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Cable Street must inspire action today
by Frances O’Grady
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As we reflect on the historic victory at Cable Street 84 years ago, we must be ready to mobilise against anti-semitism, racism and discrimination again.
On 4 October 1936, more than 100,000 East Enders took to the streets to prevent Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists marching through the area.
The Battle of Cable Street was a pivotal moment in the history of the fight against fascism in Britain, and also in the history of the trade union movement.
Many trade unionists were among the countless thousands who stood up to hatred and drove out the fascists that day.
Irish dockers, railway workers, working-class women and men — all joined forces with the local Jewish community to stop Mosley’s Blackshirts in their tracks.
Eight decades on, I am still inspired by Cable Street. And it’s still the trade union movement’s historic mission to fight racism and anti-semitism, whatever form they take.
Anti-fascism is part of our DNA. Thousands of trade unionists joined the International Brigades to fight Franco’s armies in Spain, including the former leader of the T&G union, Jack Jones.
Many more died during the second world war, resisting fascism across Europe.
More recently, unions led the mobilisation against the National Front and BNP here in Britain.
Today the threat from far-right ideologies has shifted into the mainstream, and unions continue our fight in Britain and internationally.
Since 2016, there’s been a shocking rise in attacks by far-right thugs and online hate against Muslim and Jewish people, the LGBT community, disabled people and migrant workers.
We’ve seen organised far-right groups recruiting on football terraces, rampaging through our streets, and targeting trade unionists. But we see the influence of the far right in other ways; in the demonising of migrants and the dog-whistle Islamophobia of politicians. Hatred which finds its way into communities and workplaces.
Like Mosley’s Blackshirts in the 1930s, they claim to represent working people.
But we know the truth.
These people don’t give a damn about our values. They’re against everything that our movement stands for: dignity for all, regardless of race, faith or sexuality. The far right only looks for a chance to exploit division, turning working people against each other and stirring up hate.
They say history doesn’t repeat, it rhymes. This isn’t the 1930s, or the 1970s. Today’s far right isn’t just organising on the streets but on Facebook and WhatsApp too, with its threads of hate worryingly woven into mainstream media and political discourse.
Far right activists are harnessing social media to spread hate and undermine our democracy.
So as we reflect on historic victories like turning back the tide of fascism at Cable Street, we must also look to the battles ahead.
That’s why the government must crack down on social media giants letting their platforms be used to spread hate and speak out against discrimination and hatred whatever the source.
And we in the trade union movement must step up too. We can stop the far-right in its tracks by uniting working people across borders and standing up for a new deal for everyone.
We must mobilise the strength of our six million members around our core values of solidarity, respect, equality and internationalism.
And we must work with our sisters and brothers across the world to win the fight against those — from Trump to Bolsonaro and Modi — who seek to pit worker against worker.
Frances O’Grady is TUC general secretary.
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