IT has long been recognised that Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice, has anti-semitic tropes and has been problematic in a world where this is abhorrent.

This new version is set in 1936 at a time when Oswald Mosley was trying to build The British Union of Fascists (BUF) along the same lines as Hitler and Mussolini.

By setting the play in these times, the role of Shylock is based on writer and actor Tracy-Ann Oberman’s grandmother who fought against Mosley at the Battle of Cable Steet.

Over 100,000 anti-fascists from the Jewish community, Irish Catholics and other sections of the working class from the East End of London came together to defeat Mosley and prevent his Blackshirts from marching through the Jewish areas.

A week before, Mosley had attempted to do a similar thing in Leeds. The Blackshirts were prevented from marching to the Jewish area of Leeds, the Leylands, but did march to Holbeck Moor. There, a thousand of Mosley’s uniformed thugs were greeted by 30,000 anti-fascists.

In a discussion after the performance of the much-acclaimed Merchant of Venice 1936 in Leeds last week former, Labour MP John Mann attempted to rewrite history.

Baron Mann sits in the House of Lords and had family that lived in Holbeck at the time.

Instead of praising those, namely the Communist Party, who, supported by the Independent Labour Party, were licenced to hold a demonstration that organised the 30,000, he cited the churches instead.

There were Socialist Sunday Schools at the time that taught non-religious socialist education and sang socialist songs such as the Red Flag and also the Internationale.

Mann claimed that the Young Communist League had gone to Spain in January 1936 so didn’t organise against Mosley.

A simple check would have told him that the volunteers for the International Brigade from Leeds went to Spain to fight fascism after Holbeck Moor and Cable Street.

Phil Ellis, a Jewish member of the CP who opposed Mosley on Holbeck Moor, was one of the first from Leeds to arrive in Spain — he went in December 1936.

Mann went on to say that it was sports clubs as well that sent people — but forgot to mention that it was the Young Communist League that organised many of those sports clubs.

Any attempt to de-politicise the organisation of such a large number of anti-fascists, a week before Cable Street, does not help us learn.

Mann may disagree with their politics but he can’t erase them from their role. At a time when far-right parties are growing in Europe and trying to grow in Britain, we need to learn how fascist organisations were stopped from being built here and elsewhere.

It is an insult to those who fought against fascism here and in Spain to deny the role that communists played in the 1930s.

Stand Up To Racism will campaign against those like Tommy Robinson, Trump and Farage who seek to divide our communities and enable far-right organisations.

Sam Kirk is an activist with Leeds Stand Up To Racism.

The Merchant of Venice 1936 was performed at the Leeds Playhouse from February 18-22.