On this day on October 4, 1936, Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists attempted to march through East London. They were met by over 100,000 local residents and workers who fought with the fascists and the police in order to protect their community, which forced the march to be abandoned. The people of the East End inflicted a massive defeat on Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists that could never be forgotten.
During this time Britain was facing very serious economic problems, with a climate of mass unemployment and economic depression, and far right forces were intent on using this in order to exploit division and stir up hate. Oswald Mosley, a former member of Parliament known for his public speaking skills, founded the BUF in 1932, and within two years membership had grown to 50,000. Mosley's fascists held vile anti-semitic views and tried to blame Jews for the cause of the country's problems. Throughout the mid 1930s, the BUF moved closer towards Hitler’s form of fascism with Mosley himself saying that “fascism can and will win in Britain”. The British fascists took on a more vehemently anti-Semitic stance, describing Jews as “rats and vermin from whitechapel” and tried to blame Jews for the cause of the country's problems. Mosley’s blackshirts had been harassing the sizeable Jewish population in the East End all through the 1930s. By 1936 anti-semitic assaults by fascists were growing and windows of Jewish-owned businesses were routinely smashed. Hurrah for the Blackshirts!’ The notorious Daily Mail headline is just one chilling indication of the very real threat Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists posed in the mid 1930s.
On Sunday Oct. 4, 1936, Mosley planned to lead his Blackshirt supporters on a march through the East End, following months of BUF meetings and leafleting in the area designed to intimidate Jewish people and break up the East End’s community solidarity. Political leaders in the East End petitioned the Home Secretary Sir John Simon to ban the march; however, their request was denied. On 2nd October, the Jewish People’s Council presented a second petition with 100,000 signatures to request that the march be banned on the grounds that the “avowed object of the Fascist movement in Great Britain is the incitement of malice and hatred against sections of the population.” Despite these efforts, the British government allowed the march to proceed as planned and assigned 7,000 members of the police force to accompany it.
They were not to be welcomed, instead they were met by protestors, waving banners with slogans such as 'They shall not Pass'( no pasaron, famous republican slogan from the Spanish Civil War) , 'No Nazis here' and 'East End Unite.' A mighty force had assembled prepared to defend their streets and neighbourhoods and their right to live in them.
Even though uniformed policemen on horseback were employed to allow Mosley's march to pass through, anti-fascists blocked the route by barricading the street with rows of domestic furniture and the police were attacked with eggs, rotten fruit and the contents of peoples chamber pots. Local kids rolled marbles under police horses hooves. A mighty battle ensued, leaving many arrested and injured.
Cable Street is rightly remembered because it saw thousands of people, from many walks of life, women, children, local jews, Irish groups, communists, socialists, anarchists standing firm as one in an incredible display of unity who worked together to prevent Mosley's fascists from marching through a Jewish area in London.Together, they won a famous victory and put the skids under Britain’s first fascist mass movement.The fascists did not get to march and they did not pass, and were left in humiliation so today we look back on this living history in celebration and pride.
Significantly, for some people that were involved in the protest, Cable Street was the road to Spain, and many would go on to volunteer as soldiers for the Republicans there, this year also marks the 80th anniversary founding of the International Brigades. The legend that was Cable Street became the lasting inspiration for the continuing British fight against the fascism that was spreading all across Europe and would eventually engulf the planet in a terrible world war, the event also launched movements for tenant rights, against economic injustice, and in defense of immigrants.
In 1979, artist Dave Binnington started painting a large mural commemorating the battle on the side wall of St George's Town Hall. In 1982, the still uncompleted mural was vandalised with right-wing slogans, after which Binnington abandoned the project in disgust. It was subsequently finished by Paul Butler, Ray Walker and Desmond Rochfort, and officially unveiled in 1983. It has subsequently been vandalised, and repainted, several times. The mural depicts the events of a very physical confrontation between police and protestors iin stunning detail, anti-fascist protestors proudly carrying banners, punches bing thrown, a barricade of furniture and an overturned vehicle across Cable Street manned by residents of all ages and ethnic backgrounds, a chamber pot being thrown under the hooves of horses being ridden by baton-wielding police, and fascist with a startling resemblance to Adolf Hitler, looking very alarmed in just his underwear and socks.
There is much to learn from the Battle of Cable Street about the power that individuals and groups wield in the face of intolerant policies and behaviours when they unite against racism and discrimination. Hopefully by engaging with this history, we can think critically about the choices made by the East End community and its allies in 1936 and then consider choices available to us as agents of change in the face of prejudice and discrimination in our society and communities today.
We might like to think those days are behind us, but anti-semitism, racism and intolerance is on the rise. The far-right, and the forces of fascism are growing throughout Europe. See for instance the likes of Tommy Robinson and his acolytes. And following the divisive and anti-immigrant rhetoric surrounding Brexit there have been reports of a fuel in the rise of racist hate crimes. The foul winds that blew across Cable Street ago still exist today, we must remain vigilant to this.
