The Myth of Cable Street - History Today October 2011 issue

[The Idler]

Seventy-five years on, the Battle of Cable Street still holds a proud place in anti-fascist memory, considered a decisive victory against the far right. In fact, the event boosted domestic fascism and antisemitism and made life far more unpleasant for its Jewish victims, explains Daniel Tilles.The Myth of Cable Street (http://www.historytoday.com/daniel-tilles/myth-cable-street)

[Red Future]

bullshit.

[Invader Zim]

bullshit.

What an astounding retort. What exactly do you disagree with in the article? Do you see some other conclusion to draw from the fact that BUF membership increased significantly after Cable Street? Do you reject the observation that the press painted the fascists as the victims of the event? That there were far more, at least numerically, significant marches for the fascists after Cable Street?

[Volcanicity]

An interview from the Morning Star with Ubby Cowan who took part in the battle of Cable Street.


The vile, racist lies pouring from the mouth of war-time traitor William Joyce were too much for the young Ubby Cowan to bear.

"I just did not understand why I should be insulted when I was a respectable, law-abiding, tax-paying Jew," recalls the Cable Street veteran, now in his nineties.
"Why is should I have to listen to some one humiliate me so badly?"
It was 1933.
Cowan had turned up at a meeting of the British Union of Fascists in the heart of the East End, partly out of curiosity to hear whether the rumours were true.

And he was so incensed by the moronic speech made by Joyce - who would later flee to nazi Germany and gain infamy for his ludicrous anti-British radio broadcasts before being executed after the war for treason - that he simply couldn't contain his anger.

"I spoke to my friends and a gang of us went to a meeting to protest about their rudeness," he says.
"I heard Joyce speaking and it was too much to bear - so I charged the stage and threw him off the platform."

It was an early bout in the build-up to World War II, just one example of Cowan's commitment to equality, justice and freedom that was writ large throughout the 1930s.
He would become a key organiser for the Communist Party in Stepney, and he was one of those who organised a protest that has gone down as a vital moment in British political history - the Battle of Cable Street.

"When I realised that this was going on week after week in Stepney, and I remember grabbing Joyce and just saying to him, get out of it, you lying bastard. I sent him flying."

It prompted him to become politically active.
"Partly because of the disinterest shown by other political parties in what was happening to Jewish people in the East End, I joined the Communists," he recalls. It was 1933.

As the decade wore on and the fascist regimes on Germany and Italy went from strength to strength, Cowan began to fear that the same thing would happen in Britain.

Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists had mainstream support. The Daily Mail backed it, as did large sections of the Conservative Party.
Then Cowan heard of plans to hold a march through the East End - a deliberately provocative attempt to incite hatred and violence.
He was determined to stop it.

"As early as January 1936, there was a notice put in the national press saying Mosley had been told by the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Philip Games, that they could hold a rally," he recalls.

This would start by the Tower of London and then head provocatively through the East End, where 300,000 Jewish people lived. It would culminate in a huge meeting at Victoria Park Square.

"I was fuming," he recalls.
He went with friends straight to Parliament and they demanded to see their MPs, Barnett Janner and Danny Frankel.

"They of course knew about it and were incensed," he says.
"But when they asked the PM Stanley Baldwin to do something about it, he said banning the march would be a negation of democracy."

It soon became apparent to Cowan that he and his friends would have to do something about it themselves if they did not want to see fascists spreading their hate-filled lies on the streets of his neighbourhood.
It set in motion the organising for a day that 75 years on still has a unique place in British political history.

Cowan was working in a clothing factory in Buxton Street and had helped organise social events for his tailors' union.

"The union secretary asked me if I could go for a meeting up at the Marx House in Clerkenwell Green," he recalls. "There was the number 65 tram from Stepney that went all the way there, so I hopped on it and went to see what I could do to help."

