Battle of Cable Street

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The Battle of Cable Street was a series of clashes that took place at several locations in the East End of London, most famously Cable Street, on Sunday 4 October 1936. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, sent to protect a march by the British Union of Fascists,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> led by Oswald Mosley, and anti-fascist demonstrators, including local trade unionists, communists, British Jews, and socialist groups.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> The anti-fascist counter-demonstration included both organised and unaffiliated participants. The battle resulted in the BUF having thousands of new members, and a large wave of anti-Semitic violence took place throughout the UK.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Background

BUF announce march

On 26 September 1936, the British Union of Fascists (BUF) advertised a march to take place the following weekend, on Sunday 4 October, the fourth anniversary of their organisation. Thousands of BUF followers, dressed in their Blackshirt uniform, were to march through the heart of the East End. The BUF had been founded in Chelsea and was headquartered in Westminster, so the decision to celebrate their anniversary with a march in East London, an area that then had a large Jewish population, rather than at their West London HQ was seen as an intentional provocation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

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.<ref name=bufleaflet>Template:Cite web Website shows the original BUF leaflet with exact locations and times.</ref>

Calls for a ban

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)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="ILP Leaflet After">Template:Cite web</ref> in two days.<ref name=game/>

On 1 October 1936, the five East London mayors, led by Helena Roberts, the Mayor of Stepney visited the Home Office, and had a one hour meeting in which they expressed their fear at the consequences of the march. But despite John Simon, the Home Secretary's, known opposition to the BUF political approach "this dressing up in fancy uniforms and this aping of military organisation for political purposes", the Home Office did not agree to ban the march.<ref>Template:Cite book cited by Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

The following day, 2 October 1936, The petition was presented to the Home Office by representatives of a broad coalition of local groups:

  • Jack Pearce and other representatives of the Jewish Peoples Council (JPC)
  • James Hall MP

Labour MP for Whitechapel and St Georges

Trade Unionist, Secretary of the London Trades Council

Anglican Priest at Christ Church on Watney Street, Wapping, and prominent member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP)

Jack Pearce of the JPC recounted that the delegation was courteously received by a senior Home Office official, but advised that the Home Secretary could not, or would not intervene.<ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

Counter-rally prepared

Although disappointed by the decision not to ban the march, the Labour Party and the Board of Deputies of British Jews (an organisation dominated by deputies from outside East London) decided to oppose any counter-demonstration and newspapers supportive of Labour and the Board, such as the Daily Herald, News Chronicle and Jewish Chronicle, ran editorials urging people to stay away from any counter-demonstration.<ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

The Communist Party of Great Britain also initially opposed direct action; like the Labour Party and the Board of Deputies they were worried about being portrayed as hooligans. The communists had a further complication in having arranged another event, a rally at Trafalgar Square in the West End, for the same day, to demonstrate support for Spain's Republican government, an event they gave priority. Under pressure from East End branches of their party, they did compromise and organised an event at Shoreditch Town Hall for the evening, after Mosley's march and after their West End event had taken place.<ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

The Independent Labour Party (ILP) called for a counter-rally, and on the evening of Thursday 1 October, having hired loudspeakers, they took a van round the streets of East London calling on the people to take to the streets on Sunday to block the entry points to the East End. The Evening Standard reported on their call for action, and through the headline "Big ILP counter-rally" on billboards across the London area, inadvertently amplified the ILP's message. At a meeting at Hackney Town Hall on the ILP, they went further and resolved to telegram the Home Secretary telling him that any adverse consequences of the march would be his responsibility.<ref name="The Battle for the East End"/><ref name="ILP Leaflet After"/>

