Credit: People stand in front of a barricade with the slogans ‘Remember Olympia’ and ‘They Shall Not Pass’. Cable Street, 1936. Unknown photographer. Courtesy of the People's History Museum.

Solidarity on the Streets

Exhibition Opening: Thursday 1 October, 6.30 - 8.30pm Book Here

Exhibition runs 2-31 October, Weds-Sat 11am-6pm

Events

Battle for the East End | 7 October 6.30pm | find out more

Cable Street: Across Borders | 8 October 6.30pm | find out more

'In Solidarity' Participant Showcase | 15 October 6.30pm | find out more 

Solidarity on the Streets documents East Enders’ enduring resistance to racial hatred and intolerance. 

On the eve of the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, this exhibition explores a century of collective action against racism, fascism and exclusion.

London’s East End has been a refuge for migrant communities fleeing poverty and persecution for over 500 years, from Irish migrants and French Huguenots to Eastern European Jews and South-Asian Bengalis. 

On 4th October 1936, the people of East London stopped Oswald Mosley’s fascist Blackshirts from marching at the 'Battle of Cable Street'. Local people, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, Irish dockers and anti-fascists united against hatred with the slogan 'They Shall Not Pass'!

Forty years later, young Bengali activists mobilised against National Front racist violence. By the 1990s, a new generation were campaigning against discriminatory immigration and housing policies, overturning the election of the first British National Party (BNP) local councillor. 

Today, the East End is again a target for far-right, Islamophobic, and populist forces, from Tommy Robinson to the UK Independence Party. Solidarity on the Streets marks the anti-racist legacy of Cable Street, and seeks inspiration for our own troubled times.

The exhibition includes photographs by Mayar Akash, Lloyd Gee, Sheila Gray, David Hoffman, Jess Hurd, Tom Learmonth, and Paul Trevor, with artwork by Dan Jones, archive film and documents. It includes five short films, created by Shirin Begum, Fela Callahan, Hester Gallen, George Ritchie, and Nileema Yesmin.

With many thanks to the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust, Tower Hamlets Trades Council, Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives, Getty Images, People's History Museum and Andrew Whitehead.

This show is part of Together on Cable Street, a programme of events marking the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street.

Visitors will also be able to view the current exhibition Londoni Memoirs, in the main gallery.