Remembering Cable Street: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British Society (review)

Abstract

Remembering Cable Street: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British SocietyRemembering Cable Street, an eclectic collection of essays and literature, focuses on confrontation between Oswald Mosley, his fascist followers, anti-fascists, and police. The of Cable occurred on October 4, 1936, in Stepney, heart of Jewish East End. The strength of this somewhat non-traditional study is varied lenses it brings to bear on demonstration. It thus extends our knowledge beyond basic outlines thus far considered by scholars (C. Holmes, G. Lebzelter, V. D. Lipman, W. D. Rubinstein).The volume emerged from conference marking sixtieth anniversary of and emphasizes nature, use, and contestation over historical memory and the rhetoric and representation of `Cable Street'(p. 2). It sheds light on Anglo-Jewry and behaviors and attitudes among Jews of differing socio-economic classes, genders, communal status, and political affiliations. The editors suggest that attention to treatment of ethnic minorities and institutional racism in past may focus attention on similarly charged issues in our own time (p. 5).The various articles offer several conclusions. Anti-fascists' responses may not have undermined fascism to degree often contended, but Cable Street has had continued resonance for local activism and British-Jewish identity (p. 4). Jews responded to fascist threat with both fear and insecurity, well excitement and growing self-confidence (p. 19) and anti-fascist activity contributed to political maturation of East End Jewry (p. 197), especially of younger generation.Thomas Linehan questions interpretation of Cable Street a major victory for anti-fascist forces. As Richard Thurlow also notes, immediately after their physical defeat, British Union of Fascists (BUF), attracted large crowds and increased membership. The defeat led to renewed efforts by Mosley and BUF; they sought to replace positive perceptions of heroic anti-fascist crowd with negative ones (lawless, subversive, outsiders, funded by Communists and Jews) (pp. 23-25, 74). By maligning anti-fascists, BUF attracted those whom they labeled honest, law-abiding, God-fearing, patriotic, respectable `British' working men and (p. 28). Further, Thurlow argues Battle enabled government to push through Public Order Act (December 1936), which increased power of authorities and limited civil liberties, though political extremists never really challenged authority of British state (pp. 74, 76).Julie Gottlieb and Nadia Valman highlight gender in their analyses. Gottlieb explores role of women in BUF. Their presence gave BUF veneer of decency (p. 33). Fearing appeal of Communism, BUF women argued that working women's status would improve under fascist state (pp. 35). While antisemitism was blatant in BUF, Gottlieb argues that it was not necessarily aspect that attracted women. Fascist women, though, were capable of racism their male counterparts (p. 39). Although propaganda promoted only limited extensions of women's roles, women were salespersons and soft-sellers of fascism, and Cable Street may have stimulated female recruitment (p. 40-42). Valman looks at efforts to influence East End girls and role of communal organizations as agencies of social discipline, that operated in an ethnically specific form (p. 187). Valman's analysis of erosion of influence among leaders of Jewish clubs also points to changing relationships between working-class Jews and their wealthier co-religionists, East Enders increasingly defined Englishness themselves. …