Having organised the petition, the Jewish People's Council distributed hundreds of thousands of leaflets insisting the march must not take place, and in so doing implicitly encouraging people onto the streets. One of their members, the mainly Jewish "Ex-Servicemen's Movement Against Fascism" already intended an anti-fascist march on Sunday 4th October but were denied permission for the event on the basis that the BUF had organised their march first. They supported the calls for a counter rally and resolved to march through the East End despite having been denied permission.<ref name="The Battle for the East End"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Late on Wednesday night the Communist Party, under continued pressure from East End branches, changed position and agreed to cancel the Trafalgar Square event and counter-protest Mosley in the East End instead. On Thursday, thousands of leaflets advertising the Trafalgar Square event were overprinted with the legend "Alteration! Rally to Aldgate. 2PM". On Friday, their Daily Worker newspaper, which carried the party's influence well beyond its limited membership, included a front page article urging readers to attend the counter-protest.<ref name="The Battle for the East End"/><ref name="Cable Street, the left and anti-semitism">Template:Cite web</ref>

Field of operations

A legacy of the long-ago demolished London Wall is that there are just 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.<ref name=bufleaflet/>

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:<ref name=bufleaflet/><ref name="London, The Autobiography">Template:Cite book 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.</ref><ref name="The Battle for the East End">Template:Cite book</ref>

In response their opponents, who knew of the intended meetings but not the intended routes from Tower Hill, called on the public to assemble at key points:<ref name="Everything Happens on Cable Street">Template:Cite book</ref>

  • Leman Street and Aldgate - Anti-fascists considered Leman Street to Aldgate, the logical route for the BUF to take, with the force then expected to divide into smaller columns after reaching the junctions there.
  • Cable Street - Considered challenging for the BUF, as it was then a narrow street, overlooked by homes.
  • St George's Street (now known as The Highway) - This was considered an even harder route for the BUF and the Police did not attempt to clear it.

The main mass of anti-fascist protesters would gather at Aldgate, the central of East End's three entry points, 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.)<ref name="Battle for the East End">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=miller/>

The counter-protesters had reserves positioned in a number of locations, including Brick Lane and Commercial Street, ready to create obstructions and offer resistance should the Police and BUF attempt passage. Thousands more waited in the side streets leading to Limehouse. In addition, the Communists sent groups of men to attempt to seize some or all of the speaking platforms that the BUF intended to use later in the day.<ref name="Everything Happens on Cable Street"/><ref name="Our Flag Stays Red"/>

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.<ref name="The East End, Than and Now">Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref name="London, The Autobiography"/><ref name=jones>Jones, Nigel, Mosley, Haus, 2004, p. 114</ref> The Fascists had a casualty dressing station at their Tower Hill assembly point.<ref name="London, The Autobiography"/>
  • There were 6,000–10,000 policemen, including the whole of the Metropolitan Police Mounted Division.<ref name="London, The Autobiography"/><ref name=jones/><ref name="The East End, Than and Now"/><ref name="Yesterday's Witness"/> The police had wireless vans and a spotter plane<ref name="London, The Autobiography"/> sending updates on crowd numbers and movements to Philip Game's HQ, at Tower Hill.<ref name="The East End, Than and Now"/>
  • Estimates of the number of anti-fascist counter-demonstrators range from 100,000<ref name="London, The Autobiography"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> to 250,000,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 300,000,<ref name=ilpcover/> 310,000, and up to 500,000.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Independent Labour Party and Communists, like the Fascists, set up medical stations to treat their injured.<ref name="London, The Autobiography"/>

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.<ref name="London, The Autobiography"/><ref name="The East End, Than and Now"/>

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.<ref name="London, The Autobiography"/>

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.<ref name="London, The Autobiography"/>

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.<ref name="The East End, Than and Now"/>

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 public were requested to gather in the area at 2pm, but large numbers were already present by mid-morning.<ref name="Britain in the Nineteen Thirties"/> Attempts to clear Gardiner's Corner began in late morning.<ref name="Yesterday's Witness"/>

