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Blackshirts and the Battle of Cable StreetThe 4th October 06 marks the 70
anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street
Audrey
Gillan 2006 09 30
The Jewish Board of Deputies advised Jews to stay away. The Jewish Chronicle warned: "Jews are urgently warned to keep away from the route of the Blackshirt march and from their meetings. "Jews who, however innocently, become involved in any possible disorders will be actively helping anti-Semitism and Jew-baiting. Unless you want to help the Jew baiters, keep away." The Jews did not keep away. Professor Bill Fishman, now 89, who was 15 on the day, was at Gardner's Corner in Aldgate, the entrance to the East End. "There was masses of marching people. Young people, old people, all shouting 'No Pasaran' and 'One two three four five - we want Mosley, dead or alive'," he said. "It was like a massive army gathering, coming from all the side streets. Mosley was supposed to arrive at lunchtime but the hours were passing and he hadn't come. Between 3pm and 3.30 we could see a big army of Blackshirts marching towards the confluence of Commercial Road and Whitechapel Road. Marbles "I pushed myself forward and because I was 6ft I could see Mosley. They were surrounded by an even greater army of police. There was to be this great advance of the police force to get the fascists through. Suddenly, the horses' hooves were flying and the horses were falling down because the young kids were throwing marbles." Thousands of policemen were sandwiched between the Blackshirts and the anti-fascists. The latter were well organised and through a mole learned that the chief of police had told Mosley that his passage into the East End could be made through Cable Street. "I heard this loudspeaker say 'They are going to Cable Street'," said Prof Fishman. "Suddenly a barricade was erected there and they put an old lorry in the middle of the road and old mattresses. The people up the top of the flats, mainly Irish Catholic women, were throwing rubbish on to the police. We were all side by side. I was moved to tears to see bearded Jews and Irish Catholic dockers standing up to stop Mosley. I shall never forget that as long as I live, how working-class people could get together to oppose the evil of racism." Max Levitas, now 91, was a message runner and had already been fined £10 in court for his anti-Mosley activities. Two years before Cable Street, the BUF had called a meeting in Hyde Park and in protest Mr Levitas whitewashed Nelson's column, calling people to the park to drown out the fascists. Mr Levitas went on to become a Communist councillor in Stepney. "I feel proud that I played a major part in stopping Mosley. When we heard that the march was disbanded, there was a hue and cry and the flags were going wild. They did not pass. The chief of police decided that if the march had taken place there would be death on the road - and there would have been," he said. "It was a victory for ordinary people against racism and anti-Semitism and it should be instilled in the minds of people today. The Battle of Cable Street is a history lesson for us all. People as people must get together and stop racism and anti-Semitism so people can lead an ordinary life and develop their own ideas and religions." Beatty Orwell, 89, was scared and excited. "People were fighting and a friend of mine was thrown through a plate glass window." The flag of the British Union of Fascists showing the "Flash and Circle" symbolic of "action within unity"The British Union of Fascists (BUF) was a political party of the 1930s in the United Kingdom. The party was formed in 1932 by ex-Conservative Party MP, and Labour government minister Sir Oswald Mosley. The party was a union, comprised of several smaller Fascist parties, such as the British Fascisti. Character Mosley modelled himself on another fascist leader, Benito Mussolini. He also modeled his party along the lines of fascist movements in other countries, primarily Italy. He instituted a black uniform, gaining the party the nickname blackshirts. The BUF was anti-communist and protectionist. It supported the replacement of parliamentary democracy with a system of elected executives with jurisdiction over their own industries - something similar to the corporatism of the Italian fascists. Many of the BUF's members were drawn from aristocratic and military families and included celebrated military man J.F.C. Fuller. Its official policy thoughout the 1930s was not anti-Semitic; however, some ranking members during this period were vehement proponents of it, and so the BUF was often represented as such. The listeners heard Sir O.Mosley refer to his would-be interrupters as "sweeping of the Continental ghettoes, hired by