Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
Beatty Orwell, fighting the good fight for over a century
LOUISE RAW meets a remarkable Eastender whose activism began by opposing Oswald Mosley's blackshirts as a teenager in the ’30s
Beatty Orwell began by opposing fascism as a teenager in London in the 1930s

Before visiting Beatty Orwell in East London, I asked writer Kate Thompson’s advice on what to bring. Thompson had interviewed Orwell and her peers for her book The Stepney Doorstep Society, and got to know her well.

She suggested I stopped at Rinkhoff’s on Vallance Road, just round the corner from Orwell’s flat.

This turned out to be a good steer. Talking to the celebrated Jewish bakery’s owner, I mentioned I was visiting a woman who had been around slightly longer than his shop — 101 years to Rinkhoff’s mere 100. He knew exactly who I meant, pointing me in the direction of Orwell’s favourite pastries.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
People take part in the Stand Up To Racism rally near the TLK Apartments and Hotel in Orpington, August 22, 2025
Anti-Racism / 23 October 2025
23 October 2025

Once again Tower Hamlets is being targeted by anti-Islam campaigners, this time a revamped and radicalised version of Ukip — the far-right event is now banned by the police, but we’ll be assembling this Saturday to make sure they stay away, says JAYDEE SEAFORTH

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: Joseph Andrews (left) and James Andrews
Features / 15 May 2025
15 May 2025

JAMIE TUCKNUTT reports on an initiative that brings together two epochs of the city’s anti-fascist struggles

Demonstrators during an anti-racism protest organised by Sta
Antifascism / 7 May 2025
7 May 2025

This year’s Bristol Radical History Festival focused on the persistent threats of racism, xenophobia and, of course, our radical collective resistance to it across Ireland and Britain, reports LYNNE WALSH 

THEY SHALL NOT PASS! Blue Plaque unveiling for Battle of Hol
Features / 28 February 2025
28 February 2025
An attempt to give the church credit for the mobilisation of 30,000 anti-fascists in Leeds in 1936 is an insult to the communists and socialists who fought the fascists, writes SAM KIRK