The+Battle+of+Cable+Street,+James+Tweedie,+YCL+London

YCL London, 04-Oct-2006 13:58
=The Battle of Cable Street=

Today is the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street in the East End of London. The battle was to prevent British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts from marching through the East End, in an attempt to intimidate the large Jewish and Eastern European populations there. The Communist Party and the trade unions organised the resistance and as many as 300,000 local people turned out to stop the march.

Cable Street was barricaded with a lorry, a couple of carts, some packing cases and the contents of a builder's yard. The police disgracefully tried to clear a path for the fascists while Mosley and his thugs waited in the rear. They failed miserably. Many policemen simply gave up and walked away in disgust. After two hours the march was called off and the fascists had to march back west.

The slogan that day was "They Shall Not Pass" and indeed the fascists did not. Translated into Spanish as "No Pasaran", this became the slogan of the republican forces in the Spanish Civil War.

There will be a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street this Sunday, 8th October, starting at 12:00 noon in Cable Street, near Shadwell Tube on the East London Line. There will be speeches and music by nine bands. See the Communist Party Website for more details: http://www.communist-party.org.uk/index.php?file=eventTemplate&story=85.

Yesterday's and today's Morning Star (http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index2.php/ex/examples) are full of articles about Cable Street. Buy it and read it.

I shall be there on Sunday. Call me on 07748 688 447 if you're going.

No Pasaran!


 * James Tweedie**


 * Young Communist League and Communist Party of Britain**

284 words