Sara(h) Wesker
Birth date
1901
Death date
1971
Biography
Sara, or Sarah, Wesker was a British trade union leader and organiser. She was active in the East End & Hackney's garment industry in the first half of the 20th century. Wesker was also a communist, often working with or alongside the Communist Party of Great Britain.
Wesker was Jewish and grew up in Spitalfields, in the Rothschild Buildings, a tenement in east London which housed mostly working-class Jewish families, many of whom carried out political meetings and gatherings in the homes there.
As a young woman, Wesker worked in the clothing industry as a machinist. She lead a strike at a factory she worked at in 1926 - her all-female group of colleagues at the Goodman trouser factory demanded a farthing for every pair of trousers made.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Wesker participated in and organised many strikes in Hackney. She was a prominent figure in the landscape of trade unions at the time. Alongside Sam Elsbury, she led the 1929 Rego and Polikoff strikes in Shoreditch and Mare Street, Hackney and consequently became the co-founder of the United Clothing Workers' Trade Union, a communist-affiliated breakaway trade union which represented garment workers. She was also part of the United Ladies Tailors' Trade Union, which was made up of female Jewish workers.
In 1930, Sara Wesker also led a strike at the famous Simpsons Clothing Factory located at 92-100 Stoke Newington Road.
Wesker spoke Yiddish as well as English, meaning she could communicate well with older, factory workers - who were almost always female - and persuade them to take part in strikes or join her unions.
In 1936, Wesker was at the Battle of Cable Street, a clash between the British Union of Fascists and anti-Nazi forces in Bethnal Green, Stepney, Shoreditch and Hackney. Communists, Jews, trade unions and Irish protestors joined together to oppose Oswald's Mosley's march through Jewish communities.
For several years, Sara Wesker and Mick Mindel, another prominent figure in East End garment trade unions, had a close, romantic relationship which flourished as both attended political rallies, communist gatherings and trade union meetings. With Wesker's support and campaigning, Mindel was voted to chair the United Ladies Tailors' Trade Union in 1938.
Sarah Wesker is the aunt of playwright and writer Arnold Wesker. The character Sarah in his play 'Chicken Soup and Barley' is based on his aunt.
Wesker was Jewish and grew up in Spitalfields, in the Rothschild Buildings, a tenement in east London which housed mostly working-class Jewish families, many of whom carried out political meetings and gatherings in the homes there.
As a young woman, Wesker worked in the clothing industry as a machinist. She lead a strike at a factory she worked at in 1926 - her all-female group of colleagues at the Goodman trouser factory demanded a farthing for every pair of trousers made.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Wesker participated in and organised many strikes in Hackney. She was a prominent figure in the landscape of trade unions at the time. Alongside Sam Elsbury, she led the 1929 Rego and Polikoff strikes in Shoreditch and Mare Street, Hackney and consequently became the co-founder of the United Clothing Workers' Trade Union, a communist-affiliated breakaway trade union which represented garment workers. She was also part of the United Ladies Tailors' Trade Union, which was made up of female Jewish workers.
In 1930, Sara Wesker also led a strike at the famous Simpsons Clothing Factory located at 92-100 Stoke Newington Road.
Wesker spoke Yiddish as well as English, meaning she could communicate well with older, factory workers - who were almost always female - and persuade them to take part in strikes or join her unions.
In 1936, Wesker was at the Battle of Cable Street, a clash between the British Union of Fascists and anti-Nazi forces in Bethnal Green, Stepney, Shoreditch and Hackney. Communists, Jews, trade unions and Irish protestors joined together to oppose Oswald's Mosley's march through Jewish communities.
For several years, Sara Wesker and Mick Mindel, another prominent figure in East End garment trade unions, had a close, romantic relationship which flourished as both attended political rallies, communist gatherings and trade union meetings. With Wesker's support and campaigning, Mindel was voted to chair the United Ladies Tailors' Trade Union in 1938.
Sarah Wesker is the aunt of playwright and writer Arnold Wesker. The character Sarah in his play 'Chicken Soup and Barley' is based on his aunt.
