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Socialist blazed trail for human rights lawyers
JACK Gaster, who died aged 99 at his Belsize Park home on Monday, was a lawyer who used his legal training to advise socialist groups and who became an inspiration to generations of human rights lawyers.
Although his name became synonymous with the Communist Party, he was born into a privileged background. His father, Moses, was a lecturer at Oxford University and was later appointed Chief Rabbi of the Sephardi Community in England, a post that came with a large house in Maida Vale, in which Jack would grow up as one of 13 siblings.
Jack completed his early education at a private school in Hampstead, and later studied at the London School of Economics, attending lectures by the likes of Hugh Dalton and Harold Laski, before reading law.
He was influenced by the General Strike and at 19 joined the Marylebone branch of the Independent Labour Party.
In an interview with Durham University politics lecturer Dr Gidon Cohen, he described how one of his brothers was a strike breaker, and how the use of “blacklegs” had hardened his politics.
In the 1931 election he stood as a Labour candidate in Marylebone and then for the London County Council, while in the same year qualifying as a solicitor.
As with many other ILP activists, his disillusion with Ramsay MacDonald and his “betrayal” over the formation in 1931 of a National Government led to Jack joining others to form the Revolutionary Policy Committee. It aimed to spread Marxist philosophy within the ILP and distance it from the Labour Party.
In the 1930s the RPC became part of the Communist Party, where Jack met his wife Moira Lynd, who had been asked to monitor him. Moira, who lived in Hampstead, was the daughter of a leading Irish Republican and well-known essayist Robert Lynd.
They soon fell in love and he and Moira were married, settling down in Keats Grove, and later Antrim Road, Belsize Park.
In the mid-30s Jack became involved in the campaigns against the Oswald Mosley fascist movement and took part in the battle of Cable Street. He was instructed by his superiors to stand and fight, if necessary – and Jack, of course, stood his ground in the street fight.
As a lawyer he defended men and women who had been charged with offences ranging from obstruction to assaulting police officers.
In 1946 he won a seat on the London County Council, and then served as a Communist councillor in Mile End.
In the 50s he acted for striking London dockers and, until he retired in 1990, became the first port of call for trade unionists involved in industrial disputes.
In 1952, Jack travelled to North Korea to investigate reports that the United States was using bacteriological weapons. The team found evidence that the US had dropped insects infected with plague and cholera and Jack wrote a pamphlet outlining their findings.
This was subsequently attacked by the press, although years later his claims were found to be true.
He left the Communist Party in the 90s, found a short-lived home in Arthur Scargill’s Socialist Labour Party, but continued to support the Morning Star daily.
His 90th birthday party at Hampstead Town Hall was a glittering affair attended by senior lawyers, including Lord Justice Stephen Sedley and Sir Geoffrey Goodman, as well as writers and politicians.
Still active in his 90s, he began to help the pensioners’ movement and would attend rallies in Trafalgar Square, catching the 24 bus near his home.
He would be seen in his mid-90s marching from Clerkenwell to Trafalgar Square at the annual May Day procession.
His wife Moira, who died in 1990, was heavily involved with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and she and Jack would go on anti-war marches.
He would also go to Tavistock Square each year for the Hiroshima Day commemoration, where he could be found sitting under a cherry tree on a bench dedicated to his wife’s memory.
His home in Antrim Road became famous for summer garden parties throughout the 90s held to raise funds for various Left causes. When Nelson Mandela visited Camden Town seven years ago, he made a point of meeting Jack, who had acted for the South African Communist leader Joe Slovo in his days in Camden.
Jack’s daughter Polly recalled a man who, away from politics and law, loved classical music and opera.
“He had a wide appreciation of culture – he would take his great-grandchildren to ballets and pantomimes,” she said.
“He read widely and loved books. Just two years ago he was reading a book called Understanding Islam as he felt he should know more about it.
“He insisted on looking after himself, doing his own cooking and shopping, and up to his final months travelling on the C11 to Waitrose from his home.”
Leading QC Michael Mansfield, president of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, of which Jack was a vice-president and long-term member, said: “I am sad to hear of his passing. He was a long-standing stalwart of the Haldane Society, who stood fast against the many variations of New Labour.”
Jack is survived by his children, Lucy, Polly and Nicholas, five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
His funeral takes place next Wednesday at Golders Green Crematorium at 2.30pm.
DAN CARRIER and J0HN GULLIVER |
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