It would lead to him having a major organising role.
"At the meeting, Johnny Mairne, the chair of the London Communist Party, said: 'It is obvious the Baldwin government are just not prepared to protect the Jewish people in Stepney. So we will do it'."

The meeting then elected six members to organise the response. Cowan was among those chosen. "We met the next evening and decided the first thing to do was raise some funds," he says.

"We went up the Whitechapel Road and spoke to shopkeepers. We asked them to chip in with donations, as we told them we would then be able to protect their windows from being smashed."

As well as businesses donating towards the organisation, there were bucket collections at the main markets.

"At the time Madrid was under siege and so we adopted their slogan No Pasaran as ours," he recalls.

They also had to prepare for the worst. Cowan recalls buying stocks of bandages and dressings and asking sympathetic doctors and nurses from the nearby London Hospital to be on hand that day to help treat any casualties.

"We knew if the police came, they could easily split heads with their long truncheons, swung at us from horseback," he recalls.

"We did not want to fight the police, but we did have to be prepared."
They also gathered stones and bricks to pelt the fascists. Buckets of water were placed on the rooftops of homes across the route, and half-full glass bottles of carbonated drinks were also prepared - when they hit the ground, they would shatter and help disorientate the blackshirt marchers.

But the Jewish community and the Communist Party could not stop the hordes of marching, uniformed bully boys alone. Cowan recalls the crucial help given by other working-class men.

"I spoke to Jack Dash, the chairman of the dockers' union, and told him our plans," he recalls.

The dockers, many of them militant Irish working-class men, were as appalled at the prospect of the upper-class Mosley leading his violent followers through the community. They pledged their support to the protesters.
It was the dockers who helped build a massive barricade across Cable Street itself.

"They decided where the narrowest spot in Cable Street was," recalls Cowan. It happened to be close to a builders' yard.

"They found a trailer that was about the right size to span the width of the street, so they dragged it across and then they found tons of heavy items such as poles, boards, iron railings to pile on top. It made a formidable barricade."

Then the Sunday dawned. Little did Cowan know it would go down in history, and act as one of the key moments that the British version of fascism would be beaten back.

"I was in charge of six runners," he says.
"I stationed them at key points with instructions to go back and forth with updates and messages to the headquarters, every 15 minutes, so we knew what was happening."

He recalls being at Gardeners Corner in Whitechapel when the police came charging towards him.

"I was standing in front of a giant glass window of a haberdashers on the corner. The atmosphere was terrible. The police stormed forward - there was no question of asking us to move.

"They were going to get stuck in. I was pushed back and went flying through the window - I was covered in glass and shop dummies. I had blood streaming down my face."
He was taken to get patched up and from the first aid post he could hear fearsome fighting, screaming and the sound of smashing glass all around.

The fascists headed towards Cable Street and Cowan, by now recovered, headed to help. He got there to find the dockers bravely fighting back both violent charges by mounted police - and behind them fascists.

"It was chaos. So much noise, fighting and things being thrown about," he recalls.
"The dockers were not going to let them come any further and the barricades were too heavy for the police to move. This went on for about another hour and then suddenly, a voice called from the roofs: 'They are leaving! They are going!'"

Cowan describes a scene of devastation strewn with broken glass and stones. They had won, but the day was not over. "I thought: 'The police have said there could be a march, so we'll give them one ourselves'."

They commandeered a van with loudspeakers attached to its roof. With a pair of red flags either side, they walked the route of the planned Mosley march to Victoria Park Square, where they held a celebratory rally.
Soon after ,the Home Secretary banned political groups from wearing uniforms in the street.

"Believe it or not, that simple law robbed Mosley of 90 per cent of his power," says Cowan.
"It was the uniforms that made all these cocky blokes who fancied themselves show up.
In civilian clothes they just looked like every one else and there was no charm in it any for them any more."

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/110177.

