REAL LIVES Cable Street UNDER THE BA


Cable Street shows us only solidarity conquers hate


As night falls over Whitechapel the young men in black shirts spill into the narrow streets looking for a fight. Members of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, they prowl around, seeking out businesses to wreck, scrawling racist graffiti on walls, firebombing and terrorising innocent residents for no other reason than they are Jewish.


The day came – with 7,000 uniformed fascists trying to force their way through the crowded streets, home to over 60,000 Jews. Ten thousand police – 4,000 on horseback were to be their protectors on this shameful march of hate.


hate and what solidarity can achieve. Taking up that fight is Unite Community’s Tower Hamlets branch. It has grown steadily and now, less than three years since its creation, there are over 300 members.


It’s 1936 and this has been happening for years. Then the Blackshirts disperse, running scared, calling out to leave immediately – they’ve seen a group of young men, known to them.


These are the ‘lowest of the low’ – they are Jews, and they are also Communists – and they aren’t afraid to fight back.


Among that group are my grandfather Sydney and his brother Charlie. It is said they take no prisoners. Charlie – a well-known local boxing champion is especially feared.


The streets of London’s Whitechapel have a unique history. For centuries it was the home to immigrants, who faced poverty and deprivation in inadequate overcrowded housing.


So when news got out that on October 4, fascist leader Oswald Mosley planned to march his hated uniformed army of thugs through Whitechapel, there was no way local residents, trade unionists and socialists were going to let that just happen.


But a petition of over 100,000 signatures calling for the march to be banned was summarily ignored.


‘No pasaran’ But the men, women and children of Whitechapel stood their ground. They were Jews, they were Irish, they were dockworkers,


sweatshop tailors,


Communists, socialists, trade unionists, neighbours – all standing firm together, shouting ‘No pasaran’ – they shall not pass.


Modern estimates now reckon 300,000 people took part in the protest. When the Blackshirts and mounted police broke through the barricades of mattresses and paving stones, women threw rotten vegetables and men armed themselves with the broken legs of chairs and tables.


And the cheers went on long into the night when the day’s heroes learnt that Mosley and his brutes had turned tail and fled.


Over 35 years later Sydney often told me about what happened that day. For me, there can be no better story of what can be achieved together.


But now hatred and prejudice are again rearing their ugly heads. After the Brexit result stories abound on a daily basis of attacks on immigrants, East Europeans, British Asians, Muslims – just anyone racists feel like attacking that day.


That’s why, Unite believes, it’s time to remind people we don’t have to accept


28 uniteWORKS Autumn 2016


It’s based at the Cable Street centre – a hub of activity for the local largely Bangladeshi community. Members have campaigned on benefit sanctions, fighting to save doctors’ surgeries, housing, and have stood alongside Unite industrial members against zero hours’ contracts. The branch also runs regular English as a foreign language courses.


“Here we are breaking down the barriers between communities and bringing them together in a common cause,” comments branch co-ordinator Monawar Badrudduza.


“We have people here from the Bangladeshi,


Somalian, African,


Kosovan, and Eastern European communities – we even have a member from France – and we’ve found that running English language courses is great in bringing people together and helping them get involved. People have said it makes them feel like they belong. They say in Unite they feel part of a family, they are included.”


Working at the Cable Street centre Monawar is reminded daily of what happened there 80 years ago. He draws endless inspiration from it. He says, “Standing up for your rights, making alliances with others fighting for their rights. Equality doesn’t come easily, you have to fight for justice.


COMM


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