This year’s 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street will see the IBMT highlighting the links between the protesters in East London on 4 October 1936 and the International Brigades, who continued the fight against fascism in Spain.

There are also plans for Tower Hamlet Borough Council to unveil a memorial plaque to the 22 volunteers from the area who died in Spain. They were among more than 100 men and women from what is now Tower Hamlets who went to Spain.

The IBMT is also combing through available records to compile a list of all those from around the country who at the Battle of Cable Street and who subsequently went to Spain.

So far 28 names have been identified and there are plans to celebrate them individually, with each one named on a placard, at the rally on Sunday 4 October that will mark this year’s anniversary.

The 22 volunteers who died in Spain were Nathan Abramson, Sid Avner, Philip Caplan, Walter Crispin, Maurice Davidovitch, Frederick Freeman, Ben Glaser, Alfred Gold, Harry Gross, Mark Gura, James Henderson, Sidney Lewis, Thomas Loader, William McKie, Sam Masters, Philip Plotsky, Jack Silverstone, Nathan Steigman, Abraham Traube, John Whalley, Jack White and Charles Williams.

They came