[Manic Impressive]

I have problems with the article. Undoubtedly the BUF's popularity did rise after cable street as did the ferocity of their anti-Semitism. But how much was that to do with Cable street? The article seems to make out that it was all down to that. But they already had sympathetic newspapers with the owner of the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, Lord Rothermere already being one of the largest financial backers. The drift towards Nazism from Italian fascism had more to do with the strength of Germany and Moseley's absolute opposition to a second war with them, due to his belief in a second war destroying the empire. This drift towards Nazism and Hitler away from Mussolini was also the cause of the BUF taking up an anti-Semitic position in the first place so it was already well under way by the time Cable Street happened. What Cable street did achieve is to lower Mosley's position internationally especially with Hitler who viewed it as a massive embarrassment to British Fascism due to Mosley's capitulation to the police's request that they did not march. Mussolini decreased funding because Mosley was drifting towards Hitler but Hitler was not as receptive of Mosley because of his actions that day which would have been different if they had not met resistance at Cable Street
It also neglects to mention that it was not just communists and Jewish people who stood up to the fascists at Cable Street but also plenty of other workers not affiliated with communist groups and other immigrant groups especially the Irish.

[The Idler]

Actually the Daily Mail/Rothermere had already withdrawn its support after the Olympia rally in 1934, as had most other supporters.

By the time Cable Street came round in 1936, BUF membership was a tenth of what it had been before Olympia. As the article makes clear, the events of Cable Street boosted the BUF.

Cable Street actually challenges the basic assumptions of the no-platform strategy of the anti-fascist movement. The facts would suggest fascists tend to attract members when on the streets (even with anti-fascist mobilisations) and lose members when on platforms.

[Anarchist Skinhead]

yes, of course- we should let fascists march as they see fit because militant opposition only strenghtens them ;) what a load of bollocks that analysis is.

[fionntan]

I have problems with the article. Undoubtedly the BUF's popularity did rise after cable street as did the ferocity of their anti-Semitism. But how much was that to do with Cable street? The article seems to make out that it was all down to that. But they already had sympathetic newspapers with the owner of the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, Lord Rothermere already being one of the largest financial backers. The drift towards Nazism from Italian fascism had more to do with the strength of Germany and Moseley's absolute opposition to a second war with them, due to his belief in a second war destroying the empire. This drift towards Nazism and Hitler away from Mussolini was also the cause of the BUF taking up an anti-Semitic position in the first place so it was already well under way by the time Cable Street happened. What Cable street did achieve is to lower Mosley's position internationally especially with Hitler who viewed it as a massive embarrassment to British Fascism due to Mosley's capitulation to the police's request that they did not march. Mussolini decreased funding because Mosley was drifting towards Hitler but Hitler was not as receptive of Mosley because of his actions that day which would have been different if they had not met resistance at Cable Street
It also neglects to mention that it was not just communists and Jewish people who stood up to the fascists at Cable Street but also plenty of other workers not affiliated with communist groups and other immigrant groups especially the Irish.


I was always under the impression that the majority fighting in Cable street were Irish and that they were road workers no dockers.But i thought it was a good article even though he did imply that it was jewish workers with a few irish helping out.:thumbup1:

[Manic Impressive]

Actually the Daily Mail/Rothermere had already withdrawn its support after the Olympia rally in 1934, as had most other supporters.

By the time Cable Street came round in 1936, BUF membership was a tenth of what it had been before Olympia. As the article makes clear, the events of Cable Street boosted the BUF.

Cable Street actually challenges the basic assumptions of the no-platform strategy of the anti-fascist movement. The facts would suggest fascists tend to attract members when on the streets (even with anti-fascist mobilisations) and lose members when on platforms.
ok I admit I might have got my dates confused in regards to Rothermere withdrawing financial backing but the point I was making was that they already had the support of his newspapers while the article suggests that cable street was what made the newspapers support the BUF.

