Like Caesar marching to the East...

[catsmate]

And so we learn from history generations have to fight
And those who crave for mastery
Must be faced down on sight
And if that means by words, by fists, by stones or by the gun

Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street (wiki) when a motley collection of socialists, trade unionists, communists, Irish dockers, Jewish shopkeepers and thousands ordinary people faced down and stopped a deliberately provocative march by Oswald Mosley and thousands of his uniformed fascists supporters from the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists.

Baronet Mosley, a former Labour party MP, had declared October 4th to be "a day of destiny and reckoning" and planned to lead his Blackshirt army east from the Tower of London to occupy the "Jew-ridden and communistic" dockside areas. All the while chanting "Britain for the British" and "We’re going to get rid of the Yids"

Despite petitions requests from local leaders the Home Secretary, John Simon, refused to ban the march or force an alteration to it's route; untruthfully claiming he lacked the powers to so. In fact the Home Office did have the authority and had previously used it against communist marches.
Mosley’s Blackshirts would be guarded by thousands of police, including hundreds of mounted police, who would be tasked with forcing the locals to allow the chanting fascists through their areas.

But opposition grew, from anti-fascist groups and local people; roadblocks are constructed with the principal barricade near the junction with Christian Street, towards the west end of Cable Street. About twenty thousand people turned out to oppose the fascists, chanting "They shall not pass", to be met by around six thousand police and four thousand fascists. Police attempts to remove the barricades were met with missiles and improvised weapons, including fireworks, slingshots and marbles. Rubbish, rotten vegetables and the contents of chamber pots were thrown at the police by many women in houses along the street.

After a series of running battles, and police baton charges, the march was abandoned. The Independent Labour Party leader, Fenner Brockway, had contacted the Home Office forecasting major rioting and manjor casualties if the march was continued and the Commissioner of the Metroplitan Police, Sir Philip Game, ordered the fascists to leave; "It was obvious to him, as it was to everyone, that any attempt to force a way for the Fascist column would have meant serious riot and bloodshed".
Around 4PM the Blackshirts were escorted out of Royal Mint Street by police and marched down the Embankment, away from East London, skulking off in defeat. Though they didn't take their humiliation well; insults were shouted at anyone of "Jewish appearance", some were spat upon and some missiles were thrown.
An attempt to hold a meeting at Trafalgar Square was also blocked by police.

About 150 demonstrators were arrested, many beaten severely by police while in custody, although many more escaped with the help of other demonstrators or were broken from custody. Several members of the police were "arrested" by demonstrators. About two hundred people were injured.


I'll leave the last word on Mosley to Messrs Smith and Jones, and their associates.


References.
The Guardian.
Time.
Al Jazeera.

 

[Filippo Lippi]

Thanks

 

[fuelair]

Yesterday was the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street (wiki) when a motley collection of socialists, trade unionists, communists, Irish dockers, Jewish shopkeepers and thousands ordinary people faced down and stopped a deliberately provocative march by Oswald Mosley and thousands of his uniformed fascists supporters from the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists.

Baronet Mosley, a former Labour party MP, had declared October 4th to be "a day of destiny and reckoning" and planned to lead his Blackshirt army east from the Tower of London to occupy the "Jew-ridden and communistic" dockside areas. All the while chanting "Britain for the British" and "We’re going to get rid of the Yids"

Despite petitions requests from local leaders the Home Secretary, John Simon, refused to ban the march or force an alteration to it's route; untruthfully claiming he lacked the powers to so. In fact the Home Office did have the authority and had previously used it against communist marches.
Mosley’s Blackshirts would be guarded by thousands of police, including hundreds of mounted police, who would be tasked with forcing the locals to allow the chanting fascists through their areas.

But opposition grew, from anti-fascist groups and local people; roadblocks are constructed with the principal barricade near the junction with Christian Street, towards the west end of Cable Street. About twenty thousand people turned out to oppose the fascists, chanting "They shall not pass", to be met by around six thousand police and four thousand fascists. Police attempts to remove the barricades were met with missiles and improvised weapons, including fireworks, slingshots and marbles. Rubbish, rotten vegetables and the contents of chamber pots were thrown at the police by many women in houses along the street.

