A Nazi sympathiser addresses a crowd in Finsbury Park, north London. He raves about “Jewish financiers”, and tells his followers to “refuse to fight in the Jews’ quarrel”. His sympathy for Hitler is clear, and so is his hate for Jews: “Purge from our life-blood the oriental element which corrupts and destroys,” he shouts.
You might think I’m imagining the scene that could take place this July should the rapper Ye fulfil his invitation to headline the Wireless music festival for three days in the summer. But I am not. This was the scene 90 years ago, in June 1936 when Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists held a rally in Finsbury Park. A counter demonstration held by the British Union of Democrats was there too.
Most people don’t know about this rally, as it has been overtaken in history by the battle of Cable Street which took place a few months later. Then Londoners stood up and fought against Mosley’s blackshirts when they tried to march through a Jewish area. But I live near Finsbury Park (near enough to hear the booming noise of Wireless every year) and I also spend a lot of time digging through the archive of the Jewish Chronicle. The JC’s reports of fascist activity in the UK are among the most vivid reporting in our 185 year history. They bear re-visiting as history echoes rather eerily down the years.
There are several familiar themes. Marching through Jewish areas is one. Two-tier policing another. The Blackshirts arrived in the park protected by “over six hundred officers of the law” according to the JC reporter, “and their arrival – on foot, in vans and "black marias", on horseback, in motor cars – together with the attendance of ambulances, St. John’s men and nurses, introduced almost a war-like atmosphere.”
A man attending the counter-demonstration had earlier been attacked with a knuckle duster, asserted our reporter, but when a witness approached the police “to proceed with them to the group of Fascists among whom they would point out the man who committed the assault…the officer refused to take any action.” (Plus ça change, eh?)
The man was taken to hospital where the deep cut under his eye was treated with three stitches. When he returned to the park to tell the counter demonstration what had happened, his account of police inaction drew cries of “shame!”.
The counter demonstration was backed by many messages from supporters and councillors – I was reminded of the outcry from politicians and sponsors that came after Wireless’s booking of Ye was announced. One speaker “reminded the audience that the Mosley demonstration they were witnessing that evening was the kind of thing that in Germany had preceded the Hitler regime, and warned them that Mosley's foul campaign of lies about the Jewish race would, if he were ever allowed to come into power, be followed by a treatment of Jews and others as shameful as that experienced in Germany.”
A KC, called Denis Pritt, wrote a message which was read out to the counter demo: "It is more important today than ever to fight for the freedom, peace and liberty which we have built up. Fascism threatens all of these, and in none of its manifestations is it more deplorable than in its attempt to stir up ill-feeling between Jew and Gentile."
Meanwhile: “A police cordon, thrown across the entire width of the field, separated the Blackshirts and their opponents. The Blackshirts, about six or seven hundred strong, arrived from the opposite direction to the anti-Fascists, and were headed by a band. There were contingents of Blackshirt men and women, Greyshirts, peak-capped and jack-booted ‘Storm-troopers,’ lorries, loudspeaker vans and motor-cycles. As their standards indicated, they were largely drawn from such places as Chelsea, Kingston, Hendon, Ealing and other parts remote from Finsbury [Park]. As Mosley passed, smiling, the hostile crowd lining the route roared its opposition.
“After posing for several cameras, Mosley proceeded, for about half an hour, to call for a British alliance with Germany and Italy in order to ’safeguard peace’.”
Mosley’s speech went heavily on the theme of Jewish influence, Jewish financiers and the danger of being dragged into a Jewish war. “The charge against the Blackshirts that their movement was of foreign origin was a lie invented by the Jews and their Press, “ he declared.
“At this point,” reported the JC, “the leader was suddenly out-ranted by a violent thunder-clap and the anti-Fascists hilariously voiced their applause. When Mosley had finished, songs were struck up and the Blackshirts proceeded to leave the Park. The police precautions to escort them out were elaborate. No sooner had they gone than the crowd surged over to the British Union of Democrats platform; which was surrounded by a crowd some two thousand strong.”
How seriously should British Jews take the threat? A letter to the editor in the same edition – June 28, 1936 – urged readers to stay calm. “There is no need to get into a panic or to imagine that Fascism has arrived in Britain. In truth, it is as far off as ever. The people of this country are not likely to stand for anything led by Mosley. There are many who look upon him, rightly or wrongly, as a mountebank – a fourth-rate political adventurer with far more cash than brains, clamouring all the time for notoriety.”
And so much more the case with Ye, 90 years later. Not even a political adventurer, and yet one whose revolting views have enormous reach, and are cynically exploited by people with an eye for a profit.
Finsbury Park 30 years ago when we moved to this neighbourhood, was rundown and scary, a place for muggers and drug dealers. Now, most of the year, Wireless aside, it is green and pleasant, a nice place to visit even if sometimes one spots the local MP – Jeremy Corbyn – in the café.
I’d just prefer it if they didn’t have performances every 90 years or so by people who hate people like me.
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