"'Cable Street beat' badge" [NMLH.2025.9.1]

Catalogue Number
NMLH.2025.9.1

Object Name
badge

Title
'Cable Street beat'

Place
Cable Street, London, UK

People
British Union of Fascists (BUF), Oswald Mosley, Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), Independent Labour Party (ILP), Metropolitan Police, Jewish People's Council

Events
Battle of Cable Street

Description
A white badge with two music symbols - one black and one white - over the top of a red triangle. Text reads 'Cable Street beat'.

This badge commemorates the Battle of Cable Street, an event which took place on 4 October 1936, when thousands of anti-fascists fought to stop Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists (BUF) from marching through the East End of London, an area they had intentionally selected as it was home to a large Jewish migrant community. The march was allowed by the police, despite local politicians demanding it be banned. As the police would not stop it, and in fact protected the fascists from protestors, anti-fascists came to prevent the march, from all across society - trade unions, Jewish people's organisations, communists and socialists, as well as East End residents. Oral histories even document Somali Muslim sailors attending to show solidarity against the fascists.

The exact numbers for each side are unknown, but the most common figure used by historians is 3000 BUF members were prevented from marching by up to 100,000 anti-fascists. The Battle of Cable Street is viewed as one of the most successful British anti-fascist protests, and is still commemorated by anti-fascists, leftists and East End residents today.

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