ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE EAST END
By THE RT. HON. GEORGE LANSBURY, M.P.
EAST London is one of the most interesting parts of our great metropolis. It stretches right away from Aldgate to West Ham, and from the river to Stoke Newington. The population, especially in Stepney, Poplar and Bethnal Green, is a very mixed one.' Indeed, gathered within these boroughs you will find men and women who have come to us from all parts of the world ; people who follow . all kinds of religions and whose personal and social habits differ as night differs from day.
Jews form. a very large part of this varied population. In. Stepney they form the majority. In other boroughs they are. in the minority. But many or few, they and their gentile fellow-citiiens live together in peace and harmony. We East7Enders, no matter what our race or creed, are- good citizens. The years since the creation of the _County and Borough Councils have seen a great growth in the spirit. and practice of civic duties and civic pride—pride in our boroughs although most of our streets_ are very drab and overcrowded ; but the great main roads bring to us such fresh air and sunshine as is available in London, and our parks and open spaces, with Epping Forest close at hand, give all and sundry the opportunity of realising that God is in His heaven even if. all is not right with the world.
We _seldom fall . out with each other about religion or what we _mean by God and religion. We judge each other for what we are and not by our creeds. Conse- quently, the coining of the " Blackshirts," with their terrible doctrine of hatred of Jews as Jews,, has aroused great indignation among all kinds of people. We have had our share of class-hatred, although in its most distressful digs our hatred was nearly always confined to the system which created, and . perpetuated class distinctions and poverty of mind and body. But this present campaign of religious and social intolerance and persecution is something we neither understand "nor tolerate. We long ago gave up the doctrine of " original sin '.' as it. used_ to be preached when I was very young. . We know that Jews do not choose either their race or their parents ; but most of all we know that as a people they are just like the rest of us—good and bad, With goodness predominating. Because this is so, we view with shame and disgust the conduct of those who come from other parts of London and carry . on propa- ganda. of hatred, provocation and persecution against these our fellow citizens whose only crime is that they are the children of their parents. Most of them are as English as we are. There is a large proportion who are naturalised, but many Jews are just as much English by birth as are Methodists, Anglicans or Roman Catholics. This- wave of persecution would be stupid if it were not accompanied by what amounts to terrorism.
Words do not always hurt unless followed by deeds, and the organised propagandists of hate not only attack individual shopkeepers and others by name, but they also do their utmost to provoke disorder by marching through market-places where Jewish traders are carrying on business as costermongers, treading on the toes or heels of the men and women behind the stalls, using foul, • obscene language about Jews, and by every means in their power striving to stir up a disturbance. Sometimes they succeed, and usually when the police arrive, those who attack manage to get away. Only the other day a quite young man, stung beyond endurance, rushed at his tormentors with a knife and was prosecuted. The Magistrate wisely discharged him, believing, I suppose, that he was not the guilty party.
In Poplar for many years past we allowed meetings to be advertised by chalking on the pavements. This practice, during times of excitement due to unemployment, was occasionally abused, but no serious harm was ever done. The gentlemen who invade us dressed as " black- shirts "took advantage of this privilege to chalk outside the entrance to shops owned by Jews the most foul and disgusting attacks on those whose one crime was that they were Jews and were successful. So dangerous became this abuse that the Socialist borough council, much against its will, has been forced to pass, a by-law making it illegal thus to chalk defamatory libels on the pavements, or, in fact, using this method of .advertising at all. One would have thought the mere, fact of writing such incite- ments to violence would be illegal without a by-law. The Council were advised that this is not so.
Everybody in East London is in favour of free speech and freedom of meeting. It is often said that we are a disorderly crowd at election times. There is some truth in that statement. But our worst enemies will not deny that such disturbances only take place when feelings run high on some special question connected with poverty and unemployment. . But disturbances arise now because an entirely- new form of meeting is held. A force-Of stewards is imported, made. up of men and woman trained and drilled as " chuckers out " ; taught how to manhandle in a most brutal manner any person they think should be expelled. There is no chairman, and people are removed with the maximum of violence simply for interjecting a remark.
I have often been interrupted in East London, and on two occasions, together with my fellow Guardians, I have been locked in a board room all night. But none of us felt any hatred towards our persecutors because we knew they were suffering from a keen sense of social injustice. These men imported from outside our district come to us and preach racial and religious hatred, and do so in language which provokes protest. Free _speech does not mean the right to malign and scandalise yoUr opponents. The police for years attended meetings addressed by myself and others, and note-takers took down, as far as their limited skill would allow, reports of our speeches, and prosecutions often followed. This practice continues, I am told, so far as Communist meetings are concerned, and prosecutions occasionally follow. But at the open-air meetings organised by the " blackshirts " no government reporters are regularly in attendance, and in view of the widespread opinion that speeches at these meetings are deliberately made for the express purpose of stirring up hatred and violence against individuals simply because of the accident of birth and creed, is it not the duty of the authorities to treat those responsible for such speeches as they treat ordinary working people who may be Socialists, trade unionists, or Communists ?
There is a widespread opinion..that in this matter of the drilling and marching of organised bands of men and women whose avowed object is to upset, if necessary by force, the whole constitution, is illegal and should be stopped. People remember Lord Carson and his rebel army, and how it grew because of toleration. and support in high places. Public opinion in East London is quite certain that ordinary folk would never be permitted to make the speeches made by Fascists without being prose- cuted, and ask why this should _be ? We want equitable and just treatment for all. It is true that some Jews are bad landlords, house-agents and employers, but so are some gentiles and Christians. The mass of us, Jew and gentile, are decent, clean-living people, and this Fascist propaganda is aimed at dividing us in the worst possible of ways, that is, according to our birth and..what passes as religion. I believe we shall not succumb, but those whose duty it is to preserve order must have the courage to hold the balance fairly.
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