Patient work on class issues can help turn the tide against the far right

One of the lessons highlighted by the anti-fascists of the 1930s is that confronting fascism physically and ideologically must go hand in hand with solid alternatives on the social and economic issues that affect its supporters, argues GAWAIN LITTLE

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ON October 4 1936, 90 years ago, the local Jewish community, Irish dockers, unemployed workers, trade unionists, socialists and communists came together to defend the East End of London against Oswald Mosley’s fascists and stopped them from marching down Cable Street.

Now, 90 years later, once again facing a rising tide of fascism, with masked men in black uniforms intimidating people on our streets, this time with anti-migrant rhetoric and Islamophobia, alongside a dangerous growth in antisemitism, we have to reflect on some of the lessons of the Battle of Cable Street.

What can we take from that historic victory that we can use today to organise against the far right? In spite of the parallels, today isn’t the 1930s. The conditions aren’t exactly the same, although there are many common threads. How can we apply the lessons of the past in the circumstances of today?

I think there are three key lessons we can draw from the Battle of Cable Street that can inform the way we respond to fascism today.

The first is that that defeat of the British Union of Fascists and of Mosley at Cable Street was a product of an unprecedented unity. The entire community came together. There were those who urged people to stay away and said that opposing the fascists on the street would only increase antisemitism, but the vast majority ignored them. 

The resistance at Cable Street brought together every section of that community to defend their homes, to defend their streets against the fascists who sought not just to march through that area as part of their campaign of intimidation and violence against British Jews.

That unity took time to build. While the Battle of Cable Street is rightly celebrated, much less is said about the years of patient organising within the Jewish community, within the Irish community, in the trade unions and community groups that went into building the capacity for such a response. 

This was about bringing together those opposed to fascism, giving them confidence, co-ordinating their efforts and building their capacity to respond. It involved the launching of broad anti-fascist fronts, street meetings, leafleting, anti-fascist counter-demonstrations and much more. This community organising had a focus on local issues but was deeply political. It linked local issues to a coherent analysis of national and international politics.

The second lesson I think we can draw from the Battle of Cable Street is that fascism has to be confronted on the streets, that we have to stop those masked fascists from marching in our communities, that we need to block them when they try to march, and we need to mobilise our movement to do that. The Battle of Cable Street was only one of a number of confrontations that took place during that period right across the country.

On September 10 1933, the BUF tried to hold a rally in Stockton-on-Tees. They were met by roughly 3,000 communists, trade unionists, local residents and anti-fascists in what became known as the Battle of Stockton. After multiple clashes on the high street, the fascist meeting was eventually abandoned. Similar clashes took place at the Battle of South Street in Worthing, the Battle of Carfax in Oxford, the Battle of Holbeck Moor in Leeds, the Tyneside rallies in Newcastle and Gateshead and in North Shields, where the National Union of Unemployed Workers drove the BUF out of town, to name just a few.

These confrontations significantly weakened the BUF and were key to its decline. They tarnished the reputation of the fascists but more importantly, they ensured that their poison was rejected in community after community. Wherever the fascists tried to spread their message of hatred and division, wherever they tried to prey on the economic insecurity of the working-class communities worst hit by the Depression, by turning neighbour against neighbour, anti-fascists mobilised to confront them and shut them down.

However, that is only part of the lesson. Finally, while it was essential to shut down the fascists’ message, wherever they tried to take it, and to confront them directly when they tried to march and hold meetings, it was just as important to defeat that message in communities where it had already taken hold.

After the Battle of Cable Street, when the fascists had been stopped from marching through the East End of London, those who had organised in their own communities, and mobilised to defend their area, then went into the fascist-supporting areas and began organising again. 

They went into those communities where the BUF had got its support, and they started organising around housing and jobs, and in doing so they defeated the ideas the fascists had won people to.

The thinking behind this is set out in Phil Piratin’s book, Our Flag Stays Red. Piratin, a Jewish Communist, was one of the organisers of the Battle of Cable Street and later became the MP for Stepney. 

This was his argument: “There were those who said: ‘Bash the fascists whenever you see them.’ Others among us asked ourselves, ‘How was Mosley able to recruit Stepney workers?… If they saw in the fascists the answer to their problems, why? What were the problems? Did we… offer a solution?’

“One evening, Mosley held a meeting… In order to settle this problem in my own mind, I went along to this meeting, made myself inconspicuous, and watched to see the support that Mosley had. When the meeting ended, there was to be a march… I was curious to see who and what kind of people would march. 

“The fascist band moved off, and behind them about fifty thugs in blackshirt uniform. Then came the people. About 1,500 men, women (some with babies in arms) and youngsters marched behind Mosley’s banner. I knew some of these people, some of the men wore trade union badges. This had a terrific impact on my attitude to the problem… [W]hilst we should fight Mosley’s thugs, where did you get by fighting the people? We should ask ourselves, ‘Why are these ordinary working-class folk supporting Mosley?’… [T]hese people, like most in East London, were living miserable, squalid lives. Their homes were slums. Many were unemployed. Those at work were often in low paid jobs. Therefore, we urged that we should help the people improve their conditions of life, in the course of which we would show them who was mainly responsible for those conditions, and get them organised to fight against their real exploiters.”

The lesson Piratin drew from this is clear. We have to confront the fascist thugs on the streets, but we also have to win back working-class people, our people, from this poison. As well as defeating fascist marches and mobilisations, we have to do what Piratin called the “basic, solid, slogging work of exposing fascism to its own supporters.” 

We also have to change the economic conditions in which fascism sinks its roots. That means fighting for decent jobs, decent housing, decent pay, and an alternative economic strategy. It means going out and organising in our communities to challenge far-right and fascist ideas and to improve the lot of the working class. Only then will we push back the rising tide of fascism.

Gawain Little is general secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions.

Battle of Cable Street / 2 October 2026 ‘They did not pass, they will not pass’ 2 October 2026 Anti-fascist, trade unionists and Eastenders to celebrate victory over Oswald Mosley��s Blackshirts at the Battle of Cable Street 90 years ago

Cable Street at 90 / 3 October 2026 We need unity, clarity and mobilising power to defeat the far right 3 October 2026 Racism in all its forms needs to be confronted by united mass activity that challenges the far right organisationally and ideologically, argues SABBY DHALU

Labour Conference 2026 / 29 September 2026 Morning Star fringe discusses lessons of Cable Street as 90th anniversary commemoration looms 29 September 2026 Labour Conference 2026 / 26 September 2026 The socialist legacy of the Battle of Cable Street 26 September 2026 It is important for socialists today to understand how antisemitism and fascism were defeated in East London in 1936, writes APSANA BEGUM MP