 45.

Robinson was one of the first people to highlight the atrocity of the grooming gangs. One of his own teenage cousins was a victim. She was forced to consume large quantities of alcohol and heroin. She ended up getting gang-raped, converted to Islam, and never returned to her own family. As a result of highlighting the demographics of the victims, and the demographics of the perpetrators, Robinson was vilified as a racist. However, it’s now an established fact that the vast majority of the victims were young, white English girls, some as young as 12. And the vast majority of the perpetrators were Pakistani Muslim men. It’s vitally important to remember that these are not just historical crimes. These crimes continue to this day.

Robinson has hit back against the accusations of racism. He says his criticism is focused on the ideology of Islam, and not the indiscriminate condemnation of all Muslims. He’s emphasised on many occasions that Islam is an ideology and not a race. He has not only received numerous death threats from radical Muslims but also from neo-Nazi’s. Ironically, the death threats from the neo-Nazis are a direct result of his lack of racism. It is due specifically for his failure to endorse the ideas of ethno-nationalism. Although Robinson has been charged and jailed many times, he’s never been jailed for racism.

As for the scale of the grooming gang atrocity, back in 2018 Lord Pearson raised this question in the House of Lords. He also met with Tommy Robinson in parliament for a private meeting.

Lord Pearson conducted detailed research and reported that there were probably well over 250,000 victims. This number has been challenged by the fact-finding organisation Full Fact.

The key question is: Who fact checks the fact checkers?

In January 2025, Elon Musk resurrected the grooming gang issue and made hundreds of posts on his platform “X”. He was extremely critical of the UK Labour government for its inaction and systematic coverups. As a result of Musk’s intervention and sustained media criticism, the UK government was forced, in June 2025, into instigating a full national statutory enquiry.

On a personal note, in November 2020 I visited Speakers Corner to see Tommy Robinson. His appearance was widely promoted on Social Media and attracted a large crowd. The reason he came to Speakers Corner was to offer support to Hatun Tash. She is a Turkish born British Christian preacher. As a former Muslim she was a particular target of relentless verbal abuse and physical attacks from radical Muslims. Hatun runs a ministry called DCCI (Defend Christ Critique Islam). The police did nothing to protect her. Tommy’s visit occurred during Covid Lockdown, where the “Rule of 3” applied. This meant that if you were in a group of three or more people, you were committing a criminal offense. In the two hours before Robinson’s arrival the police made a futile effort to disperse the crowd. In the space of one hour I was threatened with arrest on four occasions. I, along with everyone else, simply ignored these threats. This was a great example of people, en masse, refusing to obey ludicrous so-called ‘Lawful Orders’. Tommy arrived about an hour late, with an entourage of about ten people.

Some of these were well-needed bodyguards. In the end there was a successful meetup with Hatun. This was despite the police continuing to try and disperse the crowd with threats of arrest. They were unsuccessful. In a final act of spite, as Tommy was leaving the park with his entourage, he was pounced on by multiple police officers. I was only a few yards away and saw him rammed up against a low metal railing, assaulted, placed in handcuffs and then bundled into a police van. The cover story for the arrest was “there was intelligence that Robinson was in possession of an offensive weapon”. He was put in a cell in Wandsworth police station. Then at about 3 am he was released with an NFA (No Further Action). London at the best of times is a dangerous place, but for Robinson at 3 am it is especially dangerous. Fortunately he was picked up by one of his friends.

When it comes to Free Speech, one of Tommy’s favourite quotes should appeal to all fair minded people, regardless of where they are on the political spectrum:

“When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say”.

Conclusion

Speakers Corner is all about facilitating Free Speech, and the attack on Free Speech is well known and widely reported. But what is not well known is the attack, in some circumstances, on the freedom not to speak. Schedule 7 of The Terrorism Act 2000 gives the police the power to stop and question would-be terrorists. There is no need for “reasonable suspicion”, and those arrested do not have the right to remain silent. The police even have the power to delay or restrict access to a lawyer. The problem is that police are systematically abusing these powers.

They are using them against activists, citizen journalists, accredited journalists and even politicians of legally registered political parties. The right to remain silent, and not to self-incriminate, has been in operation in this country for centuries. This abuse of power, along with the attack on free speech, are some of the reasons Britain has acquired the reputation of becoming a police state.

This article started with a description of executions, so let’s end with a famous execution that took place a stone’s throw from Speakers Corner, way back in 1724. This was the execution of 22 year old Jack Shepherd, known as “the most glamorous rogue in London”. His notoriety drew many thousands of people to his execution. He was known as a thief and escape artist, but was not involved in any violent crime. He managed to escape from prison on four occasions.

According to all accounts he had a charming, audacious personality and had a deep disdain for authority. (Years later, many people believed Charles Dickens was inspired by Shepherd in creating one of his most famous characters: Jack Dawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger, from “Oliver Twist”). Returning to the execution of young Mr Shepherd, according to eye-witnesses, Jack wore an expensive, well-tailored black coat and his demeanour on the scaffold was one of calm defiance. His final words were:

“I die a poor and miserable sinner, but I am no coward, and I will face my death with courage”.

This article is a reminder that freedom of speech is a fundamental human right. Speakers Corner is a world famous bastion of Free Speech and it needs to be defended at all costs..

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