Battle of Cable Street

The Battle of Cable Street was a series of clashes that took place at several locations in the East End of London, most notably Cable Street, on Sunday 4 October 1936. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, sent to protect a march by members of the British Union of Fascists led by Oswald Mosley, and various anti-fascist demonstrators including local trade unionists, communists, anarchists, British Jews, and socialist groups. The anti-fascist counter-demonstration included both organised and unaffiliated participants.

Background

The British Union of Fascists (BUF) had advertised a march to take place on Sunday 4 October 1936, the fourth anniversary of their organisation. Thousands of BUF followers, dressed in their Blackshirt uniform, intended to march through the heart of the East End, an area that then had a large Jewish population.

The BUF planned to march from Tower Hill and divide into four columns, each heading for one of four open-air public meetings where Mosley and other speakers would address gatherings of BUF supporters. The meetings were to be at Limehouse, Bow, Bethnal Green and Hoxton. Website shows the original BUF leaflet with exact locations and times.

The Jewish People's Council organised a petition calling for the march to be banned, which gathered the signatures of 100,000 East Londoners, including the Mayors of the five East London Boroughs ( Hackney, Shoreditch, Stepney, Bethnal Green and Poplar) in two days. Home Secretary John Simon denied the request to outlaw the march.

Field of operations

There are three main routes into the East End from the direction of the City of London. From north to south these are; Bishopsgate, Aldgate (440 metres south-east of Bishopsgate) and Tower Hill (450 metres south of Aldgate). The BUF was to gather its supporters at the southernmost of these three entrances, at Tower Hill and adjacent Royal Mint Street in East Smithfield, at 2:30.

The intention was that Mosley would formally review the assembled force, after which it would march from Tower Hill and divide into four columns, each heading for one of four open-air public meetings where Mosley and other speakers, including William Joyce, John Beckett, Tommy Moran and Alexander Raven Thomson, would address gatherings of BUF supporters: Lewis uses the East London Advertiser as primary source, and also provides editorial commentary. This source only gives the districts where the meetings would take place, not times or the exact locations.
* Salmon Lane, Limehouse, at 5pm
* Stafford Road, Bow, at 6pm
* Victoria Park Square, Bethnal Green, at 6pm
* Aske Street, Hoxton, at 6:30pm

In response their opponents, who knew of the intended meetings but not the intended routes from Tower Hill, called on the main mass of their support to gather at the central of East End's three entry points, Aldgate, for 2pm. In doing this the crowd could occupy the important road junctions in that area, including Gardiner's Corner, the junction of Whitechapel High Street with Leman Street, Commercial Street and Commercial Road. (The junction of Commercial Road and Whitechapel High Street has since moved east by 100 metres.)

The aim of the police was to allow the march to proceed, but as peacefully as possible. The head of the Metropolitan Police, Philip Game, established his HQ at the junction of Mansell and Royal Mint Streets by Tower Hill. There was also a major police station halfway along Leman Street, between Tower Hill and Aldgate.

Numbers involved

Very large numbers of people took part in the events, in part due to the good weather, but estimates of the numbers of participants vary enormously:
* Estimates of Fascist participants range from 2,000 to 3,000, up to 5,000.Jones, Nigel, ''Mosley'', Haus, 2004, p. 114 The Fascists had a casualty dressing station at their Tower Hill assembly point.
* There were 6,000–7,000 policemen, including the whole of the Metropolitan Police Mounted Division. The police had wireless vans and a spotter plane sending updates on crowd numbers and movements to Philip Game's HQ, at Tower Hill.
* Estimates of the number of anti-fascist counter-demonstrators range from 100,000 to 250,000, 300,000, 310,000, or more. The Independent Labour Party and Communists, like the Fascists, set up medical stations to treat their injured.