Despite having had permission to march denied to them, a column of the 'Ex-Servicemen's Movement Against Fascism', wearing their Great War medals and carrying their British Legion standard before them, had spent the morning marching round the district to advertise the counter-protest. At 11:30, they were passing along Whitechapel Road when they found their way blocked by a cordon of police at the New Road junction, half a mile east of their destination at Gardiners Corner. They demanded the right to march in their own borough, the same right granted the incoming fascists. Fighting broke out, they were attacked by mounted police, and there was a battle for the standard. The police eventually captured the standard, tore it to pieces and smashed the flag pole to pieces in front of the eyes of the ex-Servicemen.<ref name="The Battle for the East End"/><ref name="Our Flag Stays Red">Template:Cite book</ref>

The streets around Aldgate were broad, and impossible to effectively barricade except by blocking them with large crowds of determined people. Several tram routes went through Gardiner's Corner, and efforts to hold the junction were helped when a number of tram cars, perhaps four,<ref name="Everything Happens on Cable Street"/> were abandoned in the road by their drivers, possibly deliberately. These abandoned vehicles would assist the counter-protesters by breaking up mounted police charges.<ref name="Yesterday's Witness">Template:Cite episode</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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 and Mile End Road, extending around a mile in total.<ref name="Edinburgh Evening News">Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name=miller>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="auto">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

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.<ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

At around 1:40pm, a large group broke off from the main body and headed into the Minories which leads to Tower Hill. At around 2:15pm, 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.<ref name="auto"/>

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."<ref name="Britain in the Nineteen Thirties">Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref name="Battle for the East End"/> Just after 3pm, Brockway found a phone box on Whitechapel Road and called the Home Office; the Home Secretary was not available so Brockway apprised a civil servant of the serious ongoing violence:<ref name="Battle for the East End"/>

Template:Blockquote

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.<ref name="Battle for the East End"/>

As the afternoon progressed, and with the Minories cleared, the Police tried to clear a route through the western flank of the counter-protesters, who were located on Aldgate High Street in the vicinity of St Botolph's Aldgate. They aimed to clear a route through to Houndsditch and beyond. This would allow the BUF marchers to reach their rally points via the Bishopsgate Without neighbourhood. This action was known as the Battle of Aldgate Pump, and the Police's failure to clear a route was partly a result of the casualties they suffered.<ref name="The East End, Than and Now"/><ref name="East London Observer">Template:Cite news</ref>

Cable Street

Protesters built a number of barricades on narrow Cable Street and its side streets. An initial barrier, made of materials taken from a nearby builders yard, was placed 170 metres along Cable Street immediately east of its junction with Shorter Street (now called Fletcher Street), in the St George in the East area of Wapping.<ref name="Yesterday's Witness"/><ref name="The East End, Than and Now"/> There was also a barrier on Back Church Lane (a side street leading toward the Aldgate area); the Back Church Lane barrier was erected under the railway bridge, just north of the junction with Cable Street.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The police took the first barricade and dismantled it, but several policemen were taken prisoner in fighting, held in empty shops and had their helmets and truncheons taken from them as souvenirs.<ref name="Yesterday's Witness"/><ref name="Britain in the Nineteen Thirties"/>

A second Cable Street barricade was placed by the junction with Christian Street, about 130 metres past the first barricade. This second barricade was formed by an overturned lorry reinforced by other materials.<ref name="Yesterday's Witness"/> Materials for a third barricade had also been gathered.<ref name="Britain in the Nineteen Thirties"/>

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.<ref name="Yesterday's Witness"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> At Cable Street, as elsewhere, children's marbles were also used to counter charges by mounted police.<ref name="Britain in the Nineteen Thirties"/>

Decision at Tower Hill

Mosley arrived in an open-topped black sports car, escorted by Blackshirt motorcyclists, just before 3:30pm.<ref name="Guardian newspaper"/> 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.<ref name="Guardian newspaper">Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref name="game">Template:Cite web</ref> The BUF event finished in Hyde Park.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

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.<ref name=hackney>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Many of the arrested demonstrators reported harsh treatment at the hands of the police.<ref>Kushner, Anthony and Valman, Nadia (2000) Remembering Cable Street: fascism and anti-fascism in British society. Vallentine Mitchell, p. 182. Template:ISBN.</ref>

