“They did not pass”
They shall not pass!
80
Cable Street
RALLY & MARCH 9 OCTOBER
CELEBRATE THE 80th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF CABLE STREET! Assemble Altab Ali Park, London E1 Sunday 9 October 2016 at 12 noon. March to the Cable Street mural in St George’s Gardens for a rally with speakers and stalls. On 4th October, 1936, the people of the East End inflicted a massive defeat on Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists. Attempts by the Blackshirts to march through Whitechapel were routed by more than 100,000 anti-fascist, anti-racist protestors from the local area, supported by those who came from across London and beyond to stand shoulder to shoulder against Mosley’s troops. As the fascists assembled in Royal Mint Street, near the Tower, they were attacked by large groups of workers. When the Metropolitan Police tried to clear a path through Gardiner’s Corner, a blockade of tens of thousands of people stood firm. Finally, the police tried to escort Mosley and his Blackshirt thugs down Cable Street. They were stopped by local residents – Jewish, Irish, English – who built barricades and hurled back the invaders by force. Local communists, socialists, trade unionists and Jewish organisations united to mobilise and coordinate the anti-fascist resistance. They built local campaigns among workers, tenants and the unemployed to fight for real solutions to people’s real problems. Together, they won a famous victory and put the skids under Britain’s first fascist mass movement.
DIVIDE AND RULE – THE SAME OLD STORY ... There’s nothing new about blaming immigrants and minority groups for problems caused by exploitation, governments and the system. • In the 1930s, Mosley’s fascists attacked the Jews. • In the 1950s and ‘60s, racists attacked Caribbean immigrants. • In the 1970s, the National Front attacked Asian communities. • Since the 1990s, the BNP and EDL have attacked Muslims. • Today, UKIP attacks East Europeans and refugees. This divides people, instead of uniting them to fight for a positive multicultural society where all have decent jobs, homes, public services, benefits, pensions, democracy, peace and a healthy environment. We should heed the warning of Pastor Niemoller, who defied the Nazis in 1930s Germany:
“
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew; Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak out for me.
UNITE AGAINST RACISM and FASCISM!
RALLY and MARCH
SUNDAY 9 OCTOBER Assemble: 12 noon Altab Ali Park, London E1 Plus: There will be an exhibition about the Battle of Cable Street and a series of commemorative cultural events for Cable Street 80 at the Idea Store, Watney Market, London E1 2FB during October 2016.
SUPPORTING ORGANISATIONS UNITE the Union – Tower Hamlets East London Teachers Association (NUT) ASLEF RMT Bangladesh Youth Union Bangladesh Communist Party – UK Nari Diganta Altab Ali Foundation Nirmul Committee Swadhinata Trust Udichi Indian Workers Association-GB East London Central Synagogue Jewish Socialists’ Group
Jewish Labour Movement Jewish Council for Racial Equality London Jewish Forum Cable Street Group Searchlight Unite Against Fascism Hope Not Hate United East End Redbridge and Epping Forest Together Tower Hamlets Labour Party Communist Party of Britain Young Communist League Morning Star International Brigades Memorial Trust Marx Memorial Library
Published & printed by Cable Street 80, c/o Unite the Union, 236 Cable Street E1 0BL CableStreet80@aol.com