Battle of Cable Street - 80th Anniversity of "East London Routs The Fascists"

On Tuesday 4 October 2016 it is the 80th anniversary of the 1936 "Battle of Cable Street" when anti-
fascists stopped a march through the (then) largely Jewish East End of London by Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists.

I have worked in Tower Hamlets for nearly 25 years. My first trade union branch secretary was the daughter of Phil Piratin, one of the chief Cable Street anti-fascist organisers (and later elected as a "Red Stepney" Communist MP).

There is a march and rally next Sunday 9 October 2016 (see below). Max Levitas, who is an original Cable Street veteran, and I have heard speak a number of times (and has joined our West Ham Labour Party street stalls in recent years) will be a speaker.

"Sunday, 9th October

 Assemble 12 noon @ Altab Ali Park, Whitechapel Road, London E1.
March to a rally @ St George’s Gardens, Cable Street. Speakers before and after the march include: Max Levitas (Cable Street veteran), Jeremy Corbyn MP, Rushanara Ali MP, Frances O’Grady (General Secretary, TUC), Unmesh Desai (GLA member, City and East London)

Speakers confirmed to date: Max Levitas (Cable Street veteran), Jeremy Corbyn MP, Rushanara Ali MP, Frances O’Grady (General Secretary, TUC), John Biggs (Mayor of Tower Hamlets), Unmesh Desai (GLA member, City and East London), Michael Rosen, Gerry Gable (Searchlight Research Associates), Weyman Bennett (Unite Against Fascism), Manus O’Riordan (Ireland IBMT), Glyn Robbins (United East End), Julia Bard (Jewish Socialists’ Group), Roger Mackenzie (UNISON) Alex Kenny (East London NUT), Shahriar Bin Ali (Bangladesh Workers Council, Amelia Womack (Green Party), Matt Wrack (FBU), Mick Cash (RMT), Sarah Sackman (Jewish Labour Movement), Tony Donaghey (Connolly Association), Mary Davis (new Stoke Newington synagogue), Leon Silver (East London Central Synagogue), Richard Humm (Cable Street Group)

Chairs: (Altab Ali Park) David Rosenberg, JSG; (St George’s Gardens) Megan Dobney, SERTUC

Plus marching bands including the Great Yiddish Parade and Udichi
Bring family, friends, work colleagues, neighbours! Bring Banners!"

On Wednesday 5 October 2016 at 6.30pm, Labour GLA Member, Unmesh Desai, will be joining other speakers at the Trinity Centre in East Ham to talk about "Battle of Cable Street: Lessons for present struggles"(organised by East End Together)

Howard Dawber & the spirit of the East End

This is a touching & gracious message sent by Howard to all Party members in East London (Howard
 is on right of picture outside West Ham CLP selection meeting)

"This is the last email from me.

I have failed to secure a nomination from a Constituency, so I will not be on the shortlist for the City and East London Assembly seat.

I would like to thank everyone who supported me, voted for me and particularly those who stood up at meetings to propose me, or asked their friends to come and support.

It's been a wonderful experience and I have met some great people.

It was an honour to get 152 votes in total across three different boroughs, and to come second three times to different very strong local candidates.

There are some good comrades left in the race, most of whom are friends of mine, so it would be wrong to single out anyone.

Having the chance to represent the people of East London is a huge privilege and responsibility.

This is the most exciting and dynamic part of London, which can claim to be the capital city of planet earth.

The people of the east end are the most entrepreneurial, resilient and inventive I have ever known.

It is the spirit that inspired the suffragettes who used to meet under the lamppost in Barking, the courage of the Bryant and May Matchgirls who went on strike over their conditions, the courage of the Poplar rent strikers, the dock workers, the shipbuilders who formed the first Trade Unions.

It is the spirit that got the East end through the blitz and then gave the women at Ford's in Dagenham the strength to fight for equal pay.

The spirit of men like Will Crooks, who was born in a workhouse but went on to be a Labour Councillor and MP.

The spirit of women like Annie Clara Huggett, who kept campaigning for Women's votes even though she was arrested several times.

The spirit of local Bangladeshi people in Tower Hamlets who stood up to the National Front in the 1970s and 1980s.

And the spirit of Labour activists who stood up to the BNP just a few years ago and kicked them out of Barking and Dagenham Council. For this is the East of London - where local residents came together to defend their Jewish neighbours at the Battle of Cable Street.

And where local people defended their German neighbours from reprisals during World War Two.

Where young and old came together to welcome the world at the 2012 Olympic Games.

I am sure that whoever wins the selection will live up to the spirit of East London.

I hope that they get everyone's full support.

With a Tory Government and a Tory Mayor, we can't afford the luxury of splits and factions within the party.

We need to be one team and one campaign after September.

In the meantime from Barking to Bethnal Green and Docklands to Dagenham, we need to make sure we have a Labour Mayor in May next year so I will be working hard to try to make sure we are in the best possible shape to take on the Tories.

