100yrs OF fighting fascism

The attacks against Jews in London, Manchester and Leeds were constant, violent and terrifying.

-  JASON BEATTIE

Gangs paraded in London's East End, targeting and abusing Jewish residents, particularly older Orthodox Jews.

They could not go down some streets without the risk of being set upon by fascists.

It is 100 years since the founding of the UK's first fascist organisation, British Fascisti.

Like European far-right parties, it hid behind the national flag, exploited economic discontent and enlisted jackbooted thugs.

The arrival of fascism demanded a response. This came October 7, 1923, when the British Fascisti first rally was disrupted by Communist Party members.

The next year the People's Defence Force was set up in London to resist moves to create a fascist party in Britain in the style of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

The battle against the hatred, abuse and violence pushed by the far-right had started. A fight against racism that has not ceased.

It has meant taking on Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, the National Front and the British National Party.

The battleground has been the streets of Dagenham, Bradford, Liverpool and Glasgow; council chambers and football terraces.

At every turn it has involved good people standing up to bad. No sooner had British Fascisti been seen off than a new threat emerged: Mosley's Blackshirts. Mosley had met Adolf Hitler and Mussolini and was determined to import their warped nationalist dogma into Britain.

In June 1934, 1,000 demonstrators outside London's Olympia protesting against a BUF mass rally were attacked by the party's stewards. This was a precursor to the 1936 Battle of Cable Street in London's East End.

Mosley targeted the area because of its large Jewish population. When the Government refused to ban the march by his Blackshirts the local community took matters into their own hands.