The London Jewish Bakers’ Union traces its origins to the turn of the 20th century, and is a reminder of just how far some trades unions still have to go on solidarity with Jews.

A short thread on antisemitism, unions, solidarity and the Labour Party...

...When Jews were fleeing pogroms and persecution from the Pale of the Settlement in Eastern Europe to London, much of the trades union movement saw migrant labour as an existential threat.
The Amalgamated Union of Operative Bakers was one such union...

...operating a closed shop to anyone it deemed ‘unskilled’, a dog whistle at the time to described the impoverished Jewish refugees of East London.
Such was the anti-Jewish fervour on the Left, that the TUC for a time were the strongest advocates for migration controls...

...in the form of the 1905 Aliens Act, the original legislation introducing the framework for much of the contemporary anti-migrant controls still in place today.
Then as now, Jews didn’t take it lying down. They organised...

...they organised into Jewish trades unions to take on employers and the power of exclusionary unions, and into political associations like Poale Zion in 1903 to fight within the political architecture of the Labour movement to oppose migration controls...

...so if you’re annoyed or angered by the lack of solidarity shown by modern trades unions to Jewish people, like Bakers, who instead see their role in defending those who failed to act; be disappointed yes, but don’t be surprised.
But do remember...

... that we fought it then, and we’ll fight it now.
Shabbat shalom