The East End of London between the two world wars housed a variety of working class communities from different cultures and religions. They lived in overcrowded, shoddy housing on tenement estates with employment concentrated in textiles, the London Docks and small workshops. Work was precarious due to trade cycles and wages were low.
The political climate of the 1930s saw the rise of fascism across Europe. In Britain, this took the form of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF), founded in 1932. Mosley had hopped from Conservatives to Labour in the 1920s, but after having failed to change Labour’s policies with his memorandum, he formed the New Party. During its short-lived time, Mosley became inspired by Benito Mussolini’s fascist movement in Italy and Hitler’s Nazi party in Germany. Consequently, Mosley sought to unite fascists in Britain under the BUF, which Mussolini funded.
Mosley described the BUF as, “a party of action based on youth that will mobilise energy, vitality and manhood to save and rebuild the nation.” Mosley wanted to attract young workers, who were disillusioned by unemployment and out of touch with the labour movement, to the BUF. He did this by linking issues of unemployment and poor housing with racism and antisemitism. Racism is borne out of misunderstandings of the material realities around us, which Mosley capitalised on.
In 1933, thousands of people were attending events organised by the BUF, helped by Lord Rothermere’s support through the Daily Mail. However, the working class areas Mosley targeted were often strongholds of the Communist Party. This was a battleground in which the antifascists would win.
The Communist Party and the YCL were increasingly influential in the cultural and political lives of these areas in the 1930s, thanks to the tireless efforts of members to organise in their workplaces and communities against the ruling class. This laid the groundwork for the Communist Party and its allies to mobilise communities against fascism, namely Mosley and the BUF.
Their method for defeating fascism was to unite workers in the class struggle against exploitation. In particular, the Communist Party and the YCL focused on organising in workplaces and housing from 1934 onwards. This led to a strong, organised labour movement in the East End and the development of the Stepney Tenants Defence League, largely formed by Communist Party members and some Labour activists.
Additionally, the Communist Party and YCL worked consistently to build alliances with community groups, the local Labour Party, and ex-servicemen organisations. Young members attended sports and cultural events to meet supporters of Mosley in order to win them over.
Mussolini invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935 and less than 3 months prior to the Battle of Cable Street, Franco’s attempted coup in Spain started the Spanish Civil War. This is the context in which the Battle of Cable Street took place.
The East End was a prime target for Mosley owing to the large Jewish and migrant populations along with slum housing and unemployment during the times of economic crisis. His main target was the Jewish community, using them as a scapegoat for the area’s problems — an easy scapegoat due to workers’ fears around competition for housing and employment. The fascists’ aim was to divide the working class ahead of local elections in early 1937 in the hopes of winning seats.
Mosley began campaigning in the East End in June 1936 with a big rally in Victoria Park. Street-corner meetings, firebombings, smashing windows of Jewish shops, racist abuse, and physical attacks followed the rally in the months after. Jews were told to “stay away” from fascists by MPs, to which Communist Party MP Willie Gallacher asked how they could “Stay away from the chalking of offensive remarks on the pavement and walls of houses, the placards stuck on doors, people who go into shops and intimidate Jewish shopkeepers… Jewish pedestrians set upon by gangs of thugs would be only too glad to stay away.”
89 years ago, on Sunday 4th October 1936, the fascists planned to march from Royal Mint Street past Cable Street and Dock Street, turning towards Gardiner’s Corner and into Leman Street before heading to Commercial Road. 4 rallies were meant to conclude the march.
The Communist Party had already scheduled a demonstration in Trafalgar Square on that day but instead they cancelled that and redirected supporters to the East End. The Daily Worker called on readers to go to the streets to block Oswald Mosley and his BUF.
Thousands of people responded to the call, building barricades on several streets to block the fascists. They clashed with the Metropolitan police who tried to clear the path on horseback. The makeshift barricades were made from mattresses, corrugated iron, furniture and other miscellaneous items on Cable Street. The first barricade was infiltrated by the police but unbeknownst to the police, more barriers had been built further down the street. Antifascists, especially women from windows above, pelted the police with missiles such as rotten vegetables and bedpans, forcing them back.
Antifascists were victorious in preventing the march of the BUF through the East End of London. This was a spectacular feat for the antifascist movement as over 20,000 antifascists thwarted the plans of 3,000 fascists and 7,000 police officers. Jews, Irish dockers, seamen, communists, trade unionists and other antifascists stood united together to defeat fascism, those same workers Mosley had sought to divide. This was the working class unity that the Communist Party had been building for years, seeing the fascists off on that historic and victorious Sunday morning. This dealt a massive blow to antisemitism and fascism in Britain, and no fascists were elected in the 1937 elections.
The future Communist Party MP for Stepney, Phil Piratin, reflected on the victory, “In Stepney nothing had changed physically. The poor houses, the mean streets, the ill-conditioned workshops were the same, but the people were changed. Their heads seemed to be held higher, and their shoulders were squarer – and the stories they told! Each one was a ‘hero’ – many of them were… The ‘terror’ had lost its meaning. The people knew that fascism could be defeated if they organised themselves to do so.”
Many antifascists who participated in the Battle of Cable Street later either donated or travelled to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War against fascism. Many did not return. The strong international solidarity between these movements is demonstrated in the chanting of “They Shall Not Pass!” at Cable Street — a translation of the chant by republican fighters during the Spanish Civil War “No Pasaran!” This underpins the importance of international solidarity in helping workers in their own countries fight for peace, jobs and socialism.
The Battle of Cable Street should be celebrated as a working class victory and history in Britain but also serve as a lesson in how we tackle the rise of racism and fascist forces today.
Again in 2025 we are seeing workers’ concerns around housing, unemployment, the NHS, and living costs being manipulated by right-wing and fascist forces, who would do nothing to improve the lives of the working class. On September 13th, thousands of protestors marched against immigration and asylum seekers through central London. These forces link every social and economic problem to immigrants and asylum seekers.
Their aim is to scapegoat migrants, which divides the working class along ethnic and religious lines, rather than uniting the working class against monopoly capitalism and slum landlordism. Hoteliers, corporate contractors and slum landlords have benefitted the most from successive government policy of housing asylum seekers isolated away from communities.
Learning from the Battle of Cable Street, the YCL understands the importance of trade unionists, housing and anti-austerity campaigners to unite in working class communities against right-wing and fascist forces. This struggle is not easy or quick but built upon consistent and tireless work. All young communists should go forward and do their bit to build the united front against austerity and right-wing and fascist forces.
Georgina Andrews is General Secretary of the Young Communist League
