“They Shall Not Pass!”

Today marks three weeks until the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. On Sunday 4th October, Tower Hamlets Trades Council will join scores of other local and national organisations in celebrating this momentous date in our history.

On Sunday 4th, we expect thousands to join a celebration and unity parade through our borough. We will meet at 12 noon in Whitechapel, then march westwards towards Gardiner’s Corner, where, 90 years ago, thousands of people, particularly from the East End’s Jewish population, gathered to say “They Shall Not Pass!” We will then head south along Leman Street, before turning into Cable Street and assembling at St. George’s Gardens.

The final rally will be addressed by MPs, trade union general secretaries and relatives of people who were there in 1936. There will also be music, song and poetry.

Glyn Robbins, Co-Secretary of Tower Hamlets Trades Council, said: “Remembering the lessons of Cable Street has never been more important. We face the threat of a rising tide of reactionary and racist bigotry of the kind we saw ninety years ago. Recent events in Dover and Portsmouth are a stark echo of Mosley’s blackshirts in the 1930s – and a warning. Now, as then, the racists are scapegoating the ‘other’, spurred and financed by shadowy elements of the establishment who want to divide and crush the working class. But the Battle of Cable Street shows how we can defeat the far-right – by standing shoulder-to-shoulder in unity and saying ‘They shall not pass’.”  

Local organisations, including the Trades Council, are running a season of local cultural events under the banner TOGETHER on Cable Street. more details here.