Thousands of people mark Battle of Cable Street’s 75th anniversary
Thousands of people turned out for a march yesterday celebrating the 75th anniversary of the famous Battle of Cable Street.
Among the people at the forefront of Sunday’s march from Whitechapel High Street were Max Levitas, a 96-year-old Jewish veteran who fought in the battle on October 4 in 1936 to stop Sir Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirt fascists from marching through Cable Street in Stepney.
Mr Levitas a former Stepeny Communist councillor, later spoke at St George’s Town Hall in Cable Street where Sunday’s march ended,
Treasurer of The Cable Street Group, which organised the event, Derek Gadd said: “It was absolutely magnificent that so many people turned out to mark the occasion when 250,000 British and international people gathered in 1936 and touched the lives of so many.”
Hundreds of people also packed into Wilton’s Music Hall in Grace’s Alley which was at the centre of the celebrations.
A star studded variety show, They Shall Not pass, featuring left-wing activist and musician Billy Bragg, was put on in the evening.
Cable Street veterans Max Levitas, Beattie Orwell and Bill Fishman sat in the front-row.
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Mr Gadd said: “The whole occasion was almost like an honour to them as those three stood on the streets in 1936.”
Earlier in the day photo exhibitions, book launches and discussions took place at Wilton’s while stalls and musicians and street entertainers filled the surrounding streets.
