Thread by @ukipperlad

🧵 Today is October 4th, anniversary of the infamous "Battle of Cable Street" - but what really happened?

The myth is that the people of East London stood up against Oswald Mosley and defeated British Fascism - but inspecting first hand sources reveals the opposite to be true...

let's start with this special branch report that concludes:

“The general cry is that the entire population of East London had risen against Mosley...This statement is, however, far from reflecting accurately the state of affairs.”

myth: fascism was defeated and ran out of East London after the battle of Cable Street

truth: in the following local elections five months later the BUF polled as high as 23% despite a handicap that barred their young membership from voting

communists were "disturbed"

myth: Mosley and his men were severely beaten & sent packing

truth: Mosley obeyed orders from Sir Philip Game to stand his men down: for the assorted anti-fascists & communists had turned the streets into a warzone

the fighting was actually between the police and protestors

this scene from 1998 "Mosley" TV series is an accurate portrayal of Cable Street

Mosley and his men assemble and are dignified & organised - prepared for a peaceful march - but confronted with hordes of violent communists police shut the event down

Mosley obliges & obeys orders

many falsely believe that the battle of Cable Street was a fight between the common people of London and fascists, but this couldn't be further from the truth

what transpired was mass rioting from imported political factions against the police while the fascists respected order

myth: Cable Street was a local uprising against Oswald Mosley

fact: the far left had organised this counter protest for a long time - people from as far as Scotland travelled to London that day

this wasn't a spontaneous uprising from the locals, it was a manufactured riot

ten days after the battle of Cable Street Mosley made his return to the streets of London's East end to much jubilation

not a single communist was in sight: the streets buzzed with his name

the battle of Cable Street had backfired: support for Mosley was stronger than ever

if antifascist sentiment was so high, and Mosley was so unpopular, why did the people come out to cheer him upon his return? where was the opposition?

the answer is simple: having witnessed for themselves what antifascism entailed they knew they wanted nothing to do with it!

another primary source in the form of Blackshirt newspaper celebrates and documents Mosley's return to East London ten days after the battle of Cable Street

"They shall pass" - and pass they did, without any fuss and to jubilant scenes

a fine example of the communist barbarity is the story of Gladys Walsh - who was so disgusted by the sight of communists rolling marbles under police horses' hooves (coupled with stuffing broken glass up their noses!) that she became an active BUF member & women's district leader

here a witness at Cable Street recalls antifacsists attacking horses with much glee, yet she's bewildered at the police reaction:

"I thought I could understand it if the police were doing this to Mosley's men, but they were doing this to the good guys"

going back to the events of the march itself, four British Union of Fascists meetings along the proposed route *still went ahead* at Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, Bow & Limehouse

the meeting at Limehouse was eventually shut: but support for the fascists vastly outnumbered the reds

it would be foolish to omit that the fascists were massively outnumbered and outgunned: the full weight of the organised left fell on London that day, and many skirmishes were had

perhaps the most memorable encounter was that of Tommy Moran, who in a story comparable to that of the Spartans at Thermopylae led a brave vanguard group who were attacked

scenes of him single handedly decking communists were seen nationwide: a hero was born

I wrote a more detailed thread about Tommy Moran here with more pictures and videos:

so did Cable Street kill British fascism?

another primary source from a British Union newspaper brags that:

"BLACKSHIRT propaganda is making great strides in East London since the memorable October 4"

they then document four successful November meetings in East London

two days after the battle of Cable Street the BUF Limehouse branch had signed up 600 new members alone

the communist rioting had unsurprisingly backfired; the Fascists represented, no, they *embodied* order - while the communist rabble embodied *disorder*

revisionism around Cable Street is not new, in fact it has been widely acknowledged by the Jewish community for inflaming tensions and creating a backlash magnitudes higher than would have otherwise occurred

so membership swelled, support grew, Mosley was vindicated and his opponents were made out to be uncivilised thugs who were too embarrassed to turn up at the next Mosley event

"The Battle of Cable Street" was a disaster: yet it's now a foundational myth that the left lives by

my last point would be that the British Union held their biggest indoor meeting in 1939 (& were then interned in 1940)

to attribute any meaningful gain to a riot in 1936 makes no sense, objectively it did more harm than good: it was actually a catalyst for the growth of fascism

one last bonus point is that the communists tried a victory parade the Sunday after the battle of Cable Street and were pelted with fruit and flour

if you made it this far thanks for reading! twitter only posted half the thread so I had to scramble and manually post the rest, thankfully it was in my drafts 😂

source for special branch quotes can be found here:

England lives and marches on! oswaldmosley.com/battle-of-cabl…

addendum: if you enjoyed this thread then you'll enjoy reading about the relationship between British Fascists and farming - it got to the point that Fascists were having running battles with bailiffs to protect farm land in what was dubbed the tithe wars: