A kind-of follow on to my previous post.
Valleys people are told their history is Chartism. Mines. Proud socialist tradition. National Health Service. Of course you have to accentuate the positive. However, it’s a kind-of politically-correct version of history – it’s not all philanthropy and social justice in the industrial era.
Take this article from the New York Times, August 24th 1911:
Newport, Monmouthshire, August 23:
Rioting continued tonight at Bargoed, on the Glamorgan Border. A dozen English and Jewish shops were wrecked and Looted.
The troops were called to the assistance of the police and dispersed the rioters.
No Further rioting has occurred in the Monmouthshire Valley towns, but the threatening attitude of the mobs at Tredegar and Rhymney necessitates the continued presence of the soldiers.
It is reported that Jewish families in other parts of South Wales are taking flight in fear of the extension of the outrages.
The story continues on August 24th, 1911 – again from the New York Times.
Jews Returning to Wales
Except in Bargoed, the anti-Jewish outbreaks in Wales have ceased. Public meetings have been held in Tredegar and other towns, at which citizens enrolled themselves as volunteers to keep order. The Jews who fled from their homes, having now placed their families in safety in Cardiff, are returning to look after their abandoned properties.
The Jewish World, commenting on the outbreaks, admits that in one particular quarter the charges against the Jews may be substantiated, but declares that in general they are baseless. It reads the lesson that even in England among the dregs of the population the old cry of “Down With The Jews” has not lost it’s potency, and adds that the Jewish community is popularly judged by its worst members, and that, therefore, it behooves the community to deal drastically with such members, who continue to be a danger to Jewry at large.
Rioting and stone-throwing were renewed at Bargoed tonight. Troops were again called out and scattered the crowds with bayonet charges. The rioters smashed shop windows, but had no chance of loot. They reassembled at the village of Gilfach, a mile distant, where more conflicts occurred between them and the police. Several persons were injured.
The cause of the riots is explained in a piece in the Telegraph, August 26th 1911:
Anti-Jewish Riots – Cause of the outbreaks
According to a correspondent, the records of naturalisation papers show that the Jews established on the Glamorgan-Monmouth border imported in recent years numbers of foreign compatriots. The latter, beginning as peddlers, soon became shopkeepers and landlords. The populace was incensed against many Jews, under the pretext of the railway strike, raising the prices of perishable goods.
The newspaper Jewish World inquired, and found that while the charges relating to property owners were baseless as regards any considerable section of Jews, they were only too well substantiated in some individual cases. Hence a handle was provided for anti-Jewish demonstrations. It adds:" “It behoves Jews to deal drastically with their own members constituting a danger to Jewry.”
(The Jews were accused of having a monopoly of several classes of trade, such as furnishing, clothing and jewellery, and compel the tenants to obtain their furniture from them on the hire system. It was stated that many of the poorest have been evicted).
The rioting continues in the Bargoed district. Two Jewish shops were completely wrecked in Senhenydd. Many Jewish families have fled from the Monmouth Valleys to Cardiff.
So hands up who’s heard about this part of our history? Me neither. Of course, in a couple of years people would have other concerns on their mind, with the First World War looming. But there is that old saying “those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it” – so it is important that the people of Wales learn their history, the good, the bad, the plain old ugly.
So while people are rightly proud of their grandparents defeating Fascism, they should also be aware that their great-grandparents were, but for the grace of god, one step away from it. There is a danger that, just like the people of Bargoed in 1911, we’re judging and attacking a whole race of people for the actions of a few bad eggs. These days it’s the Muslim peoples, of course.
When you see the BNP on the rise, and anti-Islamic demonstrations outside of Mosques, it makes you think: this country is on a knife-edge. It will only take something small to tip it over. It is up to us, Christian, Muslim, Atheist, Pagan, Welsh, English, whoever, to do all we can to make sure it doesn’t topple over. Let’s not have a repeat of the 1911 riots.
