Today is the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, a fact sadly being overlooked by most of the UK media.The battle occurred in 1936 when 300,000 ordinary East Enders joined the local Jewish community and Communists to prevent 7,0000 members of the British Union of Fascists marching, in uniform, through Whitechapel and Limehouse.
They adopted the Spanish Civil War anti-Facist slogan of "No Pasaran" (They Shall Not Pass).
There were a series of clashes with both the fascists and 10,000 police (who attempted to clear the route) throughout the day, but in the end the BUF was forced to turn back and subsequent legislation banned political groups from wearing uniforms in public.
Both the Daily Mirror and Islington Tribune have interesting articles on the battle with eye witness accounts. This newsreel footage of the battle has an extremely pro-establishment commentary but shows the size of the crowd.
Thanks for this, Steve. Yet another piece of our history I was totally oblivious to.
ReplyDeleteI knew about Mosley but nothing of the battle (some good punches thrown), nice post.
ReplyDeleteA fine post. It's a great shame there has not been much more coverage of this in the news today. A fascinating time in Britain's history.
ReplyDeleteYes a realy pity it wasn't in the news! As you say, no pasaran!
ReplyDeleteThat's fascinating footage, thanks for the heads up! I'm on the edge of starting some VBCW projects, so this is great stuff.
ReplyDeletethere is a feeling or a fact that there was no real rising in the east end as communists were actually bussed to the event from different parts of the country.This demolishes the idea that it was a peoples uprising against the fascists. Im inclined to believe it because people in general watch while others do.
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