Thousands of people marched through East London on Sunday, October 4, marking the 90th anniversary of the historic Battle of Cable Street, when workers and residents of the East End prevented Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists from marching through the predominantly Jewish neighbourhood in 1936.
Demonstrators gathered outside Tower Hamlets Town Hall in Whitechapel before marching to St George’s Gardens in Cable Street, carrying banners against fascism and racism and repeating the historic slogan “They Shall Not Pass.” Trade unions, community organisations and anti-racist groups were among those taking part.
The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) participated prominently in the mobilization, with a Communist Party bloc joining the march. In the weeks preceding the anniversary, the CPB had called on its members to mobilize through workplaces, trade unions and community organizations, describing Cable Street as “one of the most important moments in our movement’s history” and insisting that the anniversary should be not merely a commemoration, but a “call to action for the present day.” Its campaign was organized around the slogan: “They did not pass — They shall not pass.”
Addressing the rally, CPB General Secretary Alex Gordon stressed the lessons of the working-class unity that confronted fascism in 1936. He pointed to the alliance of people of different faiths, ethnic backgrounds and traditions as an essential element of that victory and argued that such unity is again necessary amid the growth of far-right forces and anti-migrant politics in Britain and internationally. “Winning this unity and building a united front of the working class against fascism did not happen by magic,” Gordon said, adding that those seeking to build such unity today must “learn the lessons from 1936.” Jewish, Muslim, Irish, trade-union and Communist Party blocs were reported among the thousands participating in Sunday’s march.
The communists’ presence also recalled the significant role played by the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and the Young Communist League in the original events of October 4, 1936. Alongside Jewish and Irish workers, trade unionists, socialists and other East End residents, communist activists helped mobilize resistance to Mosley’s Blackshirts. Ninety years later, the CPB presented that history as a living lesson: organized working-class action and solidarity across communities remain, in its view, indispensable weapons against racism and fascism.
“They did not pass. They shall not pass”.
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