On the 90th Anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, We Must Resist ALL Forms of Fascism and Oppression

90 years ago, Oswald Mosley and his avowedly antisemitic blackshirts decided to march through the East End of London, home to predominantly Jewish neighbourhoods, in a deliberate provocation. On that fateful day of October 4th in 1936, Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) were met with resistance and driven back in a string of clashes on Cable Street.

Despite a petition by the Jewish People’s Council Against Fascism and Antisemitism calling for the BUF march to be banned garnering over 100,000 signatures, the then Home Secretary did not acquiesce to this request. The petition was also signed and endorsed by all five Mayors of the London Boroughs and by representatives of a broad coalition of local groups.

The Labour Party and the Board of Deputies, the latter of which was made up of Jews largely from outside the East End of London, argued against counter-demonstrations. Despite this counter-revolutionary sabotage, separately, the Independent Labour Party rallied politically unaffiliated people by way of van and a loud speaker. The Communist Party of Great Britain cancelled a previously arranged rally in support of Republican Spain, directing all supporters to rally at Aldgate. This is where the Jewish Bloc for Palestine rallied to mark the event’s 90th Anniversary.

Fights broke out from the BUF’s meeting point at Tower Hill and protestors clashed with approximately 3,000 fascists and some of the estimated 6,000-10,000 police that arrived, effectively acting as a private escort for the fascists. Crowds blocked both police and the fascists at various points, with further clashes at Aldgate, causing the police to divert the march through Cable Street (notoriously narrower) where counter-protestors successfully blocked the fascists from marching.

The counter-protests were not solely characterised by street fighting against the BUF. On the contrary, by-and-large, the resistance to the fascists was peaceful and resilient, holding the line and stopping the fascists from marching. It is believed that around 100,000 counter-protestors took to the streets that day. The police, meanwhile, instead allowed the fascists to march through the West End.

Across England this year alone, there have been fascist and hate mongering groups marching through our streets, targetting places like Worcester – where in the preceding days a mosque was petrol bombed – Leeds, London, Manchester and Liverpool. Tommy Robinson’s hate march, titled “Unite the Kingdom”, saw the nation’s capital flooded with people gathered to air their collective grievances against migration, what they claim is “the Islamification of our society” and “grooming gangs” – a moral panic whipped up to spread yet more hatred towards Muslims, specifically those of West- and Central-Asian origin.

In response, the Together Alliance and associated groups amassed over half a million people to march in unity for hope of a better future, to defend the rights of refugees, with proud proclamations of “Refugees are Welcome Here!” becoming one of a few ad hoc slogans of the march.

Britain First – a nationalist group that peddles Islamophobia and a confused sense of patriotism – have been run out of Manchester twice this year alone, once in February and again in April. Each time, counter protests have been assembled with the intention of blocking the hordes of flag-waving bigots – many of whom were flying the Israeli flag side-by-side with the English or Union flags – from raging through the city. There have also been what locals believe to be racially motivated attacks, including on at least two men, one of Asian heritage and another who is Black – each time with slurs hurled at victims before a gang of men in plastic makeshift flag capes, beer cans in hand, encircled and beat them in broad daylight in city streets.

In Liverpool, back in March, UKIP tried to march through the city and were met with multiple blocs of resistance, who in turn were met with dozens and dozens of police; the police dispersed in multiple directions and failed to hold the line between protestors and agitators. UKIP supporters entered the city with the intent of causing violence and hooliganism, yet they did not march.

During Spring, far right groups including Raise the Colours hoisted English and Union flags on lampposts in many towns and cities around the country. As if these intimidation tactics towards migrants and people from the global majority did not go far enough, members of the group were often seen assailing and, in some cases, assaulting members of the public and the emergency services. Oxford even went as far as banning Raise the Colours from their city limits.

Over the summer of 2026, a group of yet more Islamophobic nationalists started regularly targetting Liverpool’s County Road, a heavily multicultural area, which homes a mosque and at least two Halal supermarkets, who are among over a dozen businesses on County Road that have had to close due to fears and threats of violence. County Road had also seen violence and disorder in 2024, with Spellow Library set ablaze. In a desperate bid to gain attention, the group posted yet another AI generated poster, this time proudly proclaiming “Fuck ANTIFA!”, who in an ironic twist stood the goons up, with most of the nationalists quickly getting bored and leaving.

In Dumcree this week, Orange Parades have been blocked from marching every day for a week now, with comrades sticking to their posts at all hours of the day and night ready to protect their communities from hatred and division.

Islamophobia and antisemitism often go hand-in-hand but are rarely discussed side-by-side or in parallel. The gap that antisemitism once filled, providing populations of Europe and the Americas with a scapegoat for their society’s woes, has now been traded with Islamophobia. Muslims are treated as a monolith, just as Jewish communities were and still are treated. While antisemitism is still rightly a taboo, it has increasingly become seen as socially acceptable to attack asylum seekers and Muslims, with daily attacks from political figures such as Nigel Farage and his business-cum-political party Reform UK Ltd.

We see today that on Cable Street, the Jewish Bloc for Palestine, the Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and other affiliated Jewish anti-Zionist groups were met by Zionist opposition, including a Jewish Zionist group who appeared to be deliberately attempting to cause confusion by adopting similar branding and design to what the Jewish Bloc for Palestine had been using for the 90th Anniversary commemorations.

Regardless of if they are wearing a suit and a teal tie, or if they are clad in Orange shirts, or if they are wearing a plastic cape-flag of St. George’s Cross while – quite ironically – waving the flag of Zionist colonial settler state Israel, we will resist fascists’ attempts to stir up hatred and division, to drive fear into the heart of our communities based upon nationality, ethnicity, or religion. We will be steadfast and unwavering.

They Shall Not Pass!