Tracy-Ann Oberman is right to highlight the importance of the battle of Cable Street in the history of the working-class movement (The battle of Cable Street is entwined in my family’s history – and its message of hope still resonates, 28 December). One lesson the left appears to neglect is that Cable Street was, indeed, a battle, not a passive demonstration.
Anti-fascists engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with both Blackshirts and their police escorts throughout the day. Fascists were attacked by local people from the moment they began to assemble at Tower Hill, and fighting continued until the British Union of Fascists’ march was called off.