After a series of running battles, and police baton charges, the march was abandoned. The Independent Labour Party leader, Fenner Brockway, had contacted the Home Office forecasting major rioting and manjor casualties if the march was continued and the Commissioner of the Metroplitan Police, Sir Philip Game, ordered the fascists to leave; "It was obvious to him, as it was to everyone, that any attempt to force a way for the Fascist column would have meant serious riot and bloodshed".
Around 4PM the Blackshirts were escorted out of Royal Mint Street by police and marched down the Embankment, away from East London, skulking off in defeat. Though they didn't take their humiliation well; insults were shouted at anyone of "Jewish appearance", some were spat upon and some missiles were thrown.
An attempt to hold a meeting at Trafalgar Square was also blocked by police.

About 150 demonstrators were arrested, many beaten severely by police while in custody, although many more escaped with the help of other demonstrators or were broken from custody. Several members of the police were "arrested" by demonstrators. About two hundred people were injured.


I'll leave the last word on Mosley to Messrs Smith and Jones, and their associates.


References.
The Guardian.
Time.
Al Jazeera.

Republickertrumper SS/SA of the past in England. Wodehouse made them laughingstocks in some of his books and stories. They make themselves laughingstocks here.

 

[catsmate]

Republickertrumper SS/SA of the past in England. Wodehouse made them laughingstocks in some of his books and stories. They make themselves laughingstocks here.

Ah, Roderick Spode and his Blackshorts, with their British made umbrellas...

 

[Filippo Lippi]

Mosley in Wales

 

[catsmate]

Mosley in Wales

Ah Leon Atkin, a god botherer I have some respect for.

 

[ddt]

Thank you.

My hat off to those who, 80 years ago, stood up and resisted the rising fascism. A much needed reminder in these days where a new generation of xenophobic, anti-democratic populists is on the rise.

No paseran!

 

[Dave Rogers]

At our model railway club open day last Saturday week, I was chatting to a visitor over a layout I co-designed and built, an East End 1940 tramway layout which has a synagogue in the foreground complete with windows protected by wire gratings. I commented that I'd added these details because it was only four years after the Battle of Cable Street, and he told me his father had been in the battle, fighting against the Blackshirts, and passed on a few of his recollections of how violent and destructive the BUF were. His father had seen a group of them pull up in an army truck at a Jewish shop, throw the family who ran it out in the street, smash up the shop, and throw the five-year-old son through the plate glass window. He wasn't Jewish himself, but he wouldn't stand by and tolerate that sort of behaviour, so when he got the chance he stepped up and fought against it, along with many others. I said he should be proud of his father for taking that stand, and he agreed. We British think of fascism as something that happened somewhere else and that we fought against; it's important to remember that we're equally in danger of succumbing to it ourselves.

Dave

 

[catsmate]

At our model railway club open day last Saturday week, I was chatting to a visitor over a layout I co-designed and built, an East End 1940 tramway layout which has a synagogue in the foreground complete with windows protected by wire gratings. I commented that I'd added these details because it was only four years after the Battle of Cable Street, and he told me his father had been in the battle, fighting against the Blackshirts, and passed on a few of his recollections of how violent and destructive the BUF were. His father had seen a group of them pull up in an army truck at a Jewish shop, throw the family who ran it out in the street, smash up the shop, and throw the five-year-old son through the plate glass window. He wasn't Jewish himself, but he wouldn't stand by and tolerate that sort of behaviour, so when he got the chance he stepped up and fought against it, along with many others. I said he should be proud of his father for taking that stand, and he agreed. We British think of fascism as something that happened somewhere else and that we fought against; it's important to remember that we're equally in danger of succumbing to it ourselves.

Dave

One of my great-uncles was there, with his cargo hook; he was a docker (there were a lot of Irish dockers in the East End back then) and hundreds of then (and thousands of other Irish in London) rallied to oppose Mosley and his crew.
It's interesting because the Irish in the East End were being courted by Mosley to oppose the Jews. He frequently spoke of "freedom and unity" for Ireland, and this was attractive to some; his deputy was William Joyce who'd been born in the US and raised in Galway. Joyce was the BUFNS's Director of Propaganda, and fancied himself as the movement's chief ideologist and was the last person executed for treason in the UK; he was better know as "Lord Haw-Haw".
However there were close connections between the Jewish and Irish communities; during the dock strike of 1912 Jewish families took in hundreds of the docker's children and this wasn't forgotten. Nor was there much trust of Mosley and his promises.

