Editing Battle of Cable Street (section)

==Events==
===Tower Hill===
The fascists were to gather from all over southern England, at and around Tower Hill for 2:30&nbsp;p.m; the first to arrive did so in a piecemeal fashion from around 1:25&nbsp;p.m; and were vulnerable to groups of hostile local people, around 500 in total, waiting for them. A party entering Tower Hill from nearby [[Mark Lane tube station]] was attacked, as was a group in [[Mansell Street]]. The anti-fascists also temporarily occupied the [[Minories]].<ref name="London, The Autobiography"/><ref name="The East End, Than and Now"/>

The fighting intensified as more BUF members and their opponents arrived, with many BUF arriving in vans whose windows had been reinforced with iron grilles. A private car bearing the slogan "Mosley shall not pass" drove onto Royal Mint Street, veering through the melee. It was attacked by Fascists who police cleared away with a baton charge, the car making its escape.<ref name="London, The Autobiography"/>

At 2pm the police began the process of separating the factions, by which time there were already a significant number of injuries including Tommy Moran, who was leading the BUF force until Mosley's later arrival.<ref name="London, The Autobiography"/>

There was fierce fighting as police then moved on the counter-protesters to clear the crossroads where Royal Mint Street, Leman Street, Dock Street and Cable Street meet. The counter-protesters were moved onto these neighbouring streets, including a large number forced into Dock Street.<ref name="The East End, Than and Now"/>

===Aldgate and its approaches===
The largest confrontation took place around Aldgate, where the conflict was between those seeking to block the BUF march, and the Metropolitan Police who were trying to clear a route for the march to proceed along. The streets around Aldgate were broad, and impossible to effectively barricade except by blocking them with large crowds of determined people. These efforts were helped when a number of tram cars were abandoned in the road by their drivers, possibly deliberately.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fascists and police routed: the battle of Cable Street - Reg Weston |url=https://libcom.org/article/fascists-and-police-routed-battle-cable-street-reg-weston |access-date=18 January 2023 |website=libcom.org}}</ref>

Dense crowds gathered from Aldgate Pump, along Aldgate High Street and [[Whitechapel High Street]] to [[St Mary Matfelon]] Church (now [[Altab Ali Park]]) and some way along Whitechapel Road. The adjacent side streets, most notably Minories and Leman Street, which led from Tower Hill to Aldgate, also became congested. The greatest concentration of people was at [[Gardiner's (department store)|Gardiner's Corner]], the junction of Whitechapel High Street with Leman Street, Commercial Street and Commercial Road.<ref name=miller>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wyjc1SWotUoC&pg=PA117|title=The Earl of Petticoat Lane|first= Andrew|last= Miller|publisher=Arrow|year= 2007|page=117|isbn=978-0-900913-99-0}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite book|title=The East End. Then and Now|first= Winston|last= Ramsey|publisher=Battle of Britain Prints Limited |year= 1997|pages=384–389|isbn=978-0-09-947873-7}}</ref><ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

The public were requested to gather in the area at 2pm, but people began arriving long before then. At 11:30, a column of the largely Jewish Ex-Servicemen's Movement Against Fascism marched along Whitechapel Road, wearing their WWI medals and carrying their Royal British Legion standard before them. On finding their progress to Aldgate blocked by police they demanded the right to march on the streets of their own borough, the same right granted to the fascists who were heading to the area. They were attacked by mounted police, and in the ensuing fighting the police captured their standard, tore it to pieces and smashed the flag pole to pieces.<ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

By 1:30 Aldgate, and in particular Gardiner's Corner, was solidly blocked by a mass of people who had already endured a series of baton and mounted charges by police. The police continued to try to secure a route through Gardiner's Corner, but also tried to secure alternative routes that the BUF marchers might resort to instead.<ref name="The Battle for the East End"/>

At around 1:40 a large group broke off from the main body and headed into the [[Minories]] which leads to Tower Hill. At around 2:15 individuals were making their way through the Aldgate crowds shouting "All to Cable Street", encouraging people to join the defence of the Cable Street/Leman Street junction near Tower Hill. The Police secured the junction after bitter fighting, and then sought to clear both Cable Street and Leman Street.<ref name="auto"/>

Although some counter-protesters had headed to Cable Street, large numbers remained around Aldgate and its approaches. The Police successfully fought to clear a route along two parallel avenues of approach, Minories and Leman Street, that lay between Tower Hill and Aldgate. They methodically advanced along each of the avenues and secured them by setting cordons of foot police along the side streets. They also continued their attempts to clear Aldgate itself, but the crowd remained solidly packed, chanting "They shall not pass".<ref>{{cite book |first1=Noreen |last1=Branson |first2=Margot |last2=Heinemann |title=Britain in the Nineteen Thirties|date=1971 |publisher=Granada Publishing Limited |isbn=978-0586037577 |page=306 to 322}}</ref>

