Jewish Culture and History
Abstracts of articles in Issue 1.2
Special Issue
Remembering Cable Street: Fascism and Anti-Fascism in British
Society
Edited by: Tony Kushner and Nadia Valman, both at University of
Southampton
- Fascist Perceptions of Cable Street by Thomas P Lineham
- The ‘Cable Street’ events have been interpreted
by many as a major victory for anti-fascism, yet immediately after 4 October
1936 support
for the British Union of Fascists increased substantially. Fascist writers and
speakers represented the anti-fascist demonstration in a number of ways, as
deliberately seditious, as orchestrated by outside forces, as irrationally
violent and as ungodly. An analysis of the images and metaphors deployed to
describe the demonstrating crowd indicates the ways in which the BUF appealed
to East End audiences by rhetorically recasting the defeat they had suffered
at
Cable Street.
- Women and Fascism in the East End by Julie Gottlieb
- By examining women’s participation in fascist activities in
London’s East End, the British Union of Fascist’s policies towards
working class women, and the feminisation of British fascist discourses
concerning race and otherness, this article argues that women played a critical
role in the successes and failures of the BUF’s campaigns in the East End.
Women members were certainly visible and ready for action on the now legendary
4 October 1936. Ironically, however, it was the absence of one woman, Diana
Guinness, that might well have been responsible for Sir Oswald Mosley’s
decision to abandon his position before the Battle of Cable Street.
- But What Did They Do? Contemporary Jewish Responses to Cable Street
by Elaine R Smith
- Jewish responses to the Battle of Cable Street and
indeed to fascist anti-semitism in general were varied and complex. At one
level, there were the
obvious divisions between East End Jews and the Anglo-Jewish leadership. At
another level, there were the numerous opinions and strategies which emanated
from East End Jews themselves. This paper looks at both the conflict between
the East End Jewish community and the Jewish leadership, and at the various
divisions within the East End Jewish community itself. It also examines the
practical and theoretical consequences of these divisions – in other words
what they meant in terms of the action which Jews took at the time of the Cable
Street disturbances.
- The Threat of the British Union of Fascists in Manchester by Neil
Barrett
- This article highlights the congruence of response to the BUF by the
Jewish elite nationally and in Manchester, focusing on the Laski family. The
moderate responses of the communal leadership to BUF slanders and the reasoning
which lay behind such responses is considered, as is the failure to engage with
the BUF in a more proactive way. Such responses, it is argued, were grounded in
the traditional norms of collective communal action which stressed the
importance of established principles of moderation, toleration and fair play.
But this line of defence came uncomfortably close to asking Jews to accept
second-class social status in order that the fiction of communal unity and
acceptance within the wider society be maintained.
- The Straw That Broke the Camel's Back: Public Order, Civil Liberties
and the Battle of Cable Street by Richard C Thurlow
- The problem of fascist-communist violence and the growth of political
anti-semitism in east London was the background to both the Battle of Cable
Street and the passing of the Public Order Act in 1936. Although it increased
the powers of the authorities to deal with general problems of law and order,
the Act was specifically targeted at the BUF, whose meetings, processions and
demonstrations were seen by the authorities as provocations and attempts to
intimidate the Jewish community. Somewhat ironically, its use was mainly
directed at anti-fascists, particularly in relation to abusive words and
behaviour, the original cause of the problem.
- Docker and Garment Worker, Railwayman and Cabinet Maker: The Class
Memory of Cable Street by David Renton
- The dominant memory of 4 October 1936 has emphasised class conflict and
class unity. Anti-fascism has been widely represented as a movement of
working-class solidarity against what has been seen as the predominantly
middle-class and capitalist character of British fascism. Recent research
suggests a more nuanced analysis, both of the membership of the British Union
of Fascists and of the interaction between ethnic and class identities in the
resistance to fascism. Nevertheless, the class model, if used in a dynamic way,
remains the most compelling approach to interpreting the Battle of Cable
Street.
- 'Long May Its Memory Live!': Writing and Rewriting 'the Battle of Cable
Street' by Tony Kushner
- The Battle of Cable Street is, excluding events connected to the Royal
family and world wars, the most remembered day in twentieth century Britain.
This article explores how the memory of 4 October 1936 was contested initially
by contemporaries and then by subsequent generations in attempts to make it a
'usable past'. The pattern of remembering has been uneven, with periods of
intense interest and then decline, but the 'Battle' has now gained mythical
status and is represented in a wide range of artistic and cultural forms. The
major argument of this article, following the general approach of Jonathan
Boyarin, is that the processes of remembering and forgetting the 'Battle' are
inseparable and cannot be seen as simple opposites. Indeed, as the century
comes to a close there is a danger that the increasing commemoration of 4
October 1936 will be at the expense of remembering the specific events of the
day itself.
Also available as a book ¦¦ 1999 ¦¦
304 pages ¦¦ ISBN 0 8530 3361 7
cloth; ISBN 0
8530 3362 5 paper