The day after the failed march Mosley flew to Berlin to marry his long-time mistress, Diana Mitford, at the home of their friend Joseph Goebbels. Adolf Hitler would be the guest of honour.

Ireland also had it's own fascist movement; O'Duffy's Blueshirts with their promise to "oppose Communism and alien control and influence in national affairs and to uphold Christian principles in every sphere of public activity" though they were a mostly spent force by '36. Many of the former Irish fascists went to Spain to fight for Franco, where they refused to fight the Basques...

 

[fuelair]

At our model railway club open day last Saturday week, I was chatting to a visitor over a layout I co-designed and built, an East End 1940 tramway layout which has a synagogue in the foreground complete with windows protected by wire gratings. I commented that I'd added these details because it was only four years after the Battle of Cable Street, and he told me his father had been in the battle, fighting against the Blackshirts, and passed on a few of his recollections of how violent and destructive the BUF were. His father had seen a group of them pull up in an army truck at a Jewish shop, throw the family who ran it out in the street, smash up the shop, and throw the five-year-old son through the plate glass window. He wasn't Jewish himself, but he wouldn't stand by and tolerate that sort of behaviour, so when he got the chance he stepped up and fought against it, along with many others. I said he should be proud of his father for taking that stand, and he agreed. We British think of fascism as something that happened somewhere else and that we fought against; it's important to remember that we're equally in danger of succumbing to it ourselves.

Dave

Was the POS who threw the child out the glass window killed? Preferably in a long and painful process?

 

[Damien Evans]

I'm confused, what does this have to do with Caesar?

 

[fuelair]

I'm confused, what does this have to do with Caesar?

That he makes a good salad?????

 

[Garrette]

I'm confused, what does this have to do with Caesar?

I imagine a comparison of Caesar attempting to subjugate the Germanic tribes to the east of Gaul and failing to Mosley on the rise and failing at Cable Street.

 

[catsmate]

I'm confused, what does this have to do with Caesar?

My bad, it's from the song The Ghosts Of Cable Street linked above.

England, 1936.
The grip of the Sabbath day
In London town the only sound
Is a whisper in an alleyway
Men put on their gloves and boots
Have a smoke before they go
From the west there is a warning of
A wind about to blow

Like Caesar marching to the EastMarches Mosley with his men
Dressed in their clothes of deepest black
Like a gathering hurricane
This is the British Union
With its flag of black and red
A flag that casts a shadow in
Berlin and in Madrid

So listen to the sound of marching feet
And the voices of the ghosts of Cable Street
Fists and stones and batons and the gun
With courage we shall beat those blackshirts down

So mile by mile they come on down
To a place called Cable Street
And other men are waiting there
Preparations are complete
Mosley comes so close
They now can see his outstretched arm
A hand raised up that way
Never took the future in its palm

Listen to the sound of marching feet
And the voices of the ghosts of Cable Street
Fists and stones and batons and the gun
With courage we shall beat those blackshirts down

The battle broke as the fists and the batons fell
Through the barricades came the sound of the wounded yells
Jack Spot burst through with a chair leg made of lead
Brought down a crashing blow on Mosley's head

And so we learn from history generations have to fight
And those who crave for mastery
Must be faced down on sight
And if that means by words, by fists, by stones or by the gun

Remember those who stood up for
Their daughters and their sons

Listen to the sound of marching feet
And the voices of the ghosts of Cable Street
Fists and stones and batons and the gun
With courage we shall beat those blackshirts down

Listen to the sound of marching feet
And the voices of the ghosts of Cable Street
Fists and stones and batons and the gun
With courage we shall beat those blackshirts down

 

[fuelair]

My bad, it's from the song The Ghosts Of Cable Street linked above.

While I appreciate the words for sure, they make a damn poor song (rhythm & rhyme and scan are terrible). I could easily do better than that with little effort - except for the music part. That I would do by picking a popular but appropriate tune to do the words to. I am guessing the author didn't.