Events

Tower Hill

The fascists were to gather from all over southern England, at and around Tower Hill for 2:30 p.m; the first to arrive did so in a piecemeal fashion from around 1:25 p.m; and were vulnerable to groups of hostile local people, around 500 in total, waiting for them. A party entering Tower Hill from nearby Mark Lane tube station was attacked, as was a group in Mansell Street. The anti-fascists also temporarily occupied the Minories.

The fighting intensified as more BUF members and their opponents arrived, with many BUF arriving in vans whose windows had been reinforced with iron grilles. A private car bearing the slogan "Mosley shall not pass" drove onto Royal Mint Street, veering through the melee. It was attacked by Fascists who police cleared away with a baton charge, the car making its escape.

At 2pm the police began the process of separating the factions, by which time there were already a significant number of injuries including Tommy Moran, who was leading the BUF force until Mosley's later arrival.

There was fierce fighting as police then moved on the counter-protesters to clear the crossroads where Royal Mint Street, Leman Street, Dock Street and Cable Street meet. The counter-protesters were moved onto these neighbouring streets, including a large number forced into Dock Street.

Aldgate and its approaches

The largest confrontation took place around Aldgate, where the conflict was between those seeking to block the BUF march, and the Metropolitan Police who were trying to clear a route for the march to proceed along. The streets around Aldgate were broad, and impossible to effectively barricade except by blocking them with large crowds of determined people. These efforts were helped when a number of tram cars were abandoned in the road by their drivers, possibly deliberately.

Dense crowds gathered from Aldgate Pump, along Aldgate High Street and Whitechapel High Street to St Mary Matfelon Church (now Altab Ali Park) and some way along Whitechapel Road. The adjacent side streets, most notably Minories and Leman Street, which led from Tower Hill to Aldgate, also became congested. The greatest concentration of people was at Gardiner's Corner, the junction of Whitechapel High Street with Leman Street, Commercial Street and Commercial Road.

The public were requested to gather in the area at 2pm, but people began arriving long before then. At 11:30, a column of the largely Jewish Ex-Servicemen's Movement Against Fascism marched along Whitechapel Road, wearing their WWI medals and carrying their Royal British Legion standard before them. On finding their progress to Aldgate blocked by police they demanded the right to march on the streets of their own borough, the same right granted to the fascists who were heading to the area. They were attacked by mounted police, and in the ensuing fighting the police captured their standard, tore it to pieces and smashed the flag pole to pieces.

By 1:30 Aldgate, and in particular Gardiner's Corner, was solidly blocked by a mass of people who had already endured a series of baton and mounted charges by police. The police continued to try to secure a route through Gardiner's Corner, but also tried to secure alternative routes that the BUF marchers might resort to instead.

At around 1:40 a large group broke off from the main body and headed into the Minories which leads to Tower Hill. At around 2:15 individuals were making their way through the Aldgate crowds shouting "All to Cable Street", encouraging people to join the defence of the Cable Street/Leman Street junction near Tower Hill. The Police secured the junction after bitter fighting, and then sought to clear both Cable Street and Leman Street.

Although some counter-protesters had headed to Cable Street, large numbers remained around Aldgate and its approaches. The Police successfully fought to clear a route along two parallel avenues of approach, Minories and Leman Street, that lay between Tower Hill and Aldgate. They methodically advanced along each of the avenues and secured them by setting cordons of foot police along the side streets. They also continued their attempts to clear Aldgate itself, but the crowd remained solidly packed, chanting " They shall not pass".

One of the main organisers of the counter-protest, Fenner Brockway, Secretary of the Independent Labour Party, who had already been injured by a police baton, decided to try to contact the Home Secretary, John Simon.

Just after 3pm Brockway found a phone box on Whitechapel Road and called the Home Office; the Home Secretary wasn't available so Brockway appraised a civil servant of the serious ongoing violence:

The official assured Brockway the message would be passed on. It is not known whether this actually happened, or whether it contributed to the decision by the authorities, soon after, to ban the march.

