Catalogue Number
NMLH.2020.20
Object Name
Sticker
Title
Jewish Anti-Fascist Action
Place
UK
People
Jewdas, Jewish Antifascist Action
Date
2010-2020
Description
Jewish Antifascist Action sticker, with a red and black Star of David and a red and a black flag in the centre. The words 'Jewish Antifascist Action' are written in the Star of David in white.
This sticker was created by the UK Jewish Anarchist group Jewdas. On their website, the sticker is sold with the message 'Let fash know that the yids will kick their asses worldwide.' The dual flag logo references the logo of the 1932-1933 German anti-fascist organisation Antifaschistische Aktion which existed to oppose Nazis as they gained power in German elections. Many anti-fascists today draw on these aesthetics. This sticker makes explicit the group's affiliation to Judaism by using a Magen Dovid/Star of David rather than a circle to enclose the two flags.
Jews have always been involved in anti-fascist resistance. At the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, where the British Union of Fascists sought to intimidate Jewish residents of London's East End, the same residents were part of the anti-fascist resistance that drove the BUF from the streets, as well as Jews who were members of the Communist Party and the Independent Labour Party which participated collectively in the Battle. Following the Second World War, Jewish veterans founded the 43 Group to fight fascists in the UK, and in 1985 the Jewish Socialist Group was part of the Anti Fascist Action collective of direct action groups which acted to physically confront and disperse fascist gatherings, and to support working class communities that fascists were targeting for indoctrination.
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