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DERMOT MURNAGHAN:     The Battle for Cable Street in London’s east end 80 years ago saw the community in the east end block the path of Oswald Mosley’s fascist Black Shirts who were trying to march through the east end in an attempt to intimidate its Jewish residents.  Its anniversary of course comes at a time when intolerance and anti-Semitism appear to be on the rise.  Well joining me now is MP Ruth Smeeth whose relatives were involved in the protest 80 years ago and who herself has faced anti-Semitic abuse.  A very good morning to you Ruth, tell us about this, it was Great-Uncle Hymie was it?

RUTH SMEETH: It was, so Great-Uncle Hymie was part of … family folklore suggests that Great-Uncle Hymie was part of the Aldgate Mob when it became clear that the government weren’t going to block Moseley’s march, which 100,000 people had signed a petition asking the Home Secretary to do.  A group of Jewish men and women got together and collected weaponry, and by weaponry it was whatever they could get.

DM: Snooker cues, chair legs, things like that.  

RUTH SMEETH: Anything, every coffee shop, every snooker hall was visited, anything that was wood that could be turned into a weapon was collected.  Hymie then helped also collect money in order to see if they could bribe ineffectually  the police to look the other way and they got ready for what was 80 years ago a great street battle.

DM: And do you know what happened to your Great-Uncle during the course of that?  Did he get arrested, did he get injured, what happened?

RUTH SMEETH: He managed to evade arrest, he did get hurt in one of the fights but he also gave as good as he got, so Great-Uncle Hymie did what needed to be done.

DM: Now what do you think the lessons are for today?  I was talking there about anti-Semitic abuse appearing to be on the rise but more broadly the issue of racism and hate crime, it hasn’t gone away from British society has it?

RUTH SMEETH: No, intolerance definitely hasn’t gone anywhere.  Before I got elected I ran Hope Not Hate and we’ve seen politicians for decades use vile hate political rhetoric.  The BNP, now UKIP, you’ve just been talking about Donald Trump in the States so evil hate filled rhetoric hasn’t gone away and it has genuine issues and impact on communities.  It has had a real impact since Brexit and we’ve got to be standing firm. I’m doing some work on a cross-party basis to see how we can encourage other colleagues to manage their rhetoric in this period of negotiation but we’ve got to be really vigilant. Social media has made it easy for people to write down, put on record whatever they think without any consideration of the long-term consequences.

DM: And you found a bit of that yourself, I mentioned that.  What have you had thrown at you?

RUTH SMEETH: Oh I think … I don’t look at my social media feeds anymore, there’s not benefit to that. The sheer volume over the summer was appalling and you say I have experienced myself, the volume of abuse that is online and how that then leads to death threats that are tangible real death threats.

DM: Let’s talk about trying to sort it out.  You are a member of a considerably strong party itself and you had that recent review into anti-Semitism carried out by Baroness Chakrabati, do you think that was enough?  Do you think the Labour party, your own party, now is facing up to it?

RUTH SMEETH: I think Jeremy Corbyn gave his strongest statement condemning anti-Semitism in his speech at Labour conference and I welcome that.  I still think we’ve got a very, very long way to go.  We saw events even at Labour party conference of anti-Semitic abuse on stalls and around conference and I think if that’s the case inside Her Majesty’s Opposition party we’ve still got a long way to go but I welcome the efforts that have been done thus far and now we’ve got to remain vigilant.

DM: More to do but what about, broadening it out, you touched on it there, I touched on it as well, the issue of hate crimes and we’re going to see a report coming out fairly soon on whether they actually have increased since the Brexit  vote. What’s your understanding even from your own constituency?

RUTH SMEETH: In my constituency there has been a definite spike in hate crime post-Brexit, over 100% increase in hate crime that has been reported. I am more concerned about those people who don’t feel empowered enough to report it so I have written to every EU national in my constituency to reassure them that I will help them with the things that they might need in the coming months and that led to a number of them contacting me about the abuse that they were seeing on the street and how they felt and no one had reported it to the police.  So I think we have got to be really clear about what is the official increase and also how the culture is changing and what we need to stand up to that at every level.  

DM: Let me take you back to Cable Street, there was a historian who wrote a while back about the British Union of Fascists, that was the organisation led by Oswald Mosely, who were actually quite pleased about the turnout because it was waning at the time and that it helped recruit members, because they felt this looks like something we want to get involved in.  The issue of confronting the fascists, why not just let them walk down and get away with it?

RUTH SMEETH: Well I think it’s really clear that we have got to always have that fight. I would argue we have killed the BNP for example as a political entity but we haven’t beat their ideology. Fascism always need confronting, racism, hate needs confronting, it’s how you go about it and let’s remember, the Battle of Cable Street occurred because the government didn’t listen when communities asked for help.  Everyone needs to learn lessons from what happened at Cable Street but then we also need to understand the concept of solidarity and what was on that day working class solidarity.

DM: Ruth Smeeth, very good to see you, thank you very much indeed and some wonderful memories there of Uncle Hymie and the Battle of Cable Street.  
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