Sidney Street Porter’s Streets of Rage - 1. Cable Street

80 years ago, on 4th October 1936, the British Union of Fascists (BUF), headed by once Conservative and Labour leader aspirant Sir Oswald Mosley, attempted to march through a working class area of the East End of London that contained a large Jewish and Irish immigrant population. Their paramilitary wing, many of whom had served in the British military, was referred to as The Blackshirts, due to the chosen colour of their menacing uniforms. They were planning another of their rallies to rampage through the area, stamping their boots across land that was regularly trodden by common workers and labourers and exploiting the rising tensions between Eastern European Jewish immigrants and gentiles over jobs and housing in this underprivileged district. The BUF had been doing this for the past two years, inspired by the rise of Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany, but the people of the East End saw what the implications of this kind of militarised action could lead to, and decided to put a stop to it.

Around 100,000 people from a variety of backgrounds, anarchists included, as well as communists and socialists, Irish and Jewish immigrant labourers, Labour Party trade unionists and dockers and many British working class residents, managed to organise a protest against the march that was announced a week earlier by Mosley to commemorate the fourth anniversary of his organisation’s creation. There were only 5000 fascists attending, but they were being assisted by almost 10,000 Metropolitan Police officers, who on the day attempted to clear a safe path for the fascists using police horses and batons. The protesters stood firm and blocked the route of the police and the fascists. This was not a non-violent protest, as it is sometimes portrayed. Blood was spilt on all sides. People used makeshift weapons, such as rocks and pieces of furniture, and some emptied the contents of chamberpots on their attackers. The police incurred 73 recorded injuries from a total of 175, and between 70 and 150 anti-fascist supporters were arrested, some managing to evade arrest with support from other demonstrators.

In the aftermath, it was claimed by the BUF that the alien Jewish Communists had used the event to sully the name of the decent, honest, law-abiding, patriotic working class people of the East End, playing the victim card as the far right often does, but the symbolic solidarity and direct action taken on that day sent a strong message to the fascists that caused to their support to dwindle -

¡No Parasan! - They shall not pass!