On that day in 1936, members of my Jewish family stood up to the Blackshirts. Their fight against racism inspired our adaptation of The Merchant of Venice
In the weeks leading up to the battle of Cable Street, Oswald Mosley, inspired by his friend Hitler, sent his Blackshirt militia into the East End of London to whip up hatred against Jewish people. Jewish buildings were daubed, synagogues smashed and posters calling for patriotism and national pride in the face of the “untrustworthy international Jewish Entity” were nailed on walls and doorways.
Then, on Sunday 4 October 1936, the fourth birthday of Mosley’s fascist party, he sent more than 3,000 uniformed Blackshirts in four marching columns through London’s East End and its predominantly Jewish community, promising a “Greater Britain” and blaming all society’s ills on these immigrant Jews. He fully expected to be supported by the working-class population of the area and assumed it would be delighted by his rousing speeches of hate – as Mussolini and Hitler’s audiences had been abroad. Instead, the local community came together to drive the fascists out – immigrants, socialists, Jews and trade unionists stood side by side in solidarity.
This summer, I watched civil unrest in the UK unfold. Just like in the months preceding October 1936, it had been brewing for a while. Hotels housing migrants were attacked by angry mobs and vandalised. One was set on fire….