Abraham Lazarus

Abraham Lazarus (1911–1967) was a leading British Communist activist, charity worker, and anti-fascist, most famous for leading numerous high profile factory strikes in London and Oxford, and for organising communists and Jews to resist the British Union of Fascists.

He was also the leader of a protest movement to topple Oxford's Cutteslowe Wall which segregated poor working class communities from wealthier ones.

While living in Oxford he led tenant strikes in Cowley, and raised money for refugee children from the Spanish Civil War.

Lazarus contracted rheumatic fever during his childhood and this affected his education, because of his condition he was taught at home by his mother.

On Monday 23rd, the strike committee met with management for the first time.

After two hours, they returned with a printed statement signed by Otto Müeller the managing director.

Lazarus translated it into more understandable English.

There was no reference to wages and conditions and a refusal to recognise the union.

The statement was unanimously rejected and a new set of demands was agreed by the strikers who by Wednesday numbered nearly 1,000.

The strike had also gained support within the local community.

The Trades Council donated £150 to the strike fund, the strike committee independently raised £100 on its own, while the TGWU itself contributed £300.

A soup kitchen had been set up by Cowley Labour Party women, the Oxford branch of the NUWM collected food and money, and the Oxford Co-operative Society set up a system of vouchers for the strikers.

Railway workers were asked not to move parts from the factory, and workers in other car plants in Dagenham, Coventry and Birmingham refused to handle goods from Pressed Steel.

General Secretary of the TGWU Ernest Bevin intervened behind the scenes, appealing to the factory management to accept the strikers' demands.

Pressed Steel was also coming under increasing pressure to fulfill orders and get production moving again.

His health recovered in 1928 so he got a job working as a professional driver and a mechanic, later on in 1930 he joined the Hammersmith branch of the Communist Party of Great Britain and became involved in the National Unemployed Workers' Movement.

While in London he was often seen selling the Daily Worker outside Belsize Park tube station.

By Saturday 28th the factory management had capitulated, and on Monday 30th the strikers returned to work with a guaranteed basic hourly rate, no victimization and full union recognition.

In 1933 he led a strike at the Firestone tyre factory and this earned him the nickname 'Bill Firestone'.

After the strike he became the South Midlands organiser for the Communist Party.

Lazarus was Jewish by background.

On Friday 13 July 1934, workers at the Pressed Steel plant in Oxford went on strike.

Employees on the night shift in the press shop were paid short on their wages, they stopped work and elected a deputation, consisting of four women and twelve men, to see management the next morning.

The deputation was turned down.

The following Monday, 100 night shift workers walked out and the deputation became a provisional strike committee.

The wife of one of the members of this provisional committee had recalled the Communist Party's assistance during a previous strike in South Wales and, although there were no communists on the committee itself, they decided to approach the local party branch in Oxford for support.

At this time there were a number of communists in the factory, many with a history of industrial militancy in South Wales and elsewhere.

Communists advised the strike committee to include demands for higher pay, better conditions and trades union recognition.

That night, the Communist Party printed 1,000 leaflets to try to extend the strike to other groups in the factory and by Tuesday, 180 workers were on strike.

In recognition of the importance of the strike, the party sent Lazarus to Oxford to support the local branch.

He came to the city on Tuesday night along with two full-time organisers from the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), and shortly after his arrival Lazarus was made chair of the strike committee.

He married Mabel Browning in 1937 and together they had one daughter.

Mabel worked as a scientific assistant.

Lazarus often took his family on holiday to France, but this ended in 1951 when he was deported and forbidden to return.

Earlier in February 1951 he had travelled to Czechoslovakia as a guest of the miners' union.

In 1953 he attended the 4th World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest as a reporter for World News and Views.

On Thursday 19th, the Oxford & District Trades Council held a special meeting at which they voted to back the strike to "make Pressed Steel 100% union".

A 'council of action' was formed and two mass meetings were organised in St Giles.

Lazarus addressed both meetings and drew large crowds, the first meeting on Friday had 1,000 people and the second on Sunday attracted over 3,000 people.

The strikers put forward four demands: