Jack Gaster

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Jacob Gaster (6 October 1907 – 12 March 2007), known as Jack Gaster, was a

communist solicitor
and politician.

Biography

Born in

Sephardic Jewish Congregation in London, and Lucy Friedlander. He studied at the London School of Economics and then entered a legal career, qualifying as a solicitor in 1931, and soon thereafter forming a socialist law practice with Richard Turner.[1]

In 1926, Gaster joined the

British General Strike. He became prominent in the party, and was its representative at the arrival of the Jarrow March in London. However, he was a champion of unity with the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), and to this end was a founder of the ILP's Revolutionary Policy Committee. The Committee successfully persuaded the ILP to disaffiliate from the Labour Party, but could not convince members to merge with the CPGB. As a result, in 1935, he joined the majority of the Committee in resigning from the ILP and joining the CPGB.[1]

Gaster was married to Maire Lynd, the second daughter of Robert Wilson Lynd and Sylvia Lynd. He joined the British Army during World War II.[1] He was posted to the Royal Sussex Regiment and was watched closely by British intelligence.[2] However, he was injured in training and instead spent the war educating illiterate soldiers.[1]

In 1946, Gaster was elected to the London County Council in Mile End, alongside fellow communist Ted Bramley.[1] However, he lost the seat in 1949, and was again unsuccessful in 1952.[3] He subsequently acted as the principal legal consul to the CPGB, and became a vice-president of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers.[4]

During the

germ warfare by the United States.[1]

Gaster remained a prominent communist solicitor until he retired in 1990, and an activist in the CPGB until it was disbanded in 1991, a decision with which he strongly disagreed.[1] He subsequently joined the Socialist Labour Party, but soon left, later re-joining and then again resigning.[5] He spent much of his retirement in support of the Marx Memorial Library.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Victoria Brittain, "Obituary: Jack Gaster", The Guardian, 13 March 2007.
  2. ^ Dan Carrier, "Why Jack Gaster never went to war", Camden New Journal, 13 March 2008.
  3. ^ Geoffrey Alderman, London Jewry and London Politics 1889–1986, p. 106.
  4. ^ "Gaster Jack", Compendium of Communist Biography.
  5. Morning Star
    , 20 March 2007.
Party political offices
Preceded by London Division representative on the National Administrative Council of the Independent Labour Party
1933–1936 		Succeeded by
John Aplin
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