PHIL MAXWELL

Today in the Great Hall of the Bishopsgate Institute, London there will be a celebration of the life of
Max Samuel Levitas (1 June 1915 to 2 November 2018). Doors will open for the event at 1:30pm.

Hazuan Hashim and I first met Max when we interviewed him for the film ‘From Cable Street To Brick Lane’.

Hazuan recalls that “the film was made to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street in 2011. We were introduced to Max by Glynn Robbins. It was on Saturday, May 15th 2010 at 11am when we first interviewed Max. As he arrived at our studio in Whitechapel, he told us he could only give us an hour as he had to catch the 264 bus to Hackney to see his mate for lunch.

The interview lasted for more than an hour. We were both bowled over by Max and his incisive account of the Battle of Cable Street.

Just before he left we asked Max if we could have another session with him and asked him to bring memorabilia for us to use in the film.

A month later, Max was back in our studio. We showed him rare archive footage supplied by Jil Cove of the Cable Street Group. We filmed him as he watched it and he told us that he’d never seen it before. After that we filmed him talking about his life and, in particular, life in the 1930s”.

As a photojournalist and documentary film maker you meet a lot of people from different backgrounds. It is always inspirational when you meet a character like Max. When you meet someone new to interview or photograph you can usually ‘size them up’ fairly quickly. As a Marxist Max knew well that we are wage slaves who from time to time have to do some unpleasant things to put food on the table. I recall being sent to photograph Tony Blair in the early 1990s. As we shared a mirrored lift in portcullis house in Westminster Mr Blair turned away from his reflection and asked me if he would need make up for the shoot. How different that encounter was from the first time Haz and I met Max Levitas. He was not ambitious, criminally inclined, vain or determined to make vast amounts of money. His politics were based on defending the interests of his class. Max was a fighter for his class. An internationalist who was ambitious for a world empty of capitalism and full of socialism, solidarity and peace.

During our first interview with Max I remember thinking that we were recording socialist gold dust. The camera loved him. He was a natural communicator. After we did our first interview I recall telling a much younger communist, Michael Myers (now in his 80s) about Max’s account of the battle of Cable Street. Mike told me that if Max Levitas was speaking at a meeting in Whitechapel you could hear him in the Mile End road. He was a legend in his own lifetime. We were honoured to interview Max twice and also film him speaking at the 80^th anniversary of the battle of Cable Street.

As film activists our job is to record and disseminate the working class history that is rarely seen in the mainstream media. When we were editing our latest film Pensioners United we decided to revisit the interviews with Max. His accounts of the depression and life before the NHS reinforced the accounts we filmed of the younger Harry Leslie Smith who sadly died within weeks of Max’s departure. We still have some unseen Levitas gold dust to sprinkle around in future films. I remember Max not just as an iconic anti-fascist and activist but also as a warm hearted, generous and down to earth human being. In our latest film it was appropriate that he featured with Tony Benn and Harry Leslie Smith as well as living comrades like Jeremy Corbyn and Audrey White.

Max Levitas before the start of the rally commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Battle Of Cable Street. East London 2016.

Max Levitas before the start of the rally. East London 2016.

Max Levitas with his friend and comrade Vince Quinlivan at the end of the rally 2016.

Max Levitas (age 101) campaigning for social housing.  East London 2015.

Portrait of Max Levitas, Whitechapel. East London 2010.

Max Levitas. East London 2010.

You can watch Max Levitas and his message for the world today and tomorrow in our film about the Battle Of Cable Street here:

From Cable Street To Brick Lane