By Andy Fenwick (Unite member and Worcester CLP)
Many have celebrated the great fight against Fascists in the Battle of Cable Street. However, a precursor to this fight was the Battle of Stockton three years earlier on Sunday, September 10th, 1933. The British Union of Fascists (BUF) had, like the EDL of today, focussed on the high areas of unemployment, targeting small northern industrial towns where the economic depression was biting hard. The tactics of the BUF was to gather in a location in secret then, if numbers were high enough, they would go on the rampage against the Jewish community. My mother, who in the 1930’s had been apprenticed to a Jewish tailor in Gateshead (where there is a big Jewish community) recalls sitting cross legged on the stitching table when a barrage of bricks came flying through the window from fascist thugs.
In Stockton, considering that Hitler had only just come to power, the anti-fascist movement was not only large but physically dominated the High Street and, to put it politely, “persuaded” any small grouping of fascists to move on. This inability of the BUF to organise enraged the leadership and it was decided that a show of strength would be necessary. So secretly the BUF organised for fascists to come to Stockton from all over the north, from Lancashire, Yorkshire, Northumberland and Durham. The black-shirts wanted to swagger about at the cross in the High Street, a traditional area for the left to hold rallies and make speeches.
Fortunately, the anti-fascists were well-organised and had spies in the BUF. The BUF plans were no secret, therefore, but the anti-fascists could keep secret their plans to oppose the BUF, so much so that on the day the police had only seven officers on patrol in the whole of Stockton. A well worked-out plan was created which called for the strictest discipline.
Sunday, September 10th 1933 started as yet another quiet weekend day. That day the High Street was, as normal, deathly quiet, but behind the scenes in side streets, the familiar picture of the 1930s, unemployed men in alley ways, hunched over cigarettes. However, this was different even for recession-hit Stockton. Hidden away were 2,000 anti-fascists waiting in ambush. The plan was to let the fascists go along the High Street and then trap them between two groups of 1,000 each.
So, the ‘mass mobilisation’ of 100, black-shirted and jack-booted phalanx of Mosley’s army began their march along Stockton High Street, blissfully unaware they were massively outnumbered as they reached the Cross. When the antifascists turned up, initially, they shouted and taunted the BUF so much so that the BUF speaker was barely audible. This enraged the fascists who struck out with a pickaxe-handles so the anti-fascists rushed the BUF platform.
The whole of the High Street then began to resemble nothing more than a battleground. Wooden staves and pickaxe-handles were wielded, and stones – and more lethally – potatoes into which razor blades had been studded were thrown into the black-shirt ranks. As the police numbers were inadequate the police Inspector in charge ordered the BUF leaders to halt the attempts to hold their meeting and to quit the town.
The BUF broke ranks and were pursued across the High Street by the opposing crowds. The BUF then attempted to re-assemble in Silver Street, a narrow lane linking the High Street to what was then Stockton’s working quayside. It was here that the most vicious fighting took place. And at least 20 fascists were hospitalised. It was reported that a man wielding an iron bar jumped into the fascist ranks and took down three of them before he was over powered.
By twilight, Stockton police had at last been reinforced but were unable to make any arrests amongst the anti-fascists. Instead the BUF were ordered to leave town and this meant that dispersed groups of blackshirts had to run the gauntlet back down the High Street and past the quayside, hotly pursued by their opponents who by now were sensing victory. The BUF, minus their injured foot soldiers, made it back to their hired transport, and, to a chorus of insults, jeering and cheering drove off into the night.
The Battle of Stockton, considering it was only a mere eight months after Hitler had seized power, should rank with the Battle of Cable Street. The workers of Stockton recognised the threat posed by fascism and their willingness to fight speaks volumes for today’s labour movement. On a personal note, I was born and lived in borough of Stockton-On-Tees for the first 44 years of my life and I only became aware of this battle in October 2011 and as a socialist it makes me proud to be from the first town that sent the BUF fascists running for their lives. With the rise of EDL & BNP thugs we should make every socialist aware of the lessons of history that we cannot rely on the police or the courts to defend us but only a strong Labour movement will be victorious over fascists
October 2014
