Rothman, Benny, 1911-2002

Benny Rothman was born on 1st June 1911 in Cheetham, Manchester. He won a scholarship to Manchester Central High School for boys but left just as he was about to take his matriculation exam, a job in the motor trade at Tom Garner's was found for him. He had no option, the family was poor, his father had died when he was 12 and he had to help support his widowed mother and family.

For his first two years at Tom Garner's Benny was an errand boy. Later he started a YMCA course in geography and economics. In 1929 he was invited by a colleague, Bill Dunn, to a local Young Communist League (YCL) meeting. Bill also took Benny to the Sunday night forums at the Clarion Club in Market Street, Manchester to listen to the speakers there. In late 1929 he was arrested for chalking on the Piccadilly pavement "Look out for the Daily Worker - out January 1st 1930". Despite the protest of Frank Bright, then organiser of the Manchester Communist Party, Benny was taken to court and fined. His position at Garners was prejudiced when the Press reported the case and even more so when Benny started selling 50-60 copies of the paper daily. This dwindled after a short while but he still sold a few in the garage. His employers were not pleased and when Garners merged with Rootes, rationalisation followed and Benny was made redundant.

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