The Battle of Cable Street - and a perfect day

This is a detail from the mural which commemorates the battle of Cable Street which took place on 4th October, 1936 when thousands and thousands of people stood against a march by Oswald Mosley's blackshirts through the East End. A full set of my photos can be seen here and if you google 'Cable Street mural' you'll find the full story of how and why the mural was created.

The full mural completely covers the end wall of a large house.

I had the day all to myself, having caught the 6am train to London (very cheap fare) and saw a wonderful sunrise. Arrived in London at 8am so I was able to have a gorgeous walk through very quiet - usually bustling - streets in the winter sun to find this fabulous landmark. Plenty of time before the start of a conference entitled 'Moving Forward: identifying and resisting the enemies of democracy in 2014'.

There were many interesting and thought-provoking speeches and discussions, but the one which really made me think was the session on 'no platform' - the pros and cons of whether far right speakers should be given the space in the mainstream media to air their views and whether or not news-gatherers (whether in words or images) should report on them.

After the conference I took part in a guided walk on the subject of 'antifascist footprints: the 1930s East End' which was led by a chap called David Rosenberg, and looked at things like who was Oswald Mosley? why did he target the East End? and loads of other stuff. The full walk lasts 2 and a half hours but there was only time to do a small part of it. I definitely intend to book onto the full tour at some point in the future.

The conference organisers had also arranged a post-conference social in the evening but as I had to get my train back at 9.30 I could only stay to hear a couple of the performers, both of whom were excellent. I did, though, have time to have a complimentary pint and buffet supper.