Carol Foster, 31 December 1948 – 1 February 2026
It was easy to misjudge Carol Foster. She was a slight figure who only stood 4’11’ in height. Yet inside that small frame beat the heart of a lion.
Carol worked for 15 years as a travel adviser for London Underground in the pre-computerised days. She loved the job and retained an encyclopaedic knowledge of the tube network all her life. Even after she retired, Carol seemed to still know all the staff in any tube station she passed through.
Working on the Underground meant that she became a member of the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union. For many years Carol was the chair of the RMT Black and Minority Ethnic committee. She worked with Glenroy Watson on the RMT Reparations committee, campaigning for compensation for countries suffering the legacy of slavery. Carol was a close friend of Belly Mujinga, a black railway worker who died after being racially abused and attacked by a passenger while on duty.
After she retired, she was active in the RMT Retired Members’ Group. She took her trade unionism very seriously, stood on many RMT picket lines over the years and never, ever crossed a picket line. Eventually this fighting spirit led her into a battle with the union itself. Petrit Mihaj was sacked by the RMT union in 2022. Carol believed that Petrit was wrongly dismissed by the RMT and with her comrades in the Unity House 5 she mounted a picket of RMT headquarters. Shamefully, all the RMT Executive crossed that picket line. The Executive even went to the length of expelling Carol from the RMT for daring to support a sacked worker, despite her 38 years loyal service to the union.
Carol was a dedicated communist. Well into her 70s, she would attend protests and political meetings every day of the week. When Carol heard that Lenin insisted that the Bolsheviks in exile had one day off a week, she reduced her activism to six days per week. Even so, she still attended a two hour Zoom meeting on international politics organised by the Global Afrikan Congress on her Sundays off.
Carol took a special pleasure in attending protests. She was frequently at RCG events and was very supportive of FRFI, often buying multiple copies for friends and attendees who had no money. Carol knew everyone. She loved dogs and above all picket dogs. If Carol called you a ‘dawg’ this was a massive compliment and she had a badge made for pro-Palestine protests ‘Dawgs against Genocide’.
Carol had her own special style, demonstrating her support for freedom struggles worldwide. A typical outfit might include a T-shirt with a slogan, a Palestinian keffiyeh, Manchester United colours and a beanie hat with images of Che and Bobby Sands. She was often harassed by Zionists who objected to her support for Palestine, but Carol refused to be deterred.
Carol was proud of her Jewish heritage, but she was a committed supporter of Palestinian resistance to the Zionist occupation of their land. Carol argued that many more of her family would have perished in the Nazi terror if not for Stalin and the Soviet Red Army. In her later years, she supported the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) protests in London and even attended IJAN pickets after breaking both hips, sitting alongside her friend, Selma James.
There was a progressive tradition in Carol’s family. Both her mother Ruth and father Martin were Jews who had fled persecution in Nazi Germany before they met in Kingsbury in 1947. The family also gave aid to refugees from Franco’s Spain and from the fascist coup in Chile in 1973.
Carol actively supported the struggle for Irish freedom from 1969 onwards. She believed that the working class in Britain could not achieve progress unless it opposed British rule in Ireland. In 1981 she was arrested by the Metropolitan Police at her flat in Kilburn because of her public support for the IRA/INLA hunger strikes. Carol was held overnight, mistreated by the police and denied access to sanitary products. If the police plan was designed to intimidate her, it failed. Carol continued to publicly support the Irish struggle. She was actively involved in the Irish Republican Prisoners’ Support Group and the Anti-Internment Group, campaigning for the wrongly imprisoned Craigavon 2 and other prisoners of war. In her 70s Carol travelled on three occasions to Derry in the occupied Six Counties, twice to attend the Bloody Sunday commemoration. She loved the rebel spirit and the hospitality of the people of Derry.
Carol had a long history of activism; she was arrested on the Grunwick’s picket line in 1976 while supporting striking Asian workers in her home borough of Brent. In 2013 during the Counihan-Sanchez Housing Campaign, she was again well to the fore whether heckling the local MP, Glenda Jackson, for her cruelty to the family or occupying the council chamber at Brent Town Hall in support of the Counihan family who had been evicted by Brent Council.
In 2018 Carol was convicted for supporting an Extinction Rebellion protest. She was handed a fine and court costs of around £1,700 for sitting down in the road. As a pensioner of 71, Carol was in no position to pay but her many comrades chipped in and covered the fine.
Carol led a wonderful life of active solidarity with the oppressed. Whenever there is a fight against injustice, Carol’s spirit will be there. We should all be inspired by her example to continue the fight against imperialism.
Codladh sámh. Sleep well, comrade.
Séamas MacanTsaoir
Carol’s funeral will take place at 12 noon on Monday 16 February at Golders Green Crematorium.
