East End Battleground: 20th Century Encounters with Racism and Fascism
East London is one of the most vibrant areas of our multicultural capital city. Over hundreds of years, the East End has been a magnet for immigrants seeking freedom, safety, and prosperity. But it’s also been a site where extreme poverty and wealth have rubbed up against each other very uneasily, and a focal point for anti-immigrant movements.
At key moments in the twentieth century, the East End has been a venue for dramatic clashes of ideas, provocative marches, and tension on the streets, especially in the 1900s, 1930s, and 1970s. This course explores the East End’s chequered history.
Who is this course for?
This course is for anyone interested in the history of racism and fascism in London, the history of the main ethnic communities of the East End, and the wider social history of the East End in the twentieth century. No previous knowledge is necessary, just enthusiasm to learn about the subject.
What can I expect?
This course will be taught through interactive presentations that encourage group discussions; examining archive materials; and using interviews.
Image: London History Workshop Archive
Need to Know
You will learn
By the end of this course, you will know:
- How different communities were received by the existing population of the East End in the early 20th century
- The names of movements battling for and against immigrant communities
- The nature of self-organisation within the communities under attack
- About the legacy of the East End and its communities today
Meet the Tutor
David Rosenberg
David Rosenberg is an educator, writer, and tour guide of London’s radical history who has taught at Bishopsgate Institute and other adult education institutions for several years. He is a grandchild of Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from Poland and Ukraine who settled in the East End of London. In the 1980s he worked for projects and organisations concerned with race equality, including the Runnymede Trust.
David Rosenberg is the author of Battle for the East End (2011) and Rebel Footprints (2nd edition 2019), and has written articles on London’s social history and current affairs for various print and online publications, including the Guardian, New Statesman, Time Out, Jewish Quarterly, and Channel 4’s History website.
Course Overview
Week 1
Setting the scene: how east London and how it was changing in the late 19th century; early stirrings of animosity towards the immigrants settling in larger numbers in the 1880s and 1890s.
Week 2
Organised forms of anti-immigrant agitation in the first decade of the 20th century; tension between communities locally during the First Word War.
Week 3
The impact of the late 1920s economic crash on the local population; the growth of a fascist movement in the 1930s that increasingly focused on East London.
Week 4
Aftermath of the Battle of Cable street; renewed hostilities late 1940s; the targeting of newer immigrant communities locally in the 1970s; connections between different forms of far right racism.
Week 5
Identifying patterns; reflecting on responses; the enduring legacy of racism and anti-racism into the 21st century.
Dates and Times
East End Battleground: 20th Century Encounters with Racism and Fascism
– , 4:25 - 6:25
