Antifascist walking-tour of east London, Oct 12

This sounds like a hell of a walking tour -- it's in my neighbourhood, too! Alas, I'll be out of town. Here's hoping for a repeat in the new year:

The dramatic story of how the people of the East End blocked the path of Oswald Mosley’s fascists in the 1930s is being told once again but this time the events are also being physically retraced through a walking tour. David Rosenberg will be leading a series of walks called “ANTIFASCIST FOOTPRINTS” between July and September.

The walks will start at Aldgate East – or Gardiners Corner as it was known then – where many tens of thousands stood to block Mosley’s path. They will wind their way to Cable Street, where the Jewish and Irish communities united to build barricades that prevented the fascists from invading the East End and terrorising its inhabitants.

There will be several stops along the way where David will tell the stories of ordinary people who became significant through this struggle and he will describe the role of organisations such as the Jewish People’s Council, the Independent Labour Party and the Communist Party in mobilising people to defend their communities. He will talk about the incidents they were caught up in and the actions they took and will locate the places where they organised their fight against fascism.

ANTIFASCIST FOOTPRINTS: STEPPING INTO THE 1930s EAST END (Thanks, Yishay!)

[#1 posted by error404 , September 3, 2008 9:11 AM]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Battle-of-Cable-Street-red-plaque.png

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AQDOjQGZuA

makes you proud.

[#2 posted by Mr_F , September 3, 2008 9:37 AM]

A few years ago at my grandparents wedding anniversary I was comparing notes on pubs around London Bridge/Bermondsey with my grandad who was a docker and grew up there in the 20's/30's (I worked in LB from about 2004-2007). I was gobsmacked when my grandad casually said "Oh the Southwark Tavern, i used to drink there all the time, i remember gathering there with my mates before we all headed over to the East End to march against the blackshirts"

He eventually married a Dutch lady (my gran) in the dying days of World War 2. She sheltered Jewish children and was in the resistance.

My grandparents are awesome.

[#3 posted by twps , September 3, 2008 9:41 AM]

I have awesome grandparents too. They escaped just before it all went down.

[#4 posted by James David , September 3, 2008 9:42 AM]

Amazing. I'd love to see this kind of people's history in Boston, where we already have the official story of the Freedom Trail, etc.

[#5 posted by The Unusual Suspect , September 3, 2008 10:18 AM]

Toronto takes pride in the 1933 Riot at Christie Pits.

There citizens with Jewish and Italian backgrounds from the Spadina-College area banded together to rout swastika-bearing British fascists from rallying on a local baseball field.

Hundreds were injured, and the pro-Nazi newspapers of the time condemned the actions of the "Spadina Avenue Gang", but the event pretty much put the brakes on the Canadian fascist movement until Canadians could see Hitler for what he was.