1936 Cable Street Riots

Writer: David Rosenberg

4 October 1936 |  Working Class Jews |  Political Radicals  |  Jewish Class war |  How fascism came to Britain |  Mosley's movement |  Media stereotypes |  Police protection? |  Trouble brewing |  Fighting anti-Semitism |  The Battle of Cable Street |  After Cable Street |  Resources

Mosley's movement

In 1931 Mosley formed the "New Party" which soon evolved into the British Union of Fascists (BUF). It adopted the Black Shirt as its uniform. It won open support from the press baron Lord Rothemere and his Daily Mail newspaper ran a centre-spread: "HURRAH FOR THE BLACKSHIRTS!".

At first Mosley emphasised the movement's nationalism. He claimed it would mobilise "vitality, youth and manhood" to revitalise the nation. After Hitler came to power in Germany, though, the BUF's propaganda became dominated by anti-Semitism.

The BUF saw Jews as a fifth column – secret subversives trying to undermine the nation. Decades before Norman Tebbit's cricket test for Britain's minorities or David Blunkett's demand for loyalty oaths from new arrivals, the BUF proposed a loyalty test for "immigrants". Those who proved their loyalty would be free from harm, claimed Mosley, but in reality BUF members viewed all Jews with suspicion. In March 1935 Mosley's supporters packed London's Albert Hall. He warned the audience that Jews must put Britain first "or be deported". At a later rally William Joyce, himself an Irish immigrant from America, declared "We pledge ourselves to rid the country of the Jews."

The Blackshirt newspaper, with the headline, ‘On to fascist revolution!’. (PA/EMPICS)

They organised on the outskirts of Jewish urban areas, especially London's East End, holding street meetings, rallies and marches, and selling their newspaper, The Blackshirt. A BUF pamphlet claimed: "Not so long ago East London was the home of British stock … today the Englishman in East London is the slave of the Jewish master". Jews were portrayed as the "capitalist" enemy of workers and the "communist" enemy of the middle classes.

After the Second World War Mosley claimed he had attacked Jews because of what they did, not because of who they were.

Their vocabulary for Jews emphasised that Jews were separate from Britons, not just geographically but biologically. BUF speakers called them "aliens", "Orientals" and "Levantines". Later, though, BUF propagandists declared: "Those who oppose fascism are not of our flesh and blood … the Jew is a foreigner, he is not of our race … the gloves must be taken off – it is Gentiles v Jews, white man v black man'. It became common for BUF speakers to heap praise on their audiences at public meetings for being superior "white men". Jews were described as "rats and vermin from the gutters of Whitechapel". The BUF's Director of Propaganda and Deputy Leader, William Joyce, declared at Bethnal Green: "Jews are Oriental sub-men … an incredible species of sub-humanity…a type of sub-human creature"

While proposing harsh law and order policies, the BUF encouraged supporters to be violent towards individual Jews. Opponents who turned up to heckle at their rallies were also subjected to severe beatings.

Media stereotypes >