4th October 1936: The Battle of Cable Street

Oswald Mosley had formed the British Union of Fascists, known as the BUF, in 1932. In the 1920s he had served as a Conservative Member of Parliament before crossing the floor to the Labour Party. By the start of the 1930s, however, he had formed his own party that was strongly influenced by the ideas of Fascism.
The presence of Nazi sympathisers within the party meant that the BUF became increasingly anti-Semitic, while anti-fascist opposition began to mount. When Mosley proposed that his uniformed Blackshirts march through the East End of London, anti-fascists quickly petitioned the Home Secretary to ban the march.
Cable Street is situated in the Whitechapel area of East London, and had a large Jewish population at the time. Unwilling to ban the march, the government instead provided 7,000 police officers to clear the route for the BUF. Yet when the march began on 4 October, the 3,000 Blackshirts and their police escort were massively outnumbered by anti-fascist protesters drawn from a variety of political and religious groups.
As the police attempted to clear a route through the improvised barricades, violence erupted. The worst fighting took place on Cable Street where protesters attacked the heavy-handed police with improvised weapons. Unable to clear the route, Mosley and the BUF were eventually persuaded by Sir Philip Game, the Commissioner of Police, to abandon the march and leave the area.
Although the Battle of Cable Street was a success for the anti-fascists in the short-term, membership of the BUF grew and the violent ‘Mile End Pogrom’ took place a week later.

[@findas16]

Oh thanks I’d never heard of this

[@charleshoernemann8661]

Wow! I didn't know about this...thanks for that HistoryPod!

[@AmScEn]

Battle of Cable Street
Fascist participants : 2,000 to 3,000, up to 5,000
Anti-fascist counter-demonstrators : 250,000

[@alundavies8402]

Those chaps that stood against the fascists were my heroes as a child and nothing changed I still respect them for standing up against the blackshirts

[@pink_kino]

The Blackshirts are my heroes, fighting against the vested powers, waves of reaction, communists and atheists

[@declanshanahan3888]

Obviously on a Wind up 🤣

[@obiwansherlockclousseau5107]

@@pink_kino
How can a county with a monarch and a state religion have communists and atheists as vested powers? What's more, how can a communist state be more reactionary than a fascist one?

[@pink_kino]

@@obiwansherlockclousseau5107 Reactionary are Monarchists, Fascism is Revolutionary cause of being not really Traditional but Futurist.. The Fascists in Italy were Revolutionary and so were the Nazis not reactionary as that's what Monarchists and Catholic groups were

[@pink_kino]

@@obiwansherlockclousseau5107 Alsop reactionary is trying to preserve and being back

[@southpaw8924]

I lived there in the 70s & 80s, and went to Blue Gate Fields primary school.
I remember the tales of this in my younger days 👍🏿

[@user-cy6qg8zn8w]

i have to watch this and look at 9 other PowerPoints for my history test:((((((((((((

[@AmScEn]

Battle of Cable Street
Fascist participants : 2,000 to 3,000, up to 5,000
Anti-fascist counter-demonstrators : 250,000

[@illdrumatik391]

We got our own version of these guys called the Proud boys in the states

[@Thor.Jorgensen]

You've got more than just a couple of those groups in the states.

[@pink_kino]

British Union of Fascists were actually good lol

[@JohnSmith-cw4ve]

If it wasn't for antifa the proud boys probably never would exist. They are a reactionary group to all antifa's violence committed on innocent people.

[@d_ivanp4514]

@@pink_kino no

[@pink_kino]

@@d_ivanp4514 yes

[@JamesRichards-mj9kw]

The Battle of Cable Street increased anti-Semitism, and caused the BUF to have a surge in its support.
A peaceful march by patriots was prevented when the police were attacked by Communist thugs.
By late October 1936 membership in the BUF had increased by 2,000, with many joining East End branches of the organisation.
In March 1937 the BUF received 18% of the East End vote, and around 30% of the non-Jewish vote, in the three main areas of the Cable Street confrontation.

[@RebeccaTurner-ny1xx]

Wow, what a reversal of reality. The BUF were uniformed Nazis and thugs. Thankfully the working class saw it was being manipulated by them and the BUF's support disintegrated.

[@whiteout560]

We remember Mosley, and how Cable Street folks FOUGHT HIM... WHEN WE SEE THE FASH, WE LET THE BOOTS DO THE TALKING