And, to be sure, the terms of the demonisation of Muslims today mirror the terms of the demonisation of Jews in the 1930s – i.e. they’re not like us; their culture and religion is primitive and barbaric; they refuse to assimilate; they’re not loyal to this country or its values; they’re a threat, dirty, backward; they are children of a lesser God. More sinister, still, is the way the normalisation of anti-Muslim bigotry has found its way to the top of the Tory Party, with Boris Johnson’s carefully calibrated attack on the small minority of women within the Muslim community who wear the burqa/nikab. Johnson knew precisely what he was doing. Moreover, the fact that this particular demand came soon after the former foreign secretary and now very unpopular prime minister enjoyed a face to face meeting with Trump’s erstwhile white nationalist brain, Steve Bannon, not a point we can afford to skate over either. As we again face racism, violence, and division today, waves of intolerance we must never forget the battle of Cable Street and remember the community solidarity that turned Mosley and his mob of fascists away. Teach your kids about it.
Today and tomorrow we must still rally around the cry of No Pasaran - They shall not pass
Video Ghosts of Cable Street, set to the music of Men they couldn't hang
On the fourth of October 1936
I was only a lad of sixteen.
But I stood beside men
Who were threescore and ten
And every age in between.
We were dockers and teachers,
Busmen, engineers,
And those with no jobs to do.
We were women and children
Equal in union — atheists, Christians, and Jews.
And we had so much to lose.
For with Hitler in Germany, Franco in Spain,
We knew what fascism meant.
So when Mosley came trouncing,
Denouncing the Jews,
To the East End of London we went.
For I’d met refugees, who had fled o’er the seas,
Germans, Italians, and Jews.
And I knew their despair
For what they’d seen there
And I couldn’t let them be abused.
We had so much to lose.
I was only a lad of sixteen.
But I stood beside men
Who were threescore and ten
And every age in between.
We were dockers and teachers,
Busmen, engineers,
And those with no jobs to do.
We were women and children
Equal in union — atheists, Christians, and Jews.
And we had so much to lose.
For with Hitler in Germany, Franco in Spain,
We knew what fascism meant.
So when Mosley came trouncing,
Denouncing the Jews,
To the East End of London we went.
For I’d met refugees, who had fled o’er the seas,
Germans, Italians, and Jews.
And I knew their despair
For what they’d seen there
And I couldn’t let them be abused.
We had so much to lose.
Now 3,000 fascists — their uniforms black —
Had set out to march on that day.
And 6,000 policemen
Intended to greet them
By making clear the way.
But we were there ready —
Our nerves they were steady —
One hundred thousand en masse.
And we planted our feet along Cable Street
And we sang: They shall not pass!
We sang: They shall not pass!
Then all us young lads,
We were sent to the side streets
To stop the police breaking through.
And with swift hands we made strong barricades
Out of anything we could use.
And they came to charge us,
But they couldn’t barge us,
With fists, batons, and hooves.
With as good as we got, we withstood the lot,
For we would not be moved.
We would not be moved.
And, yes, there was violence.
And, yes, there was blood.
And I saw things a lad shouldn’t see.
But I’ll not regret the day I stood
And London stood with me.
And when the news spread the day had been won
And Mosley was limping away —
There were shouts, there were cheers,
There were songs, there were tears,
And I hear them all to this day.
And we all swore then we’d stand up again
For as long as our legs could
And that when we were gone,
Our daughters and sons
Would stand where we stood.
Was the first time I’d heard two tiny words
Said by every woman and man.
Now I say them still
And I always will:
¡NO PASARÁN!
Lyrics and music by Sean Conney
Had set out to march on that day.
And 6,000 policemen
Intended to greet them
By making clear the way.
But we were there ready —
Our nerves they were steady —
One hundred thousand en masse.
And we planted our feet along Cable Street
And we sang: They shall not pass!
We sang: They shall not pass!
Then all us young lads,
We were sent to the side streets
To stop the police breaking through.
And with swift hands we made strong barricades
Out of anything we could use.
And they came to charge us,
But they couldn’t barge us,
With fists, batons, and hooves.
With as good as we got, we withstood the lot,
For we would not be moved.
We would not be moved.
And, yes, there was violence.
And, yes, there was blood.
And I saw things a lad shouldn’t see.
But I’ll not regret the day I stood
And London stood with me.
And when the news spread the day had been won
And Mosley was limping away —
There were shouts, there were cheers,
There were songs, there were tears,
And I hear them all to this day.
And we all swore then we’d stand up again
For as long as our legs could
And that when we were gone,
Our daughters and sons
Would stand where we stood.
Was the first time I’d heard two tiny words
Said by every woman and man.
Now I say them still
And I always will:
¡NO PASARÁN!
Lyrics and music by Sean Conney
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