There’s a myth about the ‘Jewish community’ that should’ve been smashed the day London smashed fascism
'On 4 October 1936, an estimated 250,000 Londoners stood up to the British government and blocked Oswald Mosley’s fascist ‘blackshirts’ from marching through London’s East End.
The epic mobilisation of East End Jews, Irish dockers, and anti-fascists lives on in British memory as the Battle of Cable Street. It’s a shining example of how collective action can defeat the most vicious of racisms.
For the anniversary of Cable Street, The Canary sat down with the seasoned activist and author of Battle for the East End, David Rosenberg. 82 years after the fact, he breaks down the divisions in Britain’s ‘Jewish community’, the Labour antisemitism row, and why, in 2018, the left must learn from their anti-fascist forbearers if they’re going to fight Mosley’s modern day heirs.
Community divides
Today, we remember Cable Street as a coming together of London’s Jewish population and their allies. But as an authority on the history of London’s East End radical history, Rosenberg stresses that in the 1930s, there were deep divides among the community.
And he knows something about division.
He sat with Jeremy Corbyn at the now infamous Jewdas Passover dinner. He’s had several run–ins with the Board of Deputies of British Jews (BoD), and also Stephen Pollard, the editor of the Jewish Chronicle. He’s marched for Palestinians under the banner of the Jewish Socialist Group. The Daily Mail, an early supporter of Mosley’s movement, has smeared him, using his reference to BoD members as “Tory poodles” for ammo.
Today, he regrets his use of words: “I was probably a bit harsh on poodles”.'
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