[Unemployed protest in Stepney in 1938 rented housing…]

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Unemployed protest in Stepney in 1938 rented housing in Stepney, maintenance be carried out tenants. There is no doubt even though conditions in by the landlords, and later as that the Jewish factor played much of the sector were they became more familiar an important role in the poor by the standards of the with the housing situation, success of the Stepney time. calling for rent reductions. campaigns, even though These campaigns were Piratin plays down this elelocal CP that initiated the directed against private land- ment. action, in the beginning lords, most of whom shared demanding that repairs and the Jewish origins of their were organised outside the IN REVIEW In the East End of London the Communist Party acquired a very strong reputation for its anti-fascist campaigning during the 1930s.

Although the validity of some of the CP's claims has been challenged by Joe Jacobs, there is no doubt that the CP commanded enormous respect especially from the Jewish population of Stepney and its neighbouring boroughs.

In his book Our Flag Stays Red', Piratin, one of the longest serving Communist Party MPs, who represented Stepney for several years even after the end of the Second World War, makes it plain that the CP had reached something of a plateau in its anti-fascist agitation and was looking for a new issue for agitation in order to consolidate its support in East London.

By Piratin's admission there was little or no spontaneous agitation by the tenants in the privately It was Piratin and the DEMAI Pickets and leafletting synagogues patronised by the landlords, and this moral pressure had an effect especlally on the smaller landlords.

This is far from suggesting that the Stepney victories were achieved in a peaceful fashion.

Far from it. Several fierce battles • were fought and some blocks were guarded 24 hours a day by rent strikers behind barbed wire defences.

The high point of the struggle came when police and bailiffs stormed the Langdale Mansions and arrested a number of leading strikers.

Within hours a mass demonstration assembled outside Leman Street Police Station, consisting of about 10,000 people. The demonstrators threatened a general rent strike of all tenants in Stepney in support of the arrested strikers. The landlords gave up and made the rent reductions which the strikers were demanding.

Although there was no industrial action mounted in support of the Stepney rent strikers they had an important ally in a group of workers in the Stepney Town Hall who obtained unpublished information about the rent levels which the landlords were legally permitted to charge.

When it became clear that the current rents were in fact being charged at an illegally high level in many cases the CP and the Stepney Tenants Defence League were able to step up their work considerably and win widespread support.

In his book Piratin states that he could never understand why the rent strike did not spread into other similar areas of private rented housing. Perhaps he is being a little disingenuous here.

There can be no doubt in the first place that the Birmingham and Stepney strikes became a considerable drain on the resources i the Cr, with for example hree full time CP workers responsible for keeping the Stepney Tenants Defence League functioning.

In the second place his surprise would suggest that the CP was following a consistent policy of agitation throughout the period before World War 2, which was far from being the case.

Ultra-left

It can be imagined how the CP delighted in raising ant strikes against Labour councils during its ultra-left phase, and then found itself obliged to find some way out of the conflicts that it had started when the line' altered.

In fact there was some degree of spread of the Stepney agitation into other areas, but it seems that this was only effective where it was actively supported by the local CP.