Jewish financiers": "and alien gang imported from all quarters of Britain by Jewish money to prevent Englishmen putting their case" (The Times, Oct 01, 1934) In answer to a question about the Blackshirt attitude towards Jews, Sir Oswald Mosley said:- "We will not tolerate within the State a minority organized against the interests of the State. Jews must either put the interests of Britain before the interests of Jewry or they will be deported from Britain." (The Times, March 25, 1935) Prominence The BUF claimed a membership as high as 50,000 at one point, and the Daily Mail was an early supporter, famously running the headline "Hurrah for the Blackshirts!". Opinion was divided in response to the BUF's black-shirted followers; in some quarters, their unified appearance, and the vision of militant Britishness they presented, won the party supporters. Others found in them something absurd. P.G. Wodehouse, for example, based the "amateur dictator" Roderick Spode and his Black Shorts, which appear in his Jeeves and Wooster stories, on Mosley and the BUF. Despite considerable - and sometimes violent - resistance from Jewish people, the Labour Party, assorted democrats and the Communist Party of Great Britain, the BUF still found a following in the East End of London, where in the London County Council elections of 1937 they obtained good results in their strongholds of Bethnal Green, Shoreditch and Limehouse. However, the BUF never faced a General Election - feeling unready in 1935, they urged voters to abstain, offering the promise of "Fascism Next Time". Towards the middle of the 1930s, the BUF's increasingly violent activities, and a growing discomfort at its perceived alignment with the German Nazi party, began to alienate some of its middle-class supporters. Membership accordingly decreased. At a rally in London, in 1934, BUF stewards became involved in a violent confrontation with militant communists, and this bad publicity caused the Daily Mail to withdraw its support from the party. Final years and legacy With its lack of electoral success, the party was drawn away from mainstream politics and further toward extreme anti-Semitism during 1934-1935 (which saw the resignation of leading members such as Dr. Robert Forgan). They organised several anti-Semitic marches and protests in London (recalling the earlier tactics of predecessors such as the British Brothers League), such as the one that resulted in the famous Battle of Cable Street in October 1936. Nonetheless, membership fell to below 8,000 by the end of 1935. The government was sufficiently concerned, however, to pass the Public Order Act of 1936, which banned the wearing of political uniforms during marches, required police consent for political marches to go ahead, and effectively destroyed the movement. The BUF was completely banned in May 1940, and Mosley and 740 other senior fascists were interned for much of World War II. Mosley made several unsuccessful attempts at a political comeback after the war, most notably in the Union Movement. Fictional reference In Harry Turtledove's alternate history novel, In the Presence of Mine Enemies, set in 2009 in a world where the Nazis were triumphant, the BUF governs Britain--and the first stirrings of the reform movement come from there. BUF Anthem The BUF Anthem strongly resembles the German Horst-Wessel-Lied (anthem of the NSDAP), and was set to the same tune. Sound recordings are available of this anthem. The lyrics are as follows: Comrades,
the voices of the dead battalions,
Of those who fell that Britain might be great, Join in our song, for they still march in spirit with us, And urge us on to gain the fascist state! (Repeat Last Two Lines) We're of their blood, and spirit of their spirit, Sprung from that soil for whose dear sake they bled, Against vested powers, Red Front, and massed ranks of reaction, We lead the fight for freedom and for bread! (Repeat Last Two Lines) The streets are still, the final struggle's ended; Flushed with the fight we proudly hail the dawn! See, over all the streets the fascist banners waving, Triumphant standards of our race reborn! (Repeat Last Two Lines) Prominent members Despite their relatively short period of operation the BUF attracted a number of prominent members and supporters. These included: William
Edward David Allen
John Beckett A. K. Chesterton Robert Forgan Neil Francis Hawkins J.F.C. Fuller Jeffrey Hamm Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere William Joyce Tommy Moran Alliott Verdon Roe Alexander Raven Thomson Henry Williamson See also British Nationalism The British National Party Right wing establishment influence in Scotland and the UK Royal Nazis and the Scottish connection Royal Nazis - 2 |
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