Cable Street

Protesters built a number of barricades on narrow Cable Street and its side streets. The main barricade was by the junction with Christian Street, about 300 metres along Cable Street in the St George in the East area of Wapping. Just west of the main barricade, another barricade was erected on Back Church Lane; the barrier was erected under the railway bridge, just north of the junction with Cable Street.

The police attempts to take and remove the barricades were resisted in hand-to-hand fighting and also by missiles, including rubbish, rotten vegetables and the contents of chamber pots thrown at the police by women in houses along the street.

Decision at Tower Hill

Mosley arrived in an open-topped black sports car, escorted by Blackshirt motorcyclists, just before 3:30. By this time, his force had formed up in Royal Mint Street and neighbouring streets into a column nearly half a mile long, and was ready to proceed.

However, the police, fearing more severe disorder if the march and meetings went ahead, instructed Mosley to leave the East End, though the BUF were permitted to march in the West End instead. The BUF event finished in Hyde Park.

Arrests

About 150 demonstrators were arrested, with the majority of them being anti-fascists, although some escaped with the help of other demonstrators. Around 175 people were injured including police, women and children.

Aftermath

The anti-fascists celebrated the community's united response, in which large numbers of East-Enders of all backgrounds; Protestants, Catholics and Jews successfully resisted Mosley and his followers. There were few Muslims in London at the time, so organisers were also delighted when Muslim Somali seamen joined the anti-fascist crowds.

The event is frequently cited by modern Antifa movements as "...the moment at which British fascism was decisively defeated". The Fascists presented themselves as the law-abiding party who were denied free speech by a weak government and police force in the face of mob violence. Many of the arrested demonstrators reported harsh treatment at the hands of the police.

Following the battle, the Public Order Act 1936 outlawed the wearing of political uniforms and required organisers of large meetings and demonstrations to obtain police permission.

Mosley subsequently held a series of rallies around London, there was a large outbreak of anti-Semitic violence in London and other cities, and the BUF increased its membership in the capital city, although their activity in Britain was severely limited by the outbreak of the Second World War.

Notable participants

British Union of Fascists

* Oswald Mosley
* Tommy Moran

Metropolitan Police

* Philip Game

Counter-demonstrators

Many leading British communists were present at the Battle of Cable Street, some of whom partially credited the battle for shaping their political beliefs. Some examples include:
*
* Bill Alexander, communist (CPGB member) and commander of the International Brigade's British Battalion.
* Fenner Brockway, Secretary of the Independent Labour Party.
* Jack Comer, a gangster of Jewish heritage.
* Ted Grant who would become founder-leader of Militant and then Socialist Appeal.
* Father John Groser, Anglican priest and prominent Christian socialist.
* Charlie Hutchinson, communist (CPGB member) and only Black-British member of the International Brigades
* Gladys Keable; communist (CPGB member) and the future children's editor of the ''Morning Star''.
* Bill Keable; communist (CPGB member) and the husband of Gladys Keable, who would become the ''Morning Star''s director.
* Winifred Langton, communist, internationalist and activist
* Max Levitas, a Jewish Communist activist (CPGB member) described by the ''Morning Star'' in 2018 as the "last survivor of the Battle of Cable Street".
* Betty Papworth, communist organizer (CPGB member) and anti-war activist
* Phil Piratin, member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).
* Alan Winnington, communist (CPGB member), journalist and war correspondent.
*

Commemoration

Between 1979 and 1983, a large mural depicting the battle was painted on the side of St George's Town Hall. It stands in Cable Street, about 350 metres east of the main barricade that stood by the junction with ''Christian Street''. Commissioned soon after the 40th anniversary of the battle, the Cable Street Mural is the collective work of four artists: David Binnington, Paul Butler, Desmond Rochfort, and Ray Walker.

A red plaque in ''Dock Street'' (just south of the Royal Mint Street, Leman Street, Cable Street, Dock Street junction) also commemorates the confrontation.

