LONDON — “Only the Communist League is placing the fight against Jew-hatred as a key issue in its campaigning,” Jonathan Silberman told over 100 people at an election candidates’ debate Sept. 24. He is the Communist League candidate in the Holborn and St. Pancras by-election in London.

The debate was organized by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the London Jewish Forum. The speakers panel was restricted to what the organizers called the “main parties.” But after strong representation by the CL and others, they conceded that Silberman would be given 30 seconds to “ask a question” after the presentations.

“The Hamas pogrom on Oct. 7, 2023, in collusion with Tehran, confirms that the fight against Jew-hatred and defense of Israel as a refuge for Jews is decisive today,” Silberman said. “That has never been U.K. policy. Both Conservative and Labour governments blocked Jewish immigration to Palestine, opposed Israel’s establishment and backed and armed the invading armies against the fledgling Jewish state in 1948.”

“This election is about local issues,” Labour candidate Sagal Abdi-Wali, front-runner in the polls, replied. “I’m an anti-Zionist,” said Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party, her main challenger. Israel’s existence “relies on the displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people.”

Participants picked up a CL campaign flyer, the same one that has been delivered to 66,000 households in the constituency. The flyer says, “Fight Jew-hatred — poisonous trap for working people” and “Defend Israel’s existence as a refuge for Jews. US/UK troops, bases, warships out of Middle East.”

Antisemitic attacks have been on the rise in the U.K. A year ago, two Jews were killed at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester celebrating Yom Kippur. Four ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity in London were burned and two Jewish men were kicked and stabbed in recent north London attacks.

“Scapegoating of Jews for the problems working people face is an outrage,” Koli Akther told Silberman when he knocked on her door Oct 1. Akther, whose family is originally from Bangladesh, is a university student who also works as a care giver.

Cable Street

The Communist League took its working-class campaign to a march Oct. 4 commemorating the 90th anniversary of a major working-class mobilization on Cable Street, in east London. Some 100,000 took to the streets in opposition to an antisemitic march by the British Union of Fascists. The black-shirted thug outfit was founded and led by Oswald Mosley, who had been the leader of the Labour Party left-wing.

At the time, sections of the British ruling class were flirting with fascist groups. “Hurrah for the Blackshirts,” headlined the Daily Mail in January 1934.

The lead banner on the march read, “No to Antisemitism, Islamophobia, all racism. 1936 they did not pass. 2026 they will not pass.” The march included a well-attended contingent of the Unite trade union, one of the sponsors, led by Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham. Leaders of the garbage workers in Birmingham, who’ve been on strike for over 18 months, also marched.

A separate anniversary march of 300 in the same area highlighted Mosley’s antisemitism and the continuity of today’s fight against Jew-hatred with protests then, organized by Our Fight and Stop the Hate UK. Several marchers told Silberman they welcomed his participation and the Communist League campaign.

Marchers at the two actions bought seven subscriptions to the Militant, 13 books by communist leaders and seven copies of a CL pamphlet, UK policy in the Middle East: Defend British interests, not the Jews. It contains a talk Silberman gave at a “Contemporary Antisemitism” conference in Haifa, Israel, in July.

David Forman, retired telephone engineer and member of the Communication Workers Union, bought a Militant subscription; The Fight Against Jew-Hatred and Pogroms in the Imperialist Epoch: Stakes for the International Working Class; and Cuba and the Independence War in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde: The Fall of the Last Colonial Empire in Africa. Forman told campaign supporter Debbie Delange that he had been impressed by the CL candidate’s comments at a conference on Cable Street hosted by the Trades Union Congress two days earlier.

Altogether 33 subscriptions and 35 books by SWP and other communist leaders have been sold so far during the campaign.