Fascists Defeated at Cable St

Newsreel record of the 1936 crushing defeat of the British Union of Fascists in East London

The newsreel documentation of the 1936 crushing defeat of the British Union of Fascists. The Battle of Cable Street, on Sunday 4th October, saw numerous anti-fascist groups and local residences take to the streets of a predominantly Jewish area in London's East End to resist Oswald Mosley’s Black Shirts. The fascists were forced back, but protesters also clashed with police and there were 150 arrests.

The Battle of Cable Street has since been immortalised as a key event in the history of the British left and resistance to fascism. Mosley's movement survived the encounter, and even saw its membership swell in the late 1930s, but the British Union of Fascists was banned in 1940 and its leader and many of its members were interned for much of the war.