“The movement today stands on the shoulders of those who mobilised at Cable Street in 1936. They showed that fascism can be defeated when communities defend themselves.”
By Sabby Dhalu
Home to successive generations of immigrant communities, the East End has long been an important battleground in the struggle against racism and fascism. The legacy of the victory over the fascists at Cable Street lives on today, and learning the lessons of history remains critical to confronting the far right.
The defeat of the fascists at Cable Street taught us three lessons that are as important today as they were 90 years ago: unity against fascism; challenging the racist, antisemitic and Islamophobic arguments peddled by fascists while ensuring that communities targeted by them play a leading role in the struggle; and, crucially, mobilising against fascism both at the ballot box and on the streets.
I first began campaigning against fascist organisations in 2001, when the British National Party (BNP) was making significant electoral advances. Much of the work was focused on mobilising voters to defeat the BNP in elections. BNP leader Nick Griffin secured more than 16% of the vote in Oldham West and Royton at the 2001 general election – a significant result for a fascist organisation. Yet the BNP failed to win a single council seat in Oldham, following a successful campaign by the local Muslim communities, the National Assembly Against Racism and the TUC, which applied the lessons of unity, challenging racist ideas and mobilising local communities.
Within a few years, however, the BNP had won council seats in towns and cities across the country. In 2003, the National Assembly Against Racism joined forces with the Anti-Nazi League and established Unite Against Fascism (UAF) in response to this growing threat.
By 2008, the BNP had secured a seat on the London Assembly, and in 2009 it won two seats in the European Parliament elections. This represented the biggest electoral breakthrough for a fascist organisation in British history and emboldened fascists to mobilise on the streets on a scale not seen since the National Front demonstrations of the 1970s.
These new demonstrations were organised by the English Defence League (EDL), led by Tommy Robinson. The EDL targeted towns and cities with significant Muslim populations, resulting in racist violence and, in particular, attacks motivated by Islamophobia against Muslims and Mosques.
UAF organised counter-demonstrations against the EDL, but we were often portrayed as troublemakers who were no better than the fascists themselves.
That began to change when the EDL threatened to march in Tower Hamlets in 2010. The EDL claimed to oppose so-called “Islamic extremism”, but we understood that its real target was the Muslim community of Tower Hamlets and, in particular, the East London Mosque.
In response, local Muslim, Jewish, Christian and other faith communities, trade unions and anti-racist organisations joined forces with UAF to form United East End. Despite significant political differences between Lutfur Rahman – whose mayoral campaign that year was endorsed by George Galloway and the Respect Party – and the local Labour Party, this broad alliance united around a common objective: preventing the EDL from bringing its racist mobilisation to Tower Hamlets.
Just as the mobilisation of the large Jewish community had been critical to defeating the fascists at Cable Street, the mobilisation of the large Muslim community was critical to defeating the EDL in Tower Hamlets.
A demonstration was called and supported by this diverse coalition, which said the EDL was not welcome in Tower Hamlets. The EDL’s march was subsequently banned. But, crucially, the scale and breadth of the anti-fascist mobilisation meant that the EDL could not even proceed with a static demonstration.
This was an important victory. The United East End and UAF demonstration went ahead in celebration, demonstrating the power of a united community response.
An even more significant victory came the following year, in 2011. The EDL called another march, and United East End and UAF again organised a counter-demonstration. That year, both marches were banned, but the static demonstrations went ahead.
On the eve of the demonstrations, BBC London news coverage drew explicit parallels between the communities of the East End defending their neighbourhoods and the communities that had mobilised to drive the Blackshirts out of Cable Street in 1936.
The 2011 mobilisation was nowhere near the scale of Cable Street. But it stood firmly in that tradition and represented an important turning point in the struggle against the renewed fascist threat.
The anti-fascist demonstration took place on Whitechapel Road and massively outnumbered the EDL, which was forced out of Tower Hamlets and into the City of London. Throughout the day, people from Tower Hamlets, supported by anti-fascists from across the country, mobilised to defend their communities. The Muslim community was at the heart of that mobilisation because it was the community most directly under attack.
The Tower Hamlets mobilisation became a model for confronting the EDL across the country. Increasing numbers of Muslim and other faith communities, trade unions, Labour representatives and left-wing politicians supported and mobilised for counter-demonstrations.
We were no longer simply portrayed as troublemakers. We were increasingly seen as people defending and supporting local communities against fascism.
The breadth of this movement enabled anti-fascist demonstrations to grow until they consistently outnumbered the EDL. That had a profound effect: it demonstrated that the fascists did not speak for working-class communities and helped to demoralise and ultimately defeat the EDL’s attempts to establish itself as a mass movement.
But the underlying conditions that allow racism and fascism to grow have not disappeared.
From 1970 to 2008, real wages increased, but they have fallen since the financial crisis of 2008. Millions of people have experienced growing economic insecurity and declining living standards. Against this backdrop, racist narratives blaming refugees, migrants and Muslims for wider social and economic problems have taken root.
The defeat of one fascist organisation therefore does not mean the end of the threat. The rise and decline of the BNP and EDL has been followed by successive waves of far-right mobilisation – from the Football Lads Alliance, to the 2018 mobilisations led by Tommy Robinson, to the riots and demonstrations of 2024, and last year’s Unite the Kingdom demonstration, which was the largest fascist-led demonstration in British history.
Each time, anti-racists and anti-fascists have organised a response and have successfully halted its advance.
We organised a major response to last year’s Unite the Kingdom mobilisation, launching the Together Alliance Against the Far Right. In March this year, the alliance mobilised the largest anti-racist and anti-fascist demonstration in British history, with half a million people taking to the streets against racism and fascism. That mobilisation demonstrated the scale of opposition to racism and fascism and the potential power of a broad, united movement.
When Unite the Kingdom mobilised again a few weeks later in May, its demonstration was significantly smaller than the previous one and was outnumbered by the joint Palestine Coalition and Stand Up to Racism demonstration marking Nakba Day. It was another illustration of the power of unity in confronting the far right.
The effectiveness of these street mobilisations has also forced the far right to adopt new and frightening tactics, including demonstrations reminiscent of the Blackshirts in Dover and attacks targeting the RNLI and refugees in Portsmouth.
Street demonstrations are not the only way to organise against fascism. Electoral campaigning, community organising, trade-union mobilisation, political education and challenging racist ideas are all essential. But when far-right street mobilisations have repeatedly taken place for almost two decades, street mobilisation is indispensable.
Every generation of anti-fascists stands on the shoulders of those who came before us. The movement today stands on the shoulders of those who mobilised at Cable Street in 1936. They showed that fascism can be defeated when communities defend themselves, when those targeted by fascists are at the heart of the struggle, and when the working class unites against racism and fascism.
The movement today stands on the shoulders of those who mobilised at Cable Street in 1936. They showed that fascism can be defeated when communities defend themselves.
Those lessons remain as relevant today as they were 90 years ago.
- Sabby Dhalu is Co-Convenor of Stand up to Racism (SUTR) and Joint Secretary of Together Alliance. You can follow her on Twitter/X, and SUTR on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X.
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