--- title: Battle of Cable Street: Lessons from Fascism Fight of 1936 description: Remembering the successful defeat of a fascist march through London in the 1930s comes at a timely moment in British and European politics canonical: https://time.com/4516276/cable-street-battle-london-east-end-80-years/ author: Suyin Haynes article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-03T11:45:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:05.659Z article:section: History og:title: Battle of Cable Street: Lessons from Fascism Fight of 1936 og:description: Remembering the successful defeat of a fascist march through London in the 1930s comes at a timely moment in British and European politics og:url: https://time.com/4516276/cable-street-battle-london-east-end-80-years/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c38e0ef4dbb9880/6988a85f656a3f2172bcd507/battle-cable-street.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Riots between anti-Fascists and Blackshirts (British Fascists) in London og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Battle of Cable Street: Lessons from Fascism Fight of 1936 twitter:description: Remembering the successful defeat of a fascist march through London in the 1930s comes at a timely moment in British and European politics twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3c38e0ef4dbb9880/6988a85f656a3f2172bcd507/battle-cable-street.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Enduring Lessons of the Battle of Cable Street, 80 Years On > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The Last Nazi Trials [Watch (HLS stream): The Last Nazi Trials](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/iBig1Tcg.m3u8) (7:02)  _Published 2016-05-03. The trial of a former Nazi guard brings forth questions about justice and forgiveness for Holocaust survivors and German citizens._ by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Oct 3, 2016 11:45 AM UTC  Riots erupted between anti-Fascists and Blackshirts (British Fascists) when Mosley's supporters were gathering in Great Mint Street for a march through the East End of London in what is now called the Battle of Cable Street on Oct. 4, 1936. Riots erupted between anti-Fascists and Blackshirts (British Fascists) when Mosley's supporters were gathering in Great Mint Street for a march through the East End of London in what is now called the Battle of Cable Street on Oct. 4, 1936. ullstein bild via Getty Images by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Oct 3, 2016 11:45 AM UTC Cable Street, in the east end of London, has long reflected the city’s diversity. Today it’s home to a large South Asian community, a cycle route to the City for London’s businessmen, and an up-and-coming residential area for young hipsters. In the early 20th century, however, it was home to a large, mainly Jewish community whose stand against prejudice has become famous. Across the street from the train station that connects the East End to the city, a huge painting on the side of the town hall shows a confrontation between local residents and the forces of fascism that happened eighty years ago on Oct.4. The [successful defeat](http://time.com/vault/issue/1936-10-12/page/21/) of Nazi sympathizer Oswald Mosley’s march through the East End, known as the Battle of Cable Street, is being commemorated this year by marches, talks and other events in this corner of London. The anniversary is being recognized at a timely moment, after Britain has endured a summer of [increased hate crime](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36890398) reports following the EU referendum in Britain, and charges of an [anti-Semitism problem](http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/ruth-smeeth-ive-never-seen-antisemitism-in-labour-like-this-its-normal-now-a3349201.html) in the opposition Labour Party. Coming also as [far-right parties](http://time.com/4504010/europe-politics-swing-right/) are gaining in electoral successes across Europe, it’s a good time to re-examine the forces behind the Battle of Cable Street. “Among the impoverished workers of the East End, the British Union of Fascists (BUF) built their movement in a horseshoe shape around the Jewish community,” says author and historian David Rosenberg, whose relatives owned a stationery shop on Cable Street at the time. Throughout the mid 1930s, the BUF moved closer towards Hitler’s form of fascism with Mosley himself saying that “[fascism can and will win Britain](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,769779,00.html)”. The British fascists also took on a more vehemently anti-Semitic stance, describing Jews as “[rats and vermin from the gutter of Whitechapel](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/21/battle-cable-street-mural-fascists-east-end)”. On Sunday Oct. 4, 1936, Mosley led his Blackshirt supporters on a march through the East End, following months of BUF meetings and leafleting in the area designed to intimidate Jewish people and break up the East End’s community solidarity. Despite a petition signed by 100,000 people, the British government permitted the march to go ahead and designated 7,000 members of the police force to accompany it. The counter-protest from the Cable Street community involved members from the Jewish and Irish communities, local workers and local Labor and Communist parties, who succeeded in disbanding the BUF march. As TIME reported in the magazine’s Oct. 12 issue 1936, in an article called “[Mosley Shall Not Pass!](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,848618,00.html?iid=sr-link1)”: --- > “” --- The battle took place when fascism seemed to be on the rise in other European cities, led by [Hitler](http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/how-the-nazis-succeeded-in-taking-power-in-red-berlin-a-866793-2.html), [Franco](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,756955,00.html) and