ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST:
Ninety years ago, a mostly Jewish, working-class community in London came together to resist a fascist march through their neighborhood. The street fight that ensued has often been hailed as the day fascism was defeated in Britain. It's a chapter of British history that's getting fresh attention now with a new musical playing in London and New York. NPR's Fatima Al-Kassab reports from London's East End.
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UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST: Five thousand fascists rally to their mobilization for the much-advertised march through the East End.
FATIMA AL-KASSAB, BYLINE: In 1936, as fascism took hold in Europe, a political party, the British Union of Fascists, planned a threatening march through a predominantly Jewish area of East London, and the police gave them protection. The fascist leader, lawmaker Oswald Mosley, and his Blackshirts, named for the uniforms they wore, were met with locals determined not to let them get through.
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UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST: In step here, thousands of East Enders prepared to resist the invasion, barricading the path the fascists would take.
DAVID ROSENBERG: We're about halfway down Cable Street at the moment.
AL-KASSAB: Historian David Rosenberg gives tours of the street where it happened.
ROSENBERG: Once you get to the eastern end of it, the names change from sort of East European Jewish names to Irish names, Sullivan and Higgins and all these Irish names instead of Feigenbaum, Rosenberg, Goldstein.
AL-KASSAB: The Irish and Jewish communities were the largest minorities in this working-class area. They lived on opposite ends of the street, but they came together in October 1936 to stop this fascist march in what became known as the Battle of Cable Street.
ROSENBERG: The people in the flats, particularly the women, picked up whatever was in their kitchen and threw it down on the police. And the police, in the end, were facing that barrage of stuff from above, and people on the ground opposing them, and the police had to retreat. They had to tell Mosley, look, you're not going to get in here either.
AL-KASSAB: Bill Fishman was there. He spoke to the BBC back in 2011 when he was 91.
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BILL FISHMAN: I was with a couple of comrades. We said, they shall not pass. They would shout, they shall not pass. And they did not pass at that.
AL-KASSAB: It was a victory for the locals and a major setback for fascists in Britain. But 90 years on...
ADAM LENSON: It's kind of amazing that this history isn't taught in London schools.
AL-KASSAB: Adam Lenson's great-grandparents owned a hat shop on Cable Street in the '30s, but he grew up knowing very little about the battle there. He hopes to change that by bringing the story of Cable Street to the stage.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, singing) You get used to suspicion when they see you on the street.
AL-KASSAB: "Cable Street," the musical, tells the story of three families - a Jewish family, an Irish family and a working-class family from the north of England, who are all struggling with the cost of living.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, singing) They've got different hair, different clothes, different eyes, different nose.
LENSON: What was happening in the '30s was blame the immigrant. And actually, the people of the East End, especially, weren't having it. It was a kind of line in the sand being drawn by these communities, saying, we won't let you keep doing this. We are going to stand up for ourselves.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, singing) Tomorrow afternoon, Oswald Mosley will march through our streets.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, singing) But not if we can organize. Give them hell. Send them into retreat.
AL-KASSAB: At times, the cast raps a slogan that the crowd chanted that day, which originated in the Spanish Civil War.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, singing) No pasaran.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, singing) That's right.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) No pasaran. They shall not pass.
LENSON: None of us would be here if it weren't for the people who came before us, standing up and being brave. And one thing I hope an audience would feel when seeing the show is, actually, I can speak up. A single voice might feel fragile, but, like, a chorus of voices can really be heard.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) This is my street.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, singing) No pasaran.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character, singing) And we'll defend it till the end.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) This is my street.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, singing) No pasaran.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters singing) This is my street.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character, singing) Let them come.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, singing) They shall not pass.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing) This is my street. Tomorrow. Let's go. This is my street.
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UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: Then, suddenly, it was all over. The Battle of Cable Street was won.
AL-KASSAB: Newscasters at the time declared the locals the winners of the Battle of Cable Street. Director Adam Lenson says this story resonates 90 years on with the reemergence of the far right and the rise of antisemitism in the U.K. and abroad. Now he's brought the musical to New York City.
LENSON: Seeing what's happening in America, seeing people protecting their neighbors against ICE raids, the Battle of Cable Street shows a sort of blueprint for how communities can stand together.
ROSENBERG: So look at this mural. I mean...
AL-KASSAB: Back in London's East End, David Rosenberg's tour ends at a colorful mural on the side of a church.
ROSENBERG: So what's atop of the mural...
AL-KASSAB: It depicts a vibrant scene of working-class people stacking up furniture to barricade the street and women tossing milk bottles from their windows at the fascists below, a reminder of what happened here then and a lesson for now.
Fatima Al-Kassab, NPR News, London. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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