Skip to main content
Best of 2019: Books
MARJORIE MAYO picks her reads of the year
TOTALLY ENGAGING: Milkman author Anna Burns [EPA]

DANIEL SONABEND’S We Fight Fascists: The 43 Group and their Forgotten Battle for Post-War Britain (Verso) tells the stories of the Jewish ex-servicemen and women who came back from the second world war only to find that fascist gangs were still harassing Jewish communities back home in Britain.

The book recounts the heroic struggles of these Jewish veterans who challenged the fascists, often at considerable risk to themselves, given the level of violence that the gangs employed.

I was shocked to realise how little I had known about the continuance of far-right violence and the influence of Oswald Mosley in the post-war period and the threads of fascism, anti-semitism and racism that run through our history.  

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Pic: Free Clip Art/CC
Literature / 14 July 2026
14 July 2026

FIONA O’CONNOR questions the achievement of this year’s Orwell prize winner for political fiction

Sam Wild addresses the British Battalion
Spanish Civil War 90th Anniversary / 4 July 2026
4 July 2026

Thousands of remarkable Britons left ordinary lives behind to join the struggle against Franco. Here is a snapshot of those who answered the call

Richard Baxell speaking at the Marx Memorial Library in London [Pic: Karl Weiss]
Spanish Civil War 90th Anniversary / 4 July 2026
4 July 2026

Driven by anti-fascism and anger at Britain’s policy of non-intervention, thousands volunteered to fight in the Spanish civil war. Historian RICHARD BAXELL reflects on their sacrifices and enduring significance

The Jarama group, the author stands third from left / Pics: Author supplied
Spanish Civil War / 26 February 2026
26 February 2026

TONY FOX reports from a commemoration of the legendary Battle of Jarama in which four Stockton-on-Tees volunteers fell