Numerous events were planned in East London for the battle's 75th anniversary in October 2011, including music and a march, and the mural was restored. In 2016, to mark the battle's 80th anniversary, a march took place from Altab Ali Park to Cable Street, attended by some of those who were originally involved.

In popular culture

Music

* British folk punk band The Men They Couldn't Hang relate the battle in their 1986 song "Ghosts of Cable Street".
* The song "Cable Street" by English folk trio The Young'uns tells the story of the confrontation from the perspective of a young anti-fascist fighter.
* The song "Cable Street Again" by the Scottish black metal band Ashenspire references the Battle of Cable Street in its title and lyrics.
* The Scottish anarcho-punk band Oi Polloi refers the event in several of their songs, most prominently in "Let The Boots Do The Talking".
* German melodic death metal band Heaven Shall Burn refer to this event in the song "They Shall Not Pass" on their 2016 album Wanderer.

Stage

* The Arnold Wesker play '' Chicken Soup with Barley'' depicts an East End Jewish family on the day of the Battle of Cable Street.
* In 2023, Tracy-Ann Oberman starred as Shylock in William Shakespeare's ''The Merchant of Venice: 1936'', adapted and directed by Brigid Larmour. The production was set during the Battle of Cable Street and toured the UK (including a run at the Royal Shakespeare Company) before transferring to the Criterion Theatre in London's West End in March 2024 for a limited run.
* A new musical called ''Cable Street'' by Tim Gilvin and Alex Kanefsky premiered at the Southwark Playhouse in February 2024.

Literature

* The confrontation is depicted in the 2012 novel '' Winter of the World'' by Welsh-born author Ken Follett.
* The book '' Night Watch'' by Terry Pratchett has a Battle of Cable Street.

Television

* In the 15 February 2019 episode of ''EastEnders'', Dr Harold Legg and Dot Branning watch a documentary about the battle on DVD and Dr Legg recounts the events of the battle to Dot before dying, telling her that he met his wife Judith there.
* The 2010 BBC revival of the '' Upstairs Downstairs'' series devotes an episode to the Battle of Cable Street.

See also

* Battle of George Square – a riot in Glasgow in 1919 in which William Gallacher (CPGB member & colleague of Phil Piratin) was involved
* Battle of Carfax – skirmish in Oxford between the BUF and anti-fascists of the Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain.
* Battle of Stockton – an earlier incident between BUF members and anti-fascists in Stockton-on-Tees on 10 September 1933
* Battle of South Street – an incident between BUF members and anti-fascists in Worthing on 9 October 1934
* Battle of De Winton Field – a clash between BUF members and anti-fascists in the Rhondda on 11 June 1936
* Battle of Holbeck Moor – a clash between BUF members and anti-fascists in Leeds on 27 September 1936
* Siege of Sidney Street – a gunfight that took place in 1911, a few streets away
* Christie Pits riot – a similar incident that took place in Toronto on 16 August 1933
* 6 February 1934 crisis – a similar event that took place in Paris
* Battle of Praça da Sé – a similar event that took place in São Paulo in 1934
* '' National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie'' – a court case arising from a similar situation, a planned fascist march and the response to it, in 1977.
* Battle of Lewisham – a clash involving National Front demonstrators, anti-NF counter-demonstrators, and police on 13 August 1977.

References

External links

The Battle of Cable Street 80th anniversary

News footage from the day
News reel from YouTube.com

Video for the Ghosts of Cable Street by 'They Men They Couldn't Hang' set to images of the battle

Historical article by David Rosenberg linked to the 'battle's 75th anniversary

The Battle of Cable Street
as told by the Communist Party of Britain.

"Fascists and Police Routed at Cable Street"
a personal account of the battle by a participant.




Google Earth view of the junction of Cable Street and Christian Street as it is now

The Myth of Cable Street
on the History Today website

A police constable's account
– Tom Wilson was on duty at Cable Street

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