by Rosa Gilbert, Policy and Research Manager, Irish in Britain
The British Union of Fascists' (BUF) intention was to intimidate the local Jewish community.
The call to oppose the fascist march was made by the Communist Party and Independent Labour Party. Over 100,000 people took to the streets, many of whom were local Jewish and Irish residents of London’s East End, though some came from further afield including miners from Wales and the North of England.
The East End’s migrant populations
In October 1936, Cable Street had a vast Irish population in addition to its Jewish inhabitants. The Irish presence in this part of London dates back to at least the 18th century, with many Irish inhabitants working at the Wapping and Shadwell docks as coalheavers.
Up until 1860 the eastern part of Cable Street was called Knock Fergus, an historical name for Carrickfergus, most likely a nod to its Irish inhabitants. The Irish population of East London swelled in the 19th century in the aftermath of An Gorta Mór (The Great Hunger) just as the Jewish population increased in the wake of antisemitic pogroms in the Russian Empire.
The late 19th century was a period of political agitation in the East End. Unskilled Jewish workers in the garment trade and Irish dockers played prominent roles. Industrial action also provided a place for common cause between the different migrant communities.
In 1889 during a strike by Jewish tailors, a substantial donation of £100 was made to their strike fund from the mainly Irish dockers union. By far the biggest single contribution, it helped them win their strike for shorter hours. In the run up to the First World War, strikes over poor pay and conditions were undertaken by Jewish tailors and Irish dockers during the ‘Great Unrest’.
In 1912, having won their strike, the Jewish tailoring families of Whitechapel took the dockers’ children into their homes while their parents were on strike – around 300 children were helped in this way.
Jewish Dubliner Max Levitas, one of the antifascists at Cable Street in 1936, later recalled:
“We knew the Irish would stand with us. When [the dockers] went out on strike in 1912, it was a terrible time. Jewish families took in hundreds of their children. They were starving.
We knew the Irish dockers wouldn’t forget. They wanted to repay the debt.”
The Battle of Cable Street
The British Union of Fascists had given just a week’s notice for their planned show of strength on 4 October 1936. Local residents requested the Home Secretary ban the march, arguing it would inflame tensions. These were rejected, and on the day around 7,000 policemen protected up to 5,000 marching fascists, though we don't know exact figures.
Anti-fascist campaigners outnumbered both fascists and police. Irish dockers and railway workers helped the local Jewish population build barricades on Cable Street, where the march had been redirected due to confrontations on its route from Tower Hill. As police tried to clear the way, the anti-fascists resisted. Eventually the police gave up and ordered the fascists to retreat. They never made it to their intended rallying point of Victoria Park and instead dispersed to Hyde Park.
Jewish author Bill Fishman who was at Cable Street as a 15 year old later recalled:
“The people up the top of the flats, mainly Irish Catholic women, were throwing rubbish on to the police. We were all side-by-side. I was moved to tears to see bearded Jews and Irish Catholic dockers standing up to stop Mosley.
I shall never forget that as long as I live, how working-class people could get together to oppose the evil of racism.”
Tower Hamlets Library and Archives hold important records relating to Cable Street and the Irish population of the East End over many centuries. Archivist Annette Mackin provided Irish in Britain with useful detail.
The Irish dockers opposing Mosley’s BUF were organised by Pat Coleman, a Communist Party member who was born near St George-in-the-East into a second-generation Irish family on the docks. Coleman lived just off Cable Street and organised against Mosley in 1936 and 1937.
Annette also provided us with a photograph from the archives of organiser Frank Whipple, not a docker but an Irish tailor, born in Cork and married to a Jewish woman in Stepney.
Ultimately, the resistance to the BUF was successful, and while Oswald Mosley continued his attempts to set workers against each other on grounds of ethnicity, Cable Street represented a crucial turning point at a time when fascism was sweeping the European continent.
Thanks to the solidarity and determination of Eastenders, including so many Irish people, the rallying cry “They shall not pass!” held true in London.
Many thanks to Tower Hamlets Library and Archives for supplying photos of Max Levitas and Frank Whipple from their collections.