Follow

By News Desk
October 4 2012

The Battle of Cable Street 76 years ago today is still an inspiration for antifascists.

On 4 October 1936, thousands of people turned out to stop Oswald Mosley’s ‘Blackshirts’ – the fascists of the time – from marching through the East End of London, then a mainly Jewish area.

Cable Street marked a key defeat for Mosley’s British Union of Fascists and set an example of unity as Jewish and non-Jewish workers stood together, determined that the fascists should not pass.

Here are a couple of videos to mark the anniversary.

The first is newsreel footage, showing the scale of the mobilisation. Irish dockers were among those who showed solidarity with East London’s Jewish community – the target of Mosley’s Blackshirts – as everyone united against the fascists.

In the second video, Cable Street veteran Ubby Cowan looks back on the famous day.

Originally published by

Follow