We also need to campaign to keep a universal postal service and to stop the Tories destroying Royal Mail. 

Sign up to support the CWU campaign at:

http://www.cwu.org/peoplespost.html

That's all from me. I hope to see some of you soon.

Fraternally,

HOWARD

Howard Dawber for City and East

http://www.dawber.london/

Labour Party & UNISON stall for TUC March Oct 20

Collage is from today's stall and leafleting session in Stratford High Street, Newham, East London. Members of the West Ham Labour Party and local trade unionists were encouraging the public to join the TUC March for "A Future that Works" on Saturday 20 October. There was a UNISON stall and also next door a stall with Unite Ford activists from Dagenham and the NUT.

We gave out 500 joint Newham Labour/trade union leaflets supporting the march and asking people to meet again outside Stratford Station at 10am on the 20th October for those who want to travel together to the march with local Labour Party, trade unionists and residents.

We had some interesting discussions at the stall. The reaction from people who realised what we were about was very positive. However, most people passed by politely refusing to accept a leaflet, badge or sticker. While I think that this type of activity is still very much worth while, we need to find another way to reach ordinary working people about "the message" in a busy sunny Saturday shopping centre.

The message is of course not only to go on the March if at all possible but also that Austerity is not working and we need an alternative economic policy. I tried chanting "What do we want, Keynesian, When do we want it, NOW" but it didn't really work apart from giving me a sore throat.

It was good for me as a UNISON NEC member to deal with enquires and comments, not only the good stuff from people wanting to join or thank the union for the help they have received but also those who want to complain about the way they felt they had been treated. Only two problems out of many compliments but things are simply so horrible out there at the workplace that we have to be humble at times that things can go wrong - as they will with a 1.3 million wide membership under attack.

Picture on top of collage is of "Battle of Cable Street" veteran Max Levitas who joined us last year as well to support the TUC March in March.

Middle is West Ham Labour Party members and Councillors supporting the TUC March. There was also a stall in Green Street today by East Ham CLP.

Bottom picture is Alan, Gavin and myself after we had returned the stall materials and table to the West Ham Labour Party HQ which has temporarily been taken over by the excellent "Newham Peoples Museum & Gallery".

Who also agreed to exhibit the UNISON Marching shoes placards as a symbol of modern day Newham peoples history. (hat tip picture Judith G).  

Cable Street 75th Anniversary T-Shirt

Another great t-shirt offer from www.philosophyfootball.com who are helping to organise the anniversary celebration.

"Seventy-five years ago, 4 October 1936. The people of the East End united to stop Sir Oswald Mosley's blackshirted British Union of Fascists from marching through their community. An estimated 100,000 gathered to prevent this parade of anti-semitic hate behind the slogan 'They shall not pass'.

After hours of confrontation, sometimes violent, centred on Cable Street Mosley was forced to
abandon his march. They did not pass!

Philosophy Football's design is based on the original 1936 street sign for Cable Street. Available from www.philosophyfootball.com".  Check out events here.  Cable Street veteran Max Levitas  will also be attending.

1936-2011: They did not pass: They shall not pass! Cable Street 75 2nd Oct

Battle of Cable Street. Check out here & Hope Not Hate web site for further details

Harry’s Place: Big Day Out

This is from “Harry’s Place” – An account of a guided tour last Sunday with local historian David Rosenberg, around the “radical Jewish East End”. Posted by Mira Vogel.

It looks like I missed a treat!

Late afternoon last Sunday - which was unbelievably warm and golden - a group of 35 or so Harry’s Place people and their sympathisers strolled companionably through the Radical Jewish East End on a tour led by East End Walks guide David Rosenberg.

We met at Gardiner’s Corner (Gardiners, like so much of the old East End, is no more) where an anti-fascist tram driver had marooned his tram to disrupt Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts during the Battle of Cable Street, October 4th 1936. Above us was an assertive-looking wall-mounted Star of David held aloft by a couple of proud lions with cutlasses. It was the sign of the now-no-more Jewish Daily Post. I’ve been walking up and down Whitechapel High Street for years and never noticed that - that’s why you go on things like this with people like David.

We proceeded to Manningtree Street, former location of the Popular Cafe, local meeting spot and one of many communication points for the Battle. Here David sketched Mosley’s veering political development from Conservative, when at 21 he had been the youngest MP in the Commons, to the disaffection over Ireland which propelled him to stand as an Independent and - via the Fabians, the left of the Independent Labour Party, and his own imaginatively-named New Party - to found the British Union of Fascists in 1932. Despite early support from the Mirror and Daily Mail, in David’s assessment the BUF was defeated by Mosley’s inability to build support as well as its own reputation for thuggery and antisemitism. He noted the debate about whether the antisemitism was a central policy plank or something borne out of desperation. Naturally, Mosley denied any antisemitism - if he targetted Jews, he said, it was because of what they were doing rather than who they were.

