REVIEW: Our Flag Stays Red, by Phil Piratin. Reviewed by Mike Lovett
As the far right and fascists across Europe, including in Ireland, gain electoral ground Mike Lovett looks at a successful anti-fascist experience from history. He reviews Our Flag Stays Red an account of how the fascist Blackshirts were confronted and had their support undermined.
‘Our Flag Stays Red’ is a compelling account by Phil Piratin of the struggle against fascism in London’s East End in the 1930s and 1940s. Piratin himself is a very sympathetic character. The book is not a dry historical account of the campaign, it also contains his perspective and experience as an activist, which gives a fuller picture of the lessons that can be learned. In spite of the decades that have passed since the events the book covers, it can sharpen our understanding of the fight against fascism and the broader far-right movements today.
East End Communist Party
Born into a large, working-class Jewish family in Stepney, east London in 1907, Piratin was not raised with a strong class consciousness but he was gradually politicised by the First World War and the struggles of the Interwar years. His first participation in political activity was to support the Hunger Marches in 1932. He then came to know Communist Party activists through various campaigns, and eventually became a member himself.
When Piratin first joined the Communist Party in 1934, it was very active on the propaganda front – selling newspapers, whitewashing political slogans on walls and holding weekly meetings on street corners. Communist Party members agitated in trade unions and amongst the unemployed, holding key positions in the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement. There were over 11,000 unemployed in Stepney Borough at that time. Modernisation in local industries meant many small clothing and furniture manufacturers closed down, exacerbating the effects of the economic crisis.
All around them, these Communist Party (CP) activists saw the slums of Stepney. The docks and various industries drew people to what was once the countryside, particularly throughout the 19th century, until the population stood at 300,000 in 1910. Built in a totally unplanned manner, the place was in dire need of quality housing, and adequate provision of schools and other public amenities.
The local CP branch didn’t organise campaigns on these issues. There wasn’t a policy against such campaigning, but activity was almost entirely directed by the party’s central leadership rather than by the local branch in response to the needs of the working class in that area.
Changing Leadership Lines
The 1930s was a period that saw the growing influence of Stalinist politics among international Communist Parties’ leaderships. This was reflected in perspectives that flip-flopped from the revolution is imminent to the fascism is the main threat and ending with the Hitler-Stalin pact in 1939. This led to CP leaderships moving from considering Labour-style parties as social fascists to seeking popular fronts with progressive elements of the bourgeoisie.
The shifting international CP lines had disastrous effects in many countries especially Germany and France, and to a lesser degree in Britain. In part this context explains the CP leadership’s reluctance to engage in what may now be called “community politics” and stems from a sort of class reductionism – why organise the working class in their neighbourhoods when we can organise them in the workplace, where they actually hold power? This was a reflection of the narrow formalistic politics of the CP at the time and their reluctance to take on broader issues.
Conditions for Fascist Growth
The Labour Party had an overwhelming majority on Stepney Borough council, but they took the support of the working class for granted, and didn’t deliver on the amenities their constituents so clearly lacked. As such there was major disillusionment with Labour. All these factors provided fertile soil for the seeds of fascism in the East End. This is a familiar story to us today.
The British Union of Fascists (BUF), led by Oswald Mosley,had been growing since the economic crisis in 1932. In 1935, they really began to emphasise antisemitism. Their claim was that “the capitalist Jew exploited you, the Communist Jew was out to take away your liberties, your freedom and your private property!” Paid organisers of the BUF recruited from the ranks of the unemployed, low-paid and casual workers who had no sense of their own collective power against the exploitation of the ruling class and no real hope.
A wave of anti-Semitic violence was unleashed across East London. Establishment politicians said dealing with the fascists should be left to the police, but the police consistently mobilised to protect the fascists from those who opposed them.
Locally, the Communist Party was forthright in its opposition to fascism. The question of the day was how to put this into practice. Piratin explains the different arguments in the Stepney branch committee, “There were those who said: ‘Bash the fascists whenever you see them’”. While others including Piratin asked the question why the BUF was able to recruit working class supporters?
Undermining the Fascists
The branch activists exposed the fascist propaganda, exposed the failures of the government and called on workers to reject fascism. In spite of this, the BUF was growing. Some, including Piratin asked “Did we, in our propaganda, offer a solution? Was propaganda itself sufficient?”