[Manic Impressive]

I was always under the impression that the majority fighting in Cable street were Irish and that they were road workers no dockers.But i thought it was a good article even though he did imply that it was jewish workers with a few irish helping out.:thumbup1:
There probably was both dockers and road workers but I don't know if the Irish were a majority. It doesn't matter though the great thing was everyone from different nationalities and cultural backgrounds united by their class coming together to fight a common enemy. I think it really speaks to the Irish workers principals seeing as Mosley had campaigned against the Black and Tans

[fionntan]

There probably was both dockers and road workers but I don't know if the Irish were a majority. It doesn't matter though the great thing was everyone from different nationalities and cultural backgrounds united by their class coming together to fight a common enemy. I think it really speaks to the Irish workers principals seeing as Mosley had campaigned against the Black and Tans


I agree but can you explain your last line.

[Manic Impressive]

err I'm a little rusty on my history of Mosely. But he left the conservative party over the governments Irish policy, the conservatives had created the black and tans.

Here's a piece written by Mosely on the situation in Ireland

What interest has an Englishman in Ireland? The answer is that this Englishman proved his interest in Ireland and friendship for her people when, as the youngest member of the British Parliament, he became Secretary of the Parliamentary Committee which opposed the operations of the Black and Tans and demanded peace with Ireland. We succeeded at any rate in bringing the Black and Tan iniquity to an end, but we were only partially successful in winning peace for Ireland, because the Government of the day dismembered Ireland. The original Tory demand was for a nine county Ulster divided from Ireland, which would have subjected a 65% Catholic majority, to the Protestant minority in those counties. The final "partition" of six counties still included predominantly Catholic areas.
POLICEMAN'S KNOCK
The rule which followed has been a disgrace to Britain. What a bitter irony for the British war-time Prime Minister to advocate the "Union of Europe at the Hague and renunciate as his basic principle "freedom from fear of the policeman's knock" in a period when the "policeman's knock" is still the only means by which the Tory Party can maintain its rule in Ulster. For the six Counties are the first Police State in Europe : they have always had arrest and imprisonment without trial.
EQUIVALENT OF 18B
Their equivalent of 18B was not confined to war-time: it is their regular method of government in Northern Ireland. The rounding up of Catholics and holding them in prison without trial through the best- years of their young manhood is a commonplace of this system. Freedom from "fear of the policeman's knock" indeed. We had arrest and imprisonment without trial in England during the war: we have it still in Ulster today.
For long past it has been my practice not to attack anyone who sincerely and strenuously opposes Communism. I shall not do so now, but I suggest that Europe - cannot be united on a basis of humbug, and that every Englishman is put in that position by the Ulster situation, if he advocates freedom from imprisonment without trial in the Europe of the future. For my part I have always stood for the principle of no imprisonment without trial. If a nation so desires, it can always alter the law to suit the facts of a new civilisation. But no nation has the moral right to imprison any subject who has kept the law and can be charged with no breach of the law.
TWO POLICE STATES
If the Government acts in this way it is guilty of a frame-up and a racket from which no one can be safe. Where is freedom if you say to the individual: "What you did yesterday was perfectly legal and according to law, but we are going to imprison you for having done it." or alternatively: "you have not broken the law, but we fear you may commit some offence in future, so we are going to imprison you to prevent it. Under such formulae of mis-Government no-one is safe from gaol and all freedom is a mockery. That was the war-time system in England and it is the present system in Ulster. Soviet Russia and Ulster share the distinction of having been the only two Police States in Europe to last for some'30 years. The first is run by International Communism, and the second by the British Tory Party.
UNION OF EUROPE
The Ulster disgrace must be brought to an end. Now is the time and opportunity to do it, all Western nations should soon have the chance to enter a wider Union of Europe. Admission to that larger community will bring a guarantee against the persecution of minorities which could not exist within the narrow hatreds of smaller societies. A minority of Protestants, of course, does exist in Northern Ireland. They have used their fear of persecution to secure from British Government the means to persecute an almost equal number of Catholics. Both the fear and excuse will be removed on entry to the Union of Europe. The large community of the future can guarantee freedom from persecution to such minorities. No further reason or excuse exists for the separate life of the Ulster State. Therefore, Union Movement affirms the right of Ireland to unite and then, as a united people, to enter the wider Union of Europe.
OSWALD MOSLEY

[fionntan]

Are you not thinking of Enoch P?

