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Art, Documentary & Resistance In The Thirties

January 23, 2025
by the gentle author

These photographs are selected from the exhibition NOW FILMING: Art, Documentary & Resistance in 1930s East London which explores the work of the Workers’ Film & Photo League, who employed the camera as ‘a weapon in the struggle’ by representing working class lives in their fight against poverty, exploitation and the rise of fascism. This free exhibition opens tomorrow at Four Corners in Bethnal Green and runs until 22nd February.

The ‘Royal’ Repast by John Maltby, 1935 (courtesy Bishopsgate Institute)

Hunger marchers by Norman King, c 1936

Unemployed workers going to dine at the Ritz by John Maltby, 1935 (courtesy Bishopsgate Institute)

Reception for women hunger marchers, Islington Town Hall, 1937 (courtesy Bishopsgate Institute)

March against the Unemployed Assistance Board in East London, Workers’ Camera Club, 1935 (courtesy Film & Photo League Archive)

March against the Unemployed Assistance Board in East London, Workers’ Camera Club, 1935 (courtesy Film & Photo League Archive)

Police removing barricades in Long Lane, Bermondsey, 1937 (courtesy Film & Photo League Archive)

Socialist Youth by Workers’ Camera Club, 1935 (courtesy Film & Photo League Archive)

National Unemployed Workers Movement Holloway Branch outside Holloway Odeon, 1935 (courtesy Bishopsgate Institute)

Kino mobile cinema, 1935

Back view of the Kino mobile cinema showing rear projection screen, 1935

Making the film ‘Bread’, Workers Film & Photo League production still, 1934 (courtesy Bishopsgate Institute)

Film & Photo League ‘Now Filming,’  stills from 1937 (courtesy BFI)

Film & Photo League ‘Construction’  stills, 1935 (courtesy Bishopsgate Institute)

Filming ‘The Merry Month of May’ 1937 (courtesy Film & Photo League Archive)

Banner of Prime Minister Caballero leads a march in support of the Spanish Republican government by John Maltby, c 1936 (courtesy Bishopsgate Institute)

Men reading a poster about the threat of war, c 1938-39 (courtesy Bishopsgate Institute)

Four Corners, 121 Roman Rd, Bethnal Green, E2 0QN

 

8 Responses leave one →
  1. Andy permalink
    January 23, 2025

    Beautiful pictures of solidarity which is lacking so much now .

  2. Mark permalink
    January 23, 2025

    Superb.
    We need direct action like this now, but the Tories, deviously, have fragmented the working classes.
    So many think Reform are the future. Wait until Farridge and his none too bright cronies disappear the N. H. S. take further apart the benefits system and more or less destroy life as we know it. You have been warned!
    Great pics, great story. A golden age of protest, although peaceful protest never seems to work.
    See you outside the Ritz, Comrades.

  3. January 23, 2025

    It’s sure to be a great exhibition!

    Love & Peace
    ACHIM

  4. January 23, 2025

    Looking at these photos made me think. In America in the thirties we also had massive unemployment and people who couldn’t get enough to eat. But in America, whenever someone sponsors legislation that will benefit the people as a whole, the opposition starts howling about socialism, as if that were the worst thing imaginable.

    I think perhaps the difference is that in America we never had a monarch (although that may change, even though he won’t call himself one). We never had Peers. Our country was founded on the premise that all people are equal, that one’s ancestry didn’t make one person greater than another.

    Bless our Founding Fathers, but they were a bit naive. Americans may claim that they believe that all people are equal (I rather think you have to in order to claim citizenship), but that doesn’t mean they want all people to have the same resources. Particularly when they perceive that more for other people means less for them. (What is *one man* going to do with $60 billion?) I fear that this manner of thinking is poisoning the world.

    Sorry for the rant. The ‘hideous inauguration’, as one of my British friends termed it, tends to colour everything for me these days.

  5. mjb permalink
    January 23, 2025

    This post comes perfectly timed. I am in the midst of reading the first volume of “The Collected Correspondence, Essays, and Journalism of George Orwell.” Reading just last night, in 1937 Blair/Orwell mentions Caballero, the ILP (the Independent Labour Party), and his “spilling the beans” on what’s happening –and having been wounded– in Spain fighting briefly against fascism. So it’s interesting to see both the ILP and Caballero placards being carried be demonstrators. This literally puts faces to names. Thank you.

  6. Robin permalink
    January 24, 2025

    This is so inspirational. Writing from across the pond, where we need all the encouragement and solidarity we can get in our current dark days. (And style, as CAOR says above!)

  7. January 25, 2025

    This looks to be a very interesting exhibition and definitely one that I will seek out. It’s a period that my parents talked about a great deal. Although most of their family members were self employed, my paternal grandfather was a nurse. He was laid off during the 1930s and worked casually as a builder’s labourer to put food on the table. The builder told all of his workers that he would have to reduce their wages to stay afloat. My grandfather, understandably objected. I think his war service and previous occupation caused his employer to take pity on him and his original salary was restored.
    My maternal grandfather was a bar manager but later started his own mobile coffee stall. The money earned wasn’t enough to support his growing family and sadly, when his son was killed by a car, the family didn’t even have enough money to pay for his burial.
    Hardship and division certainly helped create the conditions for what happened next.

  8. John Cinningham permalink
    February 2, 2025

    How times have changed. The English working class actively opposed snake oil fascists like Moseley. Now they vote for them. Understanding what caused this is a question that may decide the future of the UK.

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