¡No Pasarán!

This week was the 80th Aniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. Given the rather grim reading in the national press this week, I decided I'd take a wander down to visit Cable Street in person.

The Battle of Cable Street took place in 1936. Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists wanted to March down Cable Street, in Uniforms styled after the Mussolini's Black Shirts. Cable Street was a largely Jewish area and this was a deliberate provocation.  Despite this, the government was hesitant to ban the march and in the end even set a large escort of Police to ensure the march went ahead.

On the day 2000-3000 fascists and 6000 police officers were met by a force of 20,000 antifascists, made up of local Jewish people, Communists, Anarchists, Trade Unionists and Dockers. They constructed a barricade near the intersection with Christian Street. The police tried to clear a path for the fascists and were met with fierce resistance. Locals pelted them with projectiles from their windows, emptying chamber pots over the (ahem) filth. So determined were the people of Cable Street, that the fascist March was cancelled. Many of the protestors were arrested and injured.

The image above is from the Cable Street Mural, painted onto the side of St George's Town Hall. It commemorates the Battle. In times like this it's important to remember the struggles of the past, lest we make the same mistakes again. It also underlines the fact that you can't always trust the government/police to be on the right side of History.