The idea that the Communist Party should undermine Mosley’s recruitment efforts by improving the conditions of workers in the area was not readily accepted
The belief that a loose group of right-thinking individuals can effectively mount a campaign against fascism doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. The structure of a political party means experiences can be translated from one branch to another, decisions can be voted on and carried out in a democratic manner, bypassing eternal squabbling. The party can serve as the memory of the working class, bringing forth the lessons of the past.
This is not to say the weaknesses associated with official Communist parties didn’t rear their head. When Piratin became convinced that organising on the question of housing would be crucial to energise the population and “show them who was really responsible for their conditions”, he raised the matter at his branch committee. Only a minority supported him, and the matter was fought over for months.
The extensive housing misery in the East End caused by slumlords was a central issue for the working class. It was not something the Communist Party had campaigned on previously, focusing on the organised working class. Had there been greater involvement by women, who at that time were mainly confined to care work in the home, they may have realised sooner that this was fertile ground for organising. In Ireland, examples of women becoming radicalised on the question of housing were seen during the Civil Rights Movement in the North.
Confronting the Fascists
The Battle of Cable Street on the 4th of October 1936 has taken on a mythical quality as one of the major defeats of fascism on the streets. In order to mobilise enough people to face down the fascists, thousands of leaflets were distributed, public meetings were held, trade union branches, trades councils and Labour Party branches were approached to mobilise. People were posted along the fascists’ route to monitor for any detours. Barricades went up when Mosley’s marchers neared Cable Street. Women dropped milk bottles from rooftops, the Jewish and Irish workers whom the fascists were trying to divide, routed the fascists and victory was declared. The fear and despondency which had gripped the area was now dispelled.
Even though, until just a couple of days beforehand, the leadership of the CP had been backing a protest in central London – attempting to curry favour with elements of the British establishment, rather than confront Moseley and the Blackshirts – the ranks of the local Communist Party swelled with Cable Street veterans.
The Stepney Communist Party had gained credibility through this action. Any time the BUF mobilised in the following months, their activists could call locals out at short notice. The task now was to win people away from supporting Mosley. Some in the Communist Party were not convinced of the possibility of this. Piratin put himself forward to become the organiser in Mile End and set out to prove them wrong.
Housing Struggles
They began to canvass in Mile End, selling their paper, helping to form a tenants’ committee. Then it became known that two families were to be evicted. Both were supporters of Mosley, but one was prepared to give the Communists a hearing. Eviction defence was promptly organised. The block of flats was barricaded to keep the bailiffs out. Eventually the landlord relented and this proved to be a template for further housing campaign.
The fact that the BUF did nothing to help, disillusioned a good deal of their supporters.
In an attempt to build on this success, Communist Party activists canvassed the area looking for “issues” to campaign on. The reception was friendly but nobody volunteered an issue. While out canvassing Piratin came across somedangerous gas lighting in the stairwells and called a meeting of tenants. After the meeting Piratin had enough information on the issue, and
“The rest was simple. A letter to the landlord demanding electric lighting … a letter to the electricity undertaking … a letter to the press in order that other people in such circumstances should know what was happening”.
The letter to the landlord was effective as he had been previously warned “that if there any casualties arising from this state of affairs he would be held responsible … within a very short period there was electric lighting on the stairs.”
This is something for us all to bear in mind. During various rent strikes, divisions in the working class were overcome and women in particular gained confidence. In one flat complex, housewives held a picket line to keep the bailiffs out, and those who were not on the picket would shop for the others. For the first time, non-Jewish women saw the inside of a kosher butcher shop and vice versa. The community spirit was stronger than ever.
The success in defeating the fascists impacted on the subsequent anti-war movement. The area had been politicised by the anti-fascist and housing struggles and Stepney men were represented in the Republican militias during the Spanish Civil War.
When World War II broke out, deep shelters were built in Whitehall, and public safety information made no mention of the dangers of high explosive bombs. Well-off people made excuses to refuse to billet poor city-dwellers in their mansions. The talk of “equality of sacrifice” was a farce. In protest, the Communist Party in Stepney gathered 70 local people and occupied the bomb shelter in the Savoy Hotel. A few days afterwards, activists tore down barriers in front of Tube stations so people could shelter below. The following morning, the government announced that they would open the stations as shelters. This victory enthused many party members who had fallen away from activity after the outbreak of war.
‘Our Flag Stays Red’ is a key text for revolutionary socialists, and campaigners of all stripes. Its lessons must be recalled and adapted to the situation we face today. This applies to the local elections and beyond, when regardless of the results we must fight for housing and against racism.
