THE 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street kicked off in east London on Monday night with activists urging mass turnout for this October’s march.

Activists from trade unions, community groups and anti-racist organisations heard about the importance of marching on Sunday, October 4, with anti-fascists assembling outside Tower Hamlets Town Hall at 12pm. 

Other actions, including a gig organised by Unison the night before, will also be taking place.

Alex Gordon, of the Cable Street 90 organising committee, said that the event is “more important than ever” due to the rise of the far right. 

Rabbi Herschel Gluck, president of the Shomrim in Stamford Hill and chairman of the Arab-Jewish Forum, said campaigners must “learn the lessons of the past and apply them to us today.”

“Cable Street isn’t just a place on the map. It’s a concept. It’s an idea,” he said. 

“The message of Cable Street is that we must never let evil pass.”

David Rosenberg, of the Jewish Socialists’ Group, highlighted the 1936 resistance and said: “Our histories from the 1930s through today are so intimately linked.

“We’ll do what Oswald Mosley and the fascists never did do — we will march proudly up Cable Street.”

Swadhinata Trust chair Julie Begum said Cable Street is a “powerful example of how people came together and resisted tyranny,” adding: “The anti-racist struggle for [the] British-Bangladesh [community] has followed the same tradition of the resistance that had been demonstrated on Cable Street decades earlier. 

“And today, the Battle of Cable Street is remembered not simply as a historical event, but as a living lesson.

“It reminds us that diversity is one of Tower Hamlets’s greatest strengths, and that community is strongest when we stand together against racism, fascism and division.”

Mr Gordon told the Star that the committee is building a “massive” anti-fascist march and rally on the 90th anniversary saying with one voice: “No to antisemitism, no to Islamophobia, not to racism.”

“[Monday’s] packed out meeting brought together trade unionists, community and anti-racist activists from across London to discuss how we involve all our diverse workplaces and communities in a celebration of unity and solidarity against the forces of the far-right,” the Communist Party general secretary said.

“By uniting working class communities to fight the real problems we face of poor housing, low wages, job insecurity and a cost-of-living crisis, we will stop today’s fascists, just as our forebears did in 1936.

“Our Cable Street 90 commemoration on October 4 will be a lively, youthful celebration with music, poetry and people power in the streets. No pasaran! They did not pass. They shall not pass.”
 

Those interested in finding out more can email CableStreet90@gmail.com