Anniversaries to Remember
This autumn saw the 75th anniversaries of three notable events in 1936. It was the anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street in East London, when a group of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists were prevented from marching through the East End of London, intimidating Jews in a similar way to the Nazis in Germany, by a huge crowd of 100 000 anti-fascists. October was also the month that the Brigade of the anti-Franco forces who travelled from Britain to Spain to fight fascism there. In the North-east of England, the 5th October 2011 marked the 75th anniversary of the start of the Jarrow Crusade when 200 unemployed men walked all the way to London to show how much they wanted work.
Cable Street was a great victory for the decent majority of people in the East End of London, from whichever background they came. It has been described as an event which came to symbolize the anti-fascist movement more than any others. The British Union of Fascists (BUF) were determined to march through the East End, but faced with the opposition of 100 000 anti-fascists they were able to make no progress at all. This was the beginning of the end of the pre-war fascist movement in Britain as the BUF’s questionable funding from Mussolini, the fascist leader of Italy, soon dried up.
In the North-east, the fascists were effectively finished by 1934. There was no need for an equivalent of the Battle of Cable Street. It was noted that the ordinary working people of the region found both the uniforms and antics of Mosley’s motley crew to be totally alien. The idea of such bullying tactics was repulsive to the vast majority of North-east people in 1936, just as it still is. Bullying of course is the way of the far-right whether it be the Nazis in 1930’s Germany or the BNP and EDL in Britain today.
Around the same time as the Battle of Cable Street, other British anti-fascists headed to Spain to fight Franco’s fascist rule, a regime that had the support of Hitler and Mussolini.
In October 5th 1936 saw the first steps being taken by the 200 noble men who made up the Jarrow Crusade. These were men with real grievances, yet they acted with commendable dignity, in a way which reflected well on their town and their region.
When one thinks of the appalling drunken behavior of members of the English Defense League, sadly including many from the North-east, who struggle to march together without shouting vile racist abuse and abusing other passers-by, one can only shake your head and wonder what the Jarrow men would make of it.
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