Next we heard about the different communities living in the area in the early 1900s - English, Irish, Somali, Chinese and the 120,000 or so Eastern European Jews taking refuge from pogroms back home. David described the difficulties this new community experienced in getting the growing Fascist threat recognised by the more established and prosperous Jewish community which had set up its institutions further west. Since East End Jews couldn’t gain adequate representation in this establishment, they set up a number of specifically East End institutions including the Workers Circle and Jewish People’s Council (David told us the Jewish Chronicle eventually embedded a journalist after which the editorial line shifted somewhat but, along with the Labour Party, the Jewish Board of Deputies still advised staying home on October 4th - a recommendation which was widely ignored).

We sat on railway sleepers opposite dinky Fieldgate Street Synagogue which nestles up against the East London Mosque. Guests from a nearby wedding milled around - it was an exquisite evening, perhaps the last of the year.

At this juncture David drew another of several books out of his bag (I think this one was ‘Our Flag Stays Red’) and introduced us to the radical Jewish East Ender Phil Piratin.

Next was Tower House, former hostel where Stalin stayed in a tiny room while attending an important Russian Communist get-together. Then we went to look at Paragon Mansions where the Communists had managed to blow a hole in Fascist support by organising a highly disciplined, successful and historically important campaign for better housing conditions. We heard how Irish Catholic and Eastern European Jewish women, prominent in the campaign, cooperated on their day-to-day jobs to help each other meet their picket commitments during the rent strikes. Then we moved on to Nelson Street, location of the last synagogue to be built in the East End, and heard about young Charlie Goodman, arrested for shinning up a lampost to urge on the anti-Fascists and, later, veteran of the Spanish Civil War.

Coming to Cable Street we imagined the scene - the mattress barricades, overturned truck and swarms of Irish dockers, Jews and Communists shouting the Spanish Civil War slogan “No Pasaran” as they confronted the Blackshirts and their mounted police escort (brought down by marbles!). And they succeeded - the Fascists didn’t pass. We ended at Dave Binnington’s enormous mural of the Battle, literally and figuratively a riot of people, missiles, banners, chamberpots and their contents, trampling horses and cossack-like policemen. Vandalised by the far right soon after completion in 1982, the mural now has a special easy-clean coating. Round the corner local fighters in the Spanish Civil War are commemorated by a fading plaque.

I’ve missed out a lot but David runs this tour regularly so you can go and see for yourself. My friends and I very much enjoyed the way he mixed historical account, vignette and undogmatic socialist commentary - the characters and their adventures, the connections he made between workers’ solidarity and anti-racism, the oppositions between newcomer and establishment, and the implicit debt of rememberance to those who fought Fascists at Cable Street and in Spain. Particularly impressive was his dignification by the Former Leader of Tower Hamlets Council in a drive-by shout of thanks (unrelated to his tours, but nevertheless).

The walk ended in balmy twilight and on David’s recommendation a good few of us went to eat at Aladin’s on Brick Lane. It was all fun.

You were missed - come with next time

Labour Rally at Cable Street – Michael Keith “on the stump”

Yesterday there was an outdoor rally for Labour Candidate Michael Keith in the Shadwell by-election, Tower Hamlets. The rally took place in the garden area adjacent to the Battle of Cable Street Mural (see main photo) painted on the side of St Georges Town Hall.

There were about 80 supporters, mainly from the local Bangladeshi community. Speakers included most of the “great and the good” of Tower Hamlets Labour politics. First was Baroness Uddin, then Tower Hamlets Labour leader Denise Jones , Parliamentary Under secretary of State for Transport and local MP Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour Prospective parliamentary candidate for neighbouring Bethnal Green & Bow Rushanara Ali. Councillor Anwara Ali (and local GP) chaired the meeting.

They all praised Michael for the work he had done in the past for Shadwell and Tower Hamlets as a Councillor. Jim Fitzpatrick astonished the gathering (well, me anyway) with a confident and fluent 4 minute speech entirely in Sylheti. According to those next to me in the audience he spoke it very well! I have uploaded a 30 second clip of (poor quality video) of Jim in action onto You Tube.

Michael was last. He was literally a politician “on the stump” since he climbed upon the remains of a cut down tree stump (see photo). He then proceeded to give a well delivered and passionate speech about how important it is for the local area to return a Labour councillor and to turn away from the divisive policies of Respect. It went down very well.

Afterwards the canvassing continued. See Councillor (and Newham UNISON member) Bill Turner “on the knocker” in the Tarling estate. On Thursday there was a good show from Newham Labour Party. I heard that there were 25 “Newhamites” out and about in Shadwell.

Again very little sign of Respect campaigners. I saw Galloway briefly; it appears from speaking to other campaigners that he was up to his usual trick of using a megaphone to scream abuse and threats at Labour party activists. Charming bloke.

I’ve had a chance to read an interview with the Respect candidate and to do some digging - will try and post something interesting later tonight.