The 25th anniversary meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation in the Kyrgyz capital may offer a glimmer of hope that international relations do not need to be defined by endless confrontation, writes KENNY COYLE
HISTORIANS have given scant recognition to the significant Jewish contribution to the history of the Communist Party in Britain particularly during the period 1935-55.
Mainly centred in the East End of London, the party’s membership among Jews was out of all proportion to the size of the Jewish community in Britain and constituted roughly one tenth of total CP membership. Stepney alone had over 1,000 members in the 1930s.
In 1947 the Stepney CP Borough Committee reported that it had “the highest proportion of party members per capita in Great Britain — one member per 175 of population,” most of whom were Jewish.
As antisemitism spread across Europe and the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, Benny Leonard and Jack ‘Kid’ Berg became symbols of hope and resilience, writes JOHN WIGHT
A champion motorcyclist, trade union organiser and communist, Clem Beckett went from Britain’s speedway tracks to the battlefields of Spain, where he gave his life resisting Franco’s forces at Jarama. GEOFF BOTTOMS pays tribute to this remarkable anti-fascist
RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey explains why his union is proud of its members who fought in Spain
Once again Tower Hamlets is being targeted by anti-Islam campaigners, this time a revamped and radicalised version of Ukip — the far-right event is now banned by the police, but we’ll be assembling this Saturday to make sure they stay away, says JAYDEE SEAFORTH



