|
|
 |
| |
A wonderful lady, totally committed to justice
BETTY PAPWORTH, who has died aged 94, dedicated her life to campaigning for social justice, peace and human rights.
Born in 1914 in Stepney to a large Jewish family, Betty was always a bright child and was university material: but financial pressures had sent her out to work from the age of 14.
Her nephew, Stephen Jacobs, recalls sitting on the steps of their flats in Grove Court, Tower Hamlets: “She took me all over the world, via an atlas on her knee,” he says. “She had a world of patience with me.”
Betty’s East End was ruptured by the growth of extremism in the 1930s. As a young woman, she manned the barricades at the Battle of Cable Street in 1936 and became active in the Communist Party.
When war broke out in Spain, Betty helped organise public meetings and fundraising events.
She became an invaluable member of the Aid For Spain committee, and through this, befriended the black American singer Paul Robeson. She even put him up for a night at her East End home.
When Britain declared war on Germany in 1939, Betty went to work in the west London Sperry aircraft factory making gyroscope compasses. But she was still politically active: at her nephew’s bar mitzvah in 1942 she asked guests to donate money to the Aid For Russia campaign.
After VE Day in 1945, Betty left the aircraft factory and returned to the rag trade. Her political wit had not dimmed. When the “forgotten heroes” returned home and were demobbed to find themselves homeless, veterans and their families squatted in expensive flats in Regent’s Park.
Betty was directly involved, dodging police cordons and clambering over fences to pass food packages through windows to the families on a daily basis.
Working with her sister Hetty at the family’s clothing company, based in Cricklewood, Betty ran the business side of things.
She met and married trade unionist Bert Papworth soon after the war ended. Bert worked for the Transport and General Workers’ Union and the pair continued to be involved in left-wing politics and particularly the peace movement, being one of the first members of CND.
In the mid-1960s, Betty trained as a teacher and joined an all girls’ school in Holloway.
She loved the theatre and music, and eating out at restaurants.
Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn accompanied Betty to Israel in 2004 to see the release of Mordechai Vanunu, the peace campaigner who had revealed to the world that Israel was developing nuclear missiles.
It was Betty’s 90th birthday and she stood resolute at the gates of the prison to greet Vanunu as he was released, despite right-wing protesters yelling at her and throwing eggs, and the heavy-handed nature of the Israeli security police.
When asked to move, she simply refused and waved her walking stick at the guards.
Mr Corbyn recalls: “Betty was a wonderful lady, totally committed to peace, justice and human rights. She had a great sense of fun, and shared it with people around her.
“At many meetings I went to – be it the Stop The War coalition or the London Pensioners’ Forum – at some point during the meeting I would see a bar of chocolate being passed hand to hand. It would finally reach the front of the stage and then be passed up to me: I’d look up and at the back I’d see Betty waving. She’d always tell me I didn’t eat enough and needed fattening up.”
Age did not diminish Betty’s political drive: as well as manning a book stall in Hampstead selling left literature each weekend, she travelled weekly to Westminster to sell copies of the Greater London Pensioners’ Association newsletter.
Dan Carrier
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