Mussolini. “The fact that so many different communities came together and resulted in such huge numbers turning out against countervailing pressures tells us something”, Rosenberg says. “It was a victory for the united people of the East End.” It was also an awakening for some in the British left, says London School of Economics research fellow Richard Baxell, only months after the outbreak of the Spanish civil war. “For some people that were involved in the protest, Cable Street was the road to Spain, and many would go on to volunteer as soldiers for the Republicans there”, he says. Little is recognizable from that period on today’s Cable Street, apart from the faded street signs. Since 1936, the demographic of London’s East End has undergone multiple reincarnations, yet new residents have faced similar struggles. The area became home to a large Bengali and South Asian community from the 1960s, which has faced [racism](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-36191020) incited by Britain’s far right. As Baxell understands it, anti-Semitism and racism “resurface in different guises”, evidenced by developments in Britain and Europe over the past year. British politicians were [criticized by the UN](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37193140) for allowing the divisive and anti-immigrant rhetoric surrounding Brexit to fuel a spike in reports of race hate crimes, a trend that has been replicated across the continent as countries struggle to handle the record influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa. The increasing intolerance displayed across the European political spectrum show that the same winds that blew across Cable Street eighty years ago still exist today, Rosenberg says. “We are fortunate that the far right in Britain is small and fragmented, but you just have to look at France, Germany, Austria and Hungary to see echoes of the 1930s in much more powerful and coordinated far right movements.” ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Our family had tried so hard to stay together. My sister Edith was about 12 years old was sent in the direction that my mother went. The SS guard he motioned me to in the direction other young adults went. I didn't move. I leaned over peering into the crowd and trying to see if Edith had caught up. I was horrified that she would not find our mother. She would be lost to our family, alone amongst strangers. The trauma of this separation Lingers with me to this day. [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] [ CROSSTALK ] It's not a matter of Sending him to jail for the rest of his life. I don't feel that, that will help, but what's happening now will help. And today, I must do what I'm asked to do and not stop and cry because that is not what's required at the moment [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Okay look at me. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [ LAUGH ] It's a teaching moment for the entire country of Europe to rethink and learn from it. [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ FOREIGN ] [ MUSIC ] The lawyers were searching for people Survivors. They asked, would I come, and do I know anything about this Nazi guard, and of course no. I was much too distracted to look into his face, but I was not required to have remembered the face, so I said yes. If I can help. I would come. So far over the last seven decades, prosecutors just focused on the murder of the people who arrived in Auschwitz on the lam and then were gassed right No prosecutor ever brought forward a charge, saying that a guard is also responsible for making it possible that the people who were prisoners in the camp were murdered systematically. And the indictment against Hanning is the first indictment that actually says Auschwitz was altogether A organized factory of mass murder. Not only the selection on the [ INAUDIBLE ] This is, I am here. Right here standing here. As I said in the testimony, I had just been separated from my younger sister, and as I was saying I didn't leave. I actually defied orders, I just stood there. How am I to leave her like this? People tell me, you know she died, you know everybody died, and it's been a long time. And it doesn't help. [ MUSIC ] This is Council Aide and Justice Says it's too little, and is a enormous failure, it's a system in the end does the right thing, it's better than not going. I think the main purpose of this trials is to give justice to our clients, it's for them. I just want him to Hear from me and others who testified, what the consequences were of what he did at a young age. But he keeps his eyes down, head down. I don't know whether he doesn't want to face the survivors. What his motivation is. I really don't know. [ FOREIGN ] And the further you go down in the chain of command, the more the question arises of how far legal responsibility goes. And if none of the witnesses know the defendant, this, in the view of the defense, is a testament to how unremarkable the defendant possibly was. [ MUSIC ] I'm not interested in the personality of the defendant. For me he's a broken, failed person. What is he supposed to do? He's defending himself? That's ridiculous. What is he supposed to do? He's defending himself? That's ridiculous. If he was a warden in Auschwitz, I already judge him. I can't judge that. Forgiveness? Maybe he just... How many people followed? How many people killed? Maybe they didn't have a choice but to act in that way? [ MUSIC ] There's a lot of talk of forgiveness, I'm very surprised about it. Everybody had to do their part or it wouldn't have worked efficiently. How does mass murder get forgiven? [ MUSIC ] The crime is so enormous, it's not a forgivable crime, it's a crime to be analyzed and learned from. 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