We are a cooperative of workers forming a bookshop as a result of extreme union busting. In response to demands for job security, The Scarlett Letters CIC was closed.
Being a community interest company, the assets cannot be sold or used for any other purpose than the stated purpose: providing jobs for marginalised members of the community.
As a result, we occupied the space with the demand that the stock (assets of the CIC) remained in the community interest, with us. We became The People's Letters.
On the 1st of July 2025 at 4am the director of The Scarlett Letters drilled through the locks of the occupied space accompanied by over a dozen people and cleared the unit out. Three workers were sleeping in the unit, one of whom was 27 weeks pregnant.
Marin Scarlett and her helpers were fully aware of the occupation.
This action was not legal.
The workers who were occupying at the time of the raid were left shaken and alone.
We, the booksellers, and the wider community do not find this acceptable.
We will not let money and power break us.
We are more determined than ever to build from scratch, to realise our vision of a worker-led cooperative bookshop.
With your support we can achieve this!