Nadene Goldfoot
Commemorative plaque at Dock Street, close to the Fascist's Tower Hill muster point. Tower Hill, Aldgate, Cable Street and other areas of the East End of London that took place in 1936.
The Battle of Cable Street was a series of clashes that took place at several locations in the East End of London on Sunday 4 October 1936. The British Union of Fascists (BUF), led by Oswald Mosley, announced a march to celebrate the fourth anniversary of their organisation. The BUF had become increasingly anti-Semitic, so their decision to march through East London, then home to a large Jewish population, rather than close to its headquarters in Westminster, which was regarded as a deliberate provocation.
They couldn't or wouldn't ban the march but Jews and others told people to stay away.
This is similar to the case in the USA where the Nazis decided to march through in order to provoke a Jewish neighborhood full of Holocaust refugees. I am referring to the landmark 1970s legal battle often known as the "Skokie Case". In 1977, the National Socialist Party of America (a neo-Nazi group) deliberately planned to march through Skokie, Illinois, a Chicago suburb that was home to tens of thousands of Jewish residents, including thousands of Holocaust survivors.
Back then in 1936 London, the Jews came out and fought with their allied friends, the Irish, against these Fascists. Unable to clear a route through either Aldgate or Cable Street, and wishing to avoid continued disorder, the Police told Mosley his march through East London could not go ahead, but he was permitted to march to the West End instead.
Very large numbers of people took part in the events, in part due to the good weather, but estimates of the numbers of participants vary enormously:
- Estimates of Fascist participants range from 2,000 to 3,000, up to 5,000. This included units of black-bloused female fascists, totalling around 400. The Fascists had a casualty dressing station at their Tower Hill assembly point.
- There were 6,000–10,000 policemen, including the whole of the Metropolitan Police Mounted Division. The police had wireless vans and a spotter plane sending updates on crowd numbers and movements to Philip Game's HQ, at Tower Hill.
- Estimates of the number of anti-fascist counter-demonstrators range from 100,000 to 250,000, 300,000, 310,000, and up to 500,000. The Independent Labour Party and Communists, like the Fascists, set up medical stations to treat their injured.
The ILP and Communists made statements celebrating the united response, in which East-Enders of all backgrounds — including Irish Catholics, Jews, dockers and Somali seamen — successfully resisted Mosley and his followers.
East London workers supported by all London in united action have barred the road to Mosley. Gentile, Jew, Catholic, Protestant, Labour and Communist, men, women and children determined that Fascism shall not pass here… East London workers have not only defeated Mosley, they have demonstrated that English people have no time for any sort of toleration for Fascism. East London has torn neutrality to shreds and given a lead to the whole Labour and democratic movement to move into action against Fascism.
Every five years there’s a big celebration of the Battle of Cable Street – the iconic clash in the 1930s between fascism and anti-fascism in Britain, which took place in East London. That day – when the British state was determined to protect free speech and free movement for Oswald Mosley’s deeply antisemitic British Union of fascists – thousands of his foot-soldiers in jackboots and black uniforms were blocked from invading the most highly Jewish-populated East End streets by my favourite prevent strategy of them all: blockades, barricades, and masses of working-class activists working in unison across ethnic and religious divides.
Well now, jump to 2026. A musical production is simply titled Cable Street. It dramatizes the historical 1936 Battle of Cable Street, when a coalition of 100,000 Jewish, Irish, and working-class protesters united in London to block a march by Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists. Written by Tim Gilvin and Alex Kanefsky, the production is currently making its American debut in New York. It's even made our internet in announcement. It's running through June 28, 2026. What a way to introduce our children to history in fighting for the right path in our world.
This makes it even worse: Collin was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, where he attended local schools. His father, Max Frank Collin, was born Max Simon Cohn in Munich, Germany, on August 23, 1913, the son of Jewish parents who were murdered in The Holocaust, and was a survivor of Dachau concentration camp. Frank's mother, Virginia Gertrude née Hardyman, was born in Chicago on August 18, 1920, and was Catholic. Was that child influenced by his mother or not!!! Max, survivor's son, must have been a hard to understand father being Frank was in denial of his Jewish inheritance.
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Sadly, I see that no one remembers what happened to Jews of Skokie, Illinois when Nazis wanted to march in this Jewish neighborhood of Holocaust survivors. Who spoke up or cared? It shows that anti-Semitism had already made its presence known long ago . In 1936, Skokie, Illinois, was a small, semi-rural village where antisemitism was present as a reflection of broader societal prejudices in the greater Chicago area. While the town itself did not experience organized, localized pogroms, it was a time when the pro-Nazi German-American Bund was actively operating in the region. So by 1977 few stepped up to the plate; Jews just sat in their homes remembering things we cannot imagine, frozen in time.
The big discussion in the 70's was, did the Nazis have the right to march where they wanted-something about free speech or free marching! Oy vey!!!!!
The Supreme Court ruled 5–4, per curiam, granting certiorari and reversing and remanding the Illinois Supreme Court's denial to lift the lower court's injunction on the NSPA's march. The ruling dictated that when citizens assert that their speech is being restrained, the matter must be reviewed immediately by the judiciary. By requiring the state court to consider the neo-Nazis' appeal without delay, the Supreme Court decision allowed the National Socialist Party of America to march in Skokie, although they did not do so.
While Collin filed a lawsuit against the city of Chicago for a violation of his First Amendment rights, he realized that his case would be delayed in the courts for far longer than he was willing to wait to begin marching again.
At first, the Skokie mayor and village council intended to allow the NSPA to demonstrate and intended to ignore them in order to afford the NSPA as little publicity as possible. The Jewish community found this tactic unacceptable and held meetings to discuss the matter. The mayor and the village council heard their concerns, and on April 27, 1977, ordered village attorney Harvey Schwartz to seek an injunction.
In addition to filing an injunction, the village of Skokie passed three ordinances on May 2, 1977, in an attempt to prevent all future events similar to that which the NSPA wished to stage. One of the ordinances prohibited wearing military-style uniforms during demonstrations, and the two other ordinances prohibited the distribution of material containing hate speech and required a $350,000 insurance bond to hold a demonstration. These ordinances effectively prevented the NSPA from holding the event!!!
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