The Battle of Holbeck Moor – the little-known precursor to Cable Street
The mobilisation in 1936 of 30,000 anti-fascists to drive Sir Oswald Mosley and his Blackshirts out of Leeds has been commemorated in the city, reports PETER LAZENBY
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THE famed Battle of Cable Street in London on October 4 1936 saw up to 250,000 anti-fascists mobilise against Sir Oswald Mosley’s fascist Blackshirts.
But a week earlier, on September 27, the lesser-known Battle of Holbeck Moor took place in Leeds. Thirty thousand anti-fascists mobilised and drove 1,000 fascist Blackshirts and their supporters from the city.
Yesterday the mobilisation was commemorated and celebrated with the unveiling of a plaque at an event backed by more than 30 Leeds organisations including trade union branches.
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