Battle of Cable Street – Wikipedia

The Battle of Cable Street O Cable Street Riot (revolt of Cable Street) took place on Sunday 4 October 1936 a Cable Street in the East End in London. It was a clash between agents of the Metropolitan Police Service, who escorted an authorized procession of the British Union of the Fascists, led by Oswald Mosley, and an anti -fascist group, also including Jews, socialists, anarchists, Irish ^[first] and communists. Most of the demonstrators of both sides participated in the procession with the precise purpose of creating a provocation. Mosley decided to march thousands of fascists dressed in black shirts in the East End in London and in particular through the Stepney neighborhood which was inhabited by a large Israelite community, equal to about 60,000 people out of a total of 183,000 Jews in the city ^{[2] [3]} .

A few days before October 4th, through the anarchist and socialist activists of London, the residents of the East End had become aware of the imminent procession of British black shirts within their neighborhood. Intimorite and opposed, almost 100,000 residents signed a petition and sent it to the Minister of the Interior John Simon, with whom they asked the government to ban the procession. Minister Simon did not welcome the request of the residents but, with the aim of avoiding possible tensions and violence (London was at the time a very active forge of anarchist and communist ideas), decided to send men of the London Metropolitan Police as a escort of black shirts .

The Jewish associations of London declared that the procession was “obviously anti-semitted” and advised to “stay as much as possible by the East End on 4 October” ^[4] .

Given the will of the Jewish associations to give up the open clash, immediately, the Communist Party of Great Britain and the anarchists decided to organize themselves independently to block the procession of the British fascists ^[5] .

On the morning of October 4, 1936, the counter-manifestants barred the road in an attempt to prevent the parade. In front of them were approximately 2,500 fascists and no less than 20,000 anti-fascists. What at first sight seemed like a disorganized protest manifestation, in reality it had been planned at the table in order to block the access routes to the Mosley procession. The Daily Worker He had published a map of the area so that the demonstrators could organize their presence more effectively.

Already from their entry into the East End, the black shirts had been reached by launch of garbage, eggs and vegetables march by the residents stationed on the roofs of the houses. Barricades had been built near the intersection with Christian Street , to the west end of this long road. The opponents to the procession were armed in a very disordered way, with the legs of chairs, stones, sticks and chains ^[6] .

A force of six thousand policemen attempted to reopen the road, also with the support of agents on horseback, but was rejected by the barricades also made up of four trams abandoned by their respective drivers sympathizing with the protest procession. After a series of clashes between law enforcement and anti -fascists, in particular in Christian Street in front of the Gardiner’s corner of Whitechapel, and having the young communists occupied Victoria Park, for the members of the BUF only the way was open through Cable Street where the barricades And the demonstrators, despite a new police attack, prevented every step: the march could not be made and the group of British fascists dispersed into Hyde Park.

At the end of the clashes, 150 arrests were counted among the demonstrators and about 175 wounded between policemen and demonstrators, even if only five fascists were stopped.

A fifteen -year -old eye witness at the time of the event, William J. Fishman , he said: “I had gone to see the Jews with long beards and Irish Catholics stopped waiting for the arrival of the fascists. I will never be able to forget, for the rest of my life, as the group of members of the workers’ class yes he opposed the evil of racists ” ^[7]

The Battle of Cable Street It was the main factor that led to the issue of the Public Order Act 1936 , which prescribed a preventive police authorization for the organization of political gears and the ban on parading wearing any political uniform. This is generally considered one of the major elements that led to the political decline of the British fascist party well before the outbreak of the Second World War.
It is also remembered how the moment of definitive interruption of the popularity of fascism in the United Kingdom, ^[2] Although a week after a group of anti -Semites, Stepney will destroy numerous shop windows owned by citizens of Jewish religion. The episode is remembered as the Mile End pogrom ^[8] .