Aftermath

The anti-fascists celebrated the community's united response, in which East-Enders of all backgrounds — including Irish Catholics, Jews, Orthodox Jews, dockers and Somali seamen — successfully resisted Mosley and his followers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The day after the battle, Mosley flew to Germany to marry his second wife, Diana Guinness (nee Mitford), at a ceremony in Joseph Goebbels' drawing room in Berlin. Adolf Hitler was the best man and gifted the couple a signed photograph in a silver frame. The episode caused considerable embarrassment among rank and file BUF members.<ref name="Hurrah for the Blackshirts">Template:Cite book</ref>

The day after the battle, Mosley flew to Berlin to marry Diana Mitford at the home of Josef Goebbels.

The events of 4 October 1936 are frequently cited by modern Antifa movements as "the moment at which British fascism was decisively defeated".<ref name=":0"/><ref name="An Intimate History of Antifa">Template:Cite magazine</ref> In reality 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Battle was a heavy psychological blow to the BUF and undermined Mosley's authority among senior party figures, leading to resignations, sackings and splits in the months that followed. The BUF also lost prestige with Mussolini and Italian funding began to dry up, leading the BUF to identify more closely with Hitler. As part of this shift, they renamed themselves the "British Union of Fascists and National Socialists".<ref name="Hurrah for the Blackshirts"/>

Conversely however, the Metropolitan Police Special Branch estimated that the BUF increased its membership in London by around 2000 people in the immediate aftermath of the battle – mostly very young men attracted by the chance of engaging in violence, rather than people with a strong ideological conviction.<ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

Despite the setback of 4th October, the BUF continued its activities across the country, including anti-Semitic attacks in Leeds, Manchester and London. The most serious incident was the Mile End Pogrom, which happened the weekend after the battle when anti-fascists held a victory march ending with a public meeting in Victoria Park, East London. They were confronted by BUF supporters on the route and then in the park. With the anti-fascists and police tied down by the fascists in Victoria Park, 150 fascist teenagers broke off and rampaged down the Mile End Road, smashing the windows of Jewish owned shops, turning over a car and assaulting people they took to be Jews. The attacks included throwing an elderly man and a seven year old girl through a plate glass window. The girl lost an eye.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="Our Flag Stays Red"/>

Sir Philip Game, head of the Metropolitan Police, warned that the BUF had become a much more dangerous movement during 1936. At his recommendation the Public Order Act 1936 outlawed party political "defence corps" and the wearing of political uniforms which Game felt would go some way to reducing some of the BUF's "spectacular appeal to the young and foolish". The Act also required organisers of large meetings and demonstrations to obtain police permission, this was in part due to the practice of the BUF to hold provocative meetings where opposition was virtually guaranteed. Game lobbied for an outright ban on the BUF but the government would not go that far.<ref>Template:Cite legislation UK</ref><ref name="Hurrah for the Blackshirts"/>

In May 1940, amid with unfolding crisis of the Battle of France, the BUF was banned with Mosley and his main lieutenants arrested and interned on the Isle of Man. One notable exception was William Joyce, who had fallen out with Mosley and left the party in 1937. Joyce, who was to have been one of the speakers at the four meetings the BUF planned on 4 October 1936, escaped to Germany days before the war began and served Germany as its chief English-language broadcaster, earning the nickname "Lord Haw-Haw".<ref name="Patterns of Membership and Support for the British Union of Fascists">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":0"/><ref name="Hurrah for the Blackshirts"/>

Notable participants

British Union of Fascists

Metropolitan Police

Counter-demonstrators

Commemoration

Commemorative plaque in Dock Street

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.<ref>Dr Rafael Schacter. Template:Cite AV media</ref>

A red plaque in Dock Street (just south of the Royal Mint Street, Leman Street, Cable Street, Dock Street junction) also commemorates the confrontation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Numerous events were planned in East London for the battle's 75th anniversary in October 2011, including music<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and a march,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> attended by some of those who were originally involved.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Music

Stage

Literature

Television

See also

References

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Template:London history Template:UK far right Template:Anti-fascism in the United Kingdom

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