Why Cable Street is more than a history lesson

Anti-fascism and anti-racism are one side of the coin, and class struggle is the other

I was one of the anti-fascists who confronted the far right Restore Britain party in Camden, north London, during the recent Holborn and St Pancras by-election campaign.

We chased off the fascists at the heart of Restore Britain’s operation for three Saturdays in a row.

As we did so, we were inspired by the militant anti-fascist tradition and the Battle of Cable Street, which took place in east London 90 years ago.

The tactic of physically confronting fascists in the streets was what stopped Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists (BUF) in London and elsewhere.

It was crucial to defend the mostly Jewish area that Mosley was targeting.

But not everyone accepted this tactic. It was a position that had to be fought for.

The Labour Party, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and several newspapers all urged people to stay away or stay at home. They argued that it should be left to the police and local authorities to “maintain law and order”.

Even the Communist Party (CP) had planned a youth rally in solidarity with the anti-fascist struggle in Spain at Trafalgar Square miles away instead. Until the Friday before the battle, it was still calling on anti-fascists to go to central London.

But, Communists in Stepney mobilised against the BUF, calling on people to mobilise in the East End, not Trafalgar Square.

1936: Driving the fascists out of the East End

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On the day, huge numbers of people prevented the police from clearing a path through the area for Mosley and the BUF to march through.

Blockades and barricades were set up with trams and lorries, and large numbers of people filling the streets.

The organisers were able to stop the fascists and, a week later, held a mass victory parade through the same streets.

Nevertheless, the CP recognised that some working class people in Stepney were being drawn in by Mosley’s scapegoating of Jewish people.

They faced terrible living conditions and rising unemployment. The fascists exploited the disillusionment people felt, making empty promises but delivering nothing.

The CP saw the necessity of “exposing the fascists to their own supporters” and putting down “roots in the people” of Stepney if it wanted to build a permanent force.

The party involved itself in working class struggles, such as rent strikes and the fight against evictions.

In his memoir, Our Flag Stays Red, Phil Piratin describes how the CP stopped landlords evicting a family in 1937. Communists organised huge numbers of people to stop the eviction using barricades and flour bombs.

After successfully seeing off the bailiffs, whole families of BUF supporters tore up their membership cards because the Communists had proved that they were the real force defending working class interests.

Today, we must look for similar opportunities to embed the anti-racist struggle in the working class.

The conditions we face—soaring rents, collapsing health services and rising unemployment—are eerily similar. The far right builds on disillusionment with mainstream politics but offers nothing to ordinary people.

The only way we can stop the fascists and win gains for our side is through organised working class activity.

Today, there are many on the left who argue that the left should just focus on “community organising” around social issues. But ignoring the cancer of racism in our class does not lessen its devastating effects—it makes our task harder.

That is why anti-fascism and anti-racism are one side of the coin, and class struggle is the other.

We need militant anti-fascism to stop the fascists growing—and working class struggles to give people hope.