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How Jewish trade unionists persuaded the Labour Party to embrace Zionism.

By Dr. Ronnie Fraser.

Contrary to popular belief, the Labour Party’s support for Zionism did not originate with the Balfour declaration but with the Party’s own War Aims memorandum which was published in August 1917, three months before Balfour’s letter to Lord Rothschild. It set out a socialist and labour vision for the future once peace had been achieved and included a section on the Jews and Palestine. Their interest in Jewish civil and political rights started earlier, not with the Labour Party, but with the trade union movement and how Labour was persuaded to embrace Zionism is one of the forgotten stories of World War One.

The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto
The War Aims of British Labour. 1918. Courtesy of University of Toronto

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The memorandum may have been overshadowed by the Balfour Declaration but it has a unique place in history because the Labour Party was the first political party in Britain to declare their backing for the right of the Jewish people to return and live in Palestine. It was achieved not by the efforts of Chaim Weizmann and his fellow Zionists but by the hard work and determination of the Jewish working classes, the Jewish socialist group Poale Zion, and one Jewish trade union leader in particular, Moses Sclare. Weitzman credited Poale Zion for the inclusion of Jewish rights in the memorandum.

The following articles explore some of these ideas, facts and people in greater detail:

1. How Jewish trade unionists persuaded the Labour Party to embrace Zionism click here

2. Poale Zion and Labour‘s War Aims Memorandum click here

3. Moses Sclare – a forgotten Zionist click here

Flyer for a protest meeting held at the Great Assembly Hall, Mile End road on 7th December 1895. ©Jewish Museum London
Flyer for a protest meeting held at the Great Assembly Hall, Mile End road on 7th December 1895. ©Jewish Museum London
Satire on the Alien Act. 1906. ©Jewish Museum London
The Protest of Alien Great Meeting at Whitechapel. The Daily Chronicle. 1895. Courtesy of Warwick University
Tailor's Strike poster.1889. English version. ©People’s History Museum
Tailor's Strike poster. 1889. Yiddish version. ©People’s History Museum
The Sweating Song. May 1888. Courtesy of Warwick University
Photograph of Phillip Barnett outside his cabinet making shop at 96, Curtan road, London EC. 1910. ©Jewish Museum London
Photograph of a group of workmen in a cabinet making workshop in the East End of London. 1910. ©Jewish Museum London
London Jewish Bakers’ Union banner. 1925 - 1926. ©Jewish Museum London
London Jewish Bakers’ Union banner. 1925 - 1926. ©Jewish Museum London
P.1. Jewish Chronicle 15 September 1915
P.2. Jewish Chronicle 15 September 1915 .
Jewish Chronicle, 24 September 1915
The Trades Union Congress and the Jewish Question. Jewish Chronicle, 1 September 1916.
Jewish Chronicle, 11 January 1918.
Jewish National Labour Council of Great Britain. Jewish Chronicle, 7 June 1918.
Civil and Political Rights For Jews. 1916 TUC resolution.
Poale Zion leaflet. May 1918
Poale Zion leaflet. May 1918

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Contributors

Dr Ronnie Fraser is an independent scholar and Director of the Academic Friends of Israel. He was awarded his doctorate in 2014 by Royal Holloway College, London for his research into the British trade union movement and their attitude to Israel between 1945 and 1982.