section C
Cards (3)
- Irish immigrants:-the Irish population in the east end increased rapidly in the 1840's-they often made their living doing jobs on canals, roads and railways or as dockers on the Thames-violence was common and they were not well liked-by the late 19th century Irish nationalists were demanding freedom from the UK-the fight was led by the Catholic Fenians who were seen as terrorists-when they organised a bomb attack on Clerkenwell Prison in December 1867 there was a huge surge in anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment-a new department of the metropolitan was set up called the special branch to counter Irish terrorism
- Eastern European Jewish immigrants:-by 1888, parts of Whitechapel were 95% Jewish-the Jewish settlers were widely resented by the local population-some resented their success in setting up businesses-they would often accept lower wages and would sell products cheaper-because their holy day is on Saturday they were free to work on Sundays unlike local businesses-not all of them spoke English-as tensions increased antisemitic attitudes spread and beatings of Jewish people became common-when the ripper murders happened, sketches of Jews as him were made-two parliamentary committees were formed to look into rising tension in the east end, but they changed little
- growth of anarchism and socialism:-anarchy opposed all forms of organised government-in 1871 anarchists briefly took control of paris but the revolution failed and a lot of the leaders fled to London-in 1893, special branch began an undercover operation to monitor the activities of Eastern European revolutionaries-socialist ideas were also spreading-in 1881 the social democratic federation was the first socialist party set up in Britain and its leaders wanted a revolution to bring down the existing capitalist system-the SDF was involved in the Bloody Sunday massacre of 1887-socialists saw the police as the public face of a government that cared nothing for downtrodden people