[fionntan]

I know only to well of the background of the tans my family suffered under them. I wasnt aware Mossley was an advacate of unifacation albeit for his own imperilist interests. Thanks for the article..

[The Idler]

yes, of course- we should let fascists march as they see fit because militant opposition only strenghtens them ;) what a load of bollocks that analysis is.
_VNn5_QYMW8

[RevoTO]

Didn't the YCL and the CP in Britain completely change its anti-fascist position following the Cable Street? The YCL was largely responsible for the massive mobilization against the fascist at cable street. Following that they dropped their militant anti fascist policies and instead advocated turning a blind eye to the fascist. Without a strong and united resistance the fascist were given free reign to more or less do as they please. This could have very well caused the resurgence of the fascist in Britain.

Source: Menace of Fascism by Ted Grant (Not able to link, marxist.org)

He discusses British Fascism towards the end, the segment on Britain is not long at all. Would love if you could give the end a read and give me your thoughts.

[The Idler]

From Menace of Fascism by Ted Grant (http://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1948/fascism.htm)


At that time the Communist Party was mainly responsible for calling militant workers to counter-demonstrations against the fascists. The YCL played a magnificent role. But after 1936 this militant policy of the Communist Party changed and they now avoided any counter-action against the fascists on the wide and militant scale witnessed before. With the coming of Hitler to power the Communist Parties throughout the world had degenerated into nothing but instruments of Russian foreign policy, and their activities reflected this. When Stalin found it impossible to arrive at an agreement with Hitler at that time there was a right about-turn on the part of the then Communist International.

Again, the change of Brit CP policy from fighting to turning a blind-eye to British fascism happened in 1934 after the Olympia rally. The Olympia rally marked the start of a decline in British fascism and it wasn't until "strong and united resistance" of Cable Street in 1936 that the BUF got a boost.


The CP only threw their considerable weight behind the East End anti-fascist mobilisation when it was clear three days before that they had lost control of their own local members and sympathisers, who would follow the Independent Labour Party’s call on workers to block the route of the fascist march.
At first they told workers not to oppose the fascists in the East End, and instructed CP members to go to the Embankment and then Trafalgar Square instead.
Joe Jacobs, a local CP branch secretary who later broke with the party, was instructed by his superiors four days before the fascist march not to get involved and instead to build for a demonstration, miles away in Trafalgar Square, in support of the Spanish Republic against the Spanish fascists.
His instructions were clear: “Keep order, no excuse for the Government to say we, like the BUF, are hooligans. If Mosley decides to march, let him. Our biggest trouble tonight will be to keep order and discipline.”
In his posthumously published autobiography, Jacobs explains the reason for the eventual change of line very clearly: “The pressure from the people of Stepney, who went ahead with their own efforts to oppose Mosley, left no doubt in our minds that the CP would be finished in Stepney if this was allowed to go through as planned by our London leaders.” - WoLib (http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2011/09/21/cable-street-1936-when-workers-stopped-fascists)

[Invader Zim]

I know only to well of the background of the tans my family suffered under them. I wasnt aware Mossley was an advacate of unifacation albeit for his own imperilist interests.

Which makes it a wonder why you hold the ultra-reactionary nationalist politics that you evidently do.

[Devrim]

Didn't the YCL and the CP in Britain completely change its anti-fascist position following the Cable Street? The YCL was largely responsible for the massive mobilization against the fascist at cable street. Following that they dropped their militant anti fascist policies and instead advocated turning a blind eye to the fascist. Without a strong and united resistance the fascist were given free reign to more or less do as they please. This could have very well caused the resurgence of the fascist in Britain.

