Memorial Meeting
Reuben Goldberg
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK readers and supporters, together with many others, took part in memorial meetings held in London and Bradford for anti-fascist and socialist activist Reuben Goldberg, who died earlier this year.
Reuben was a member of the International Marxist Group, then the British section of the Fourth International, during the 1970s. At the time, he was President of Bradford University Students Union, and one of the founders of the Bradford Ad-Hoc Committee Against Racism and Fascism.
In 1975, the newly formed Asian Youth Movement was able to mobilise and prevent the National Front from marching through Manningham, the heart of Bradford’s black community. Reuben was central to this mobilisation, and continued to work with the AYM and its successor groups for the rest of his life.
Reuben worked for many years at Bradford’s Fourth Idea Community Bookshop. This was one of the centres of political activity in Bradford, and a regular target of fascist attacks.
The fascists had a particular hatred for Reuben, as an anti-fascist, socialist, Jew. Despite bomb threats, physical attacks and continuing harassment, the police failed to take any action until a Special Branch officer checking out the shop was himself assaulted by a fascist.
Having been a Socialist Unity candidate for Bradford Council in 1976, Reuben was later adopted as a Labour party candidate, and was a member of the council from 1984 to 1988. During this period, he was prominent in the struggle against anti-traveller racism, and he helped establish the Labour Campaign for Travellers Rights. In 1988, in a bitter reselection fight, Reuben was dropped by the party, and left the council.
Shortly after this, Reuben left Bradford and moved to London. He was employed as a Race Equality Officer by Newham Council.
Although always an opponent of the Israeli government and its treatment of its Palestinian subjects, Reuben refused to let this determine his attitude towards Jewish culture and history. It was natural, when he moved to London, that he should join the Jewish Socialists Group, and he soon became co-ordinator of their anti-fascist and anti-racist work.
At his funeral, at Bushey Jewish Cemetery, Jewish mourners were almost outnumbered by members of the Newham Monitoring Project and the Bradford Asian Youth Movement
In the debates in the anti-racist movement, Reuben always called for unity of the campaigns and uncompromising opposition to the fascists. He was a regular presence at anti-fascist and anti-racist mobilisations, and a tireless organiser behind the scenes.
In London, Reuben quickly made contact with the Newham Monitoring Project, with whom he worked closely. He continued this collaboration in the difficult period after the NMP lost their council funding.
Reuben’s death at the age of 45 is a serious loss to the anti-fascist and anti-racist movement. At his funeral, at Bushey Jewish Cemetery, Jewish mourners were almost outnumbered by members of the Newham Monitoring Project and the Bradford Asian Youth Movement, who had come to pay their respects to a trusted ally and true comrade.
As part of their regular Holocaust memorial day, Bradford Trades Council has instituted an annual Reuben Goldberg Memorial Lecture. The first lecture was presented by Dave Landau, anti-fascist activist and member of the Jewish Socialists Group. We are pleased to reproduce it here (please click) .