One of the main organisers of the counter-protest, [[Fenner Brockway]], Secretary of the Independent Labour Party, who had already been injured by a police baton, decided to try to contact the Home Secretary, John Simon.<ref name="Battle for the East End">{{cite book|title=Battle for the East End|pages=207–208|first=David|last= Rosenburg|publisher=Five Leaves Publications|year=2011|isbn=978-1-907869-18-1}}</ref>

Just after 3pm Brockway found a phone box on [[Whitechapel Road]] and called the Home Office; the Home Secretary wasn't available so Brockway appraised a civil servant of the serious ongoing violence:<ref name="Battle for the East End"/>

{{Quote|"There are a quarter of a million people here, they are peaceful and unarmed, but they are determined that Mosley's provocative march shall not pass. If you permit it, yours will be the responsibility for the serious consequences"|[[Fenner Brockway|Fenner Brockway, Secretary of the Independent Labour Party]]<ref name=ilpcover>{{cite web|title=Independent Labour Party leaflet|year=1936|url=http://www.cablestreet.uk/images/They-Did-Not-Pass-cover.jpg|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220619010450/http://www.cablestreet.uk/images/They-Did-Not-Pass-cover.jpg|archive-date=19 June 2022}}</ref>}}

The official assured Brockway the message would be passed on. It is not known whether this actually happened, or whether it contributed to the decision by the authorities, soon after, to ban the march.<ref name="Battle for the East End"/>

===Cable Street===
Protesters built a number of barricades on narrow Cable Street and its side streets. The main barricade was by the junction with Christian Street, about 300 metres along Cable Street in the [[St George in the East (parish)|St George in the East]] area of [[Wapping]]. Just west of the main barricade, another barricade was erected on Back Church Lane; the barrier was erected under the railway bridge, just north of the junction with Cable Street.<ref>{{cite web|title=Recollections and sketches of James Boswell |url=http://www.jboswell.org.uk/index.php|access-date=18 January 2023}}</ref>

The police attempts to take and remove the barricades were resisted in hand-to-hand fighting and also by missiles, including rubbish, rotten vegetables and the contents of [[chamber pot]]s thrown at the police by women in houses along the street.<ref>{{cite news |last=Abel |first=Ariel |title=Torah For Today: The Battle of Cable Street |newspaper=Jewish News |url=https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/torah-for-today-the-battle-of-cable-street/ |date=30 September 2021}}</ref>

===Decision at Tower Hill===
Mosley arrived in an open-topped black sports car, escorted by Blackshirt motorcyclists, just before 3:30.<ref name="Guardian newspaper"/> By this time, his force had formed up in Royal Mint Street and neighbouring streets into a column nearly half a mile long, and was ready to proceed.<ref name="Guardian newspaper">{{cite news|newspaper=Manchester Guardian |title=Fascist march stopped after disorderly scenes|date=5 October 1936|orig-date=Reprinted 12 August 2024|url= https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1936/oct/05/fromthearchive |via=Guardian archive}}</ref>

However, the police, fearing more severe disorder if the march and meetings went ahead, instructed Mosley to leave the East End, though the BUF were permitted to march in the West End instead.<ref name="game">{{cite web |last=Game |first=Philip|author-link=Philip Game |title='No pasarán': the Battle of Cable Street |url=https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/no-pasaran-battle-cable-street/ |access-date=18 April 2022 |publisher=National Archives}}</ref> The BUF event finished in [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2018/feb/16/battle-cable-street-east-london-affordable-housing-sadiq-khan|title=Eight decades after the Battle of Cable Street, east London is still united|date=16 April 2018|newspaper=The Guardian|access-date=2 November 2022}}</ref>

===Arrests===
About 150 demonstrators were arrested, with the majority of them being anti-fascists, although some escaped with the help of other demonstrators. Around 175 people were injured including police, women and children.<ref name=hackney>{{cite news | url=http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/historian_bill_fishman_witness_to_1936_battle_of_cable_street_dies_at_93_1_3901205 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160917215728/http://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/historian_bill_fishman_witness_to_1936_battle_of_cable_street_dies_at_93_1_3901205 | url-status=dead | archive-date=17 September 2016 | title=Historian Bill Fishman, witness to 1936 Battle of Cable Street, dies at 93 | newspaper=Hackney Gazette| date=30 December 2014 | last=Brooke|first=Mike | location=London}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Levine |first=Joshua |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/964378409 |title=Dunkirk: the history behind the major motion picture |date=20 June 2017 |isbn=978-0-00-825893-1|publisher=William Collins|location=London |page=46 |oclc=964378409}}</ref>