The YCL was actually against the demonstration until the last minute. As mentioned in a previous post the main organizer was Joe Jacobs. The chapter from his book describing the events around Cable Street can be found here (http://libcom.org/library/battle-cable-st-1936-joe-jacobs).

Devrim

[OHumanista]

Yes letting the fascists do what they want works wondefully, just look how it turned out in Germany. Let us all let them do what they want even seize the government and they will eventually disappear mysteriously.

*sarcasm evidently*:D

[Sasha]

Actually the Daily Mail/Rothermere had already withdrawn its support after the Olympia rally in 1934, as had most other supporters.

By the time Cable Street came round in 1936, BUF membership was a tenth of what it had been before Olympia. As the article makes clear, the events of Cable Street boosted the BUF.

Cable Street actually challenges the basic assumptions of the no-platform strategy of the anti-fascist movement. The facts would suggest fascists tend to attract members when on the streets (even with anti-fascist mobilisations) and lose members when on platforms.


A. who says that a temporally increase in (according to most figures i have seen about the BUF's paying membership) middle class membership should be the determination of the factor of success of the mobilization?
the mobilization was primarily to stop the violent SA style "vanguard" of the BUF to swagger around the (Jewish) working class neighborhood and secondarily to hurt their acceptability with the establishment.
they succeeded in both i believe.
B. an materialist analysis of the increase of membership of the BUF would point towards the apparent economic wonder taking place in nazi-germany for appeal in economic hard hit Great Brittan as an far more likely reason for this than whatever happend arround the BUF itself.

also:


The facts would suggest fascists tend to attract members when on the streets (even with anti-fascist mobilisations) and lose members when on platforms.

the only time when the NSDAP, who dominated the platform from 1925 onwards, started to loose members was around 1942 when they where getting shot at an massive scale ;) so no, "the facts" are multiple interpretable at best.

[The Idler]

A. who says a literal decimation (fell by an order of 10) in members of the BUF shouldn't determine the success of platforming them?

B. A materialist analysis might well suggest fascist support fluctuates with economic conditions, but if anything, this is an argument for platforming them.

The NSDAP did indeed grow after 1925, coincidentally after they stopped sharing platforms with communist speakers which they believed to be the cause of lost members and waning influence.

"To see what is meant by flexible tactics, it is worth taking a quick look at the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in the early 1920s. For these comrades it was not anathema to debate with fascist organisations. Rightly, the KPD did not doggedly pursue this over a protracted period of time. It was, though, another string to its bow and one that certainly should not be dismissed out of hand.6
Another leading SWP member, Chris Harman, even acknowledges this in his worthwhile book on the German revolution. He writes that in 1923, as part of the “ideological offensive against the Nazis amongst the Nazis’ own followers”, “leading communists such as Ruth Fischer debated against Nazi spokesmen in meetings of students - for example, where the Nazis were strong and the revolutionary left was very weak”.7
Similarly Pierre Broué explains that “the communists systematically sought discussion and public debate with the Nazis, especially amongst students, who formed one of their bastions”.8 Further, there were also open exchanges in print between the communists Karl Radek and Paul Froehlich, on the one hand, and Count Ernst Reventlow and Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, on the other. The KPD was so serious about undermining the tenuous arguments put forward by the far right and the Nazis that it published a pamphlet which its members did their utmost to sell, including in particular to members of the Nazi party.
In their debates with the far right KPD speakers were able to put across their ideas to great effect. On August 2 1923, KPD leader Hermann Remmele spoke at a Nazi meeting in Stuttgart, and on August 10 a Nazi speaker spoke at a KPD meeting. Remmele made it clear: “They told you that communism would take everything from you. But it is capitalism that has taken everything from you!” As both Broué and Harman acknowledge in their accounts, these meetings proved too much for the Nazis, who discontinued them after August 1923, believing them to be a cause of lost members and waning influence." - Weekly Worker 779 (http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/779/hownotto.php)