Battle of Cable Street


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, led by Oswald Mosley, and anti-fascist demonstrators organised by the Independent Labour Party, the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Jewish Peoples Council. The anti-fascist counter-demonstration included both organised and unaffiliated participants.

Background

BUF announce march

On 26 September 1936, the British Union of Fascists 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.
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.

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 people, including the Mayors of the five East London Boroughs in two days.
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 the Home Secretary John Simon'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.
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
  • James Hall MP: Labour MP for Whitechapel and St Georges
  • Alfred Wall: Trade Unionist, Secretary of the London Trades Council
  • Father John Groser: Anglican Priest at Christ Church on Watney Street, Wapping, and prominent member of the Independent Labour Party
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.

Counter-rally prepared

Although disappointed by the decision not to ban the march, the Labour Party and the Board of Deputies of British Jews decided to oppose any counter-demonstrations. In addition, 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.
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 on 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.
The Independent Labour Party 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.
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.
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 against 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.

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 and Tower Hill. 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.
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:
  • Salmon Lane, Limehouse, at 5 pm
  • Stafford Road, Bow, at 6 pm
  • Victoria Park Square, Bethnal Green, at 6 pm
  • Aske Street, in the Hoxton area of Shoreditch, at 6:30 pm
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:
  • 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 – 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 2 pm. 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 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.
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.

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. The Fascists had a casualty dressing station at their Tower Hill assembly point.
  • There were 6,000–10,000 policemen, including the whole of the Metropolitan Police Mounted Division. The police had wireless vans and a spotter plane sending updates on crowd numbers and movements to Philip Game's HQ, at Tower Hill.
  • Estimates of the number of anti-fascist counter-demonstrators range from 100,000 to 250,000, 300,000, 310,000, and up to 500,000. The Independent Labour Party and Communists, like the Fascists, set up medical stations to treat their injured.

    Events

Tower Hill

The fascists were to gather from all over the country, at and around Tower Hill for 2:30 pm; the first to arrive did so in a piecemeal fashion from around 1:25 pm; 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.
The fighting intensified as more BUF members and their opponents arrived, with many BUF arriving in armoured 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. The casualties in this stage of fighting included Tommy Moran, who was leading the BUF force until Mosley's later arrival. Moran resumed command after receiving first aid.
At 2pm, the fighting took on a three-way character as police began the process of separating the factions. During this fighting the Police attacked and were attacked by both fascists and anti-fascists.
After separating the factions, there was then fierce fighting as police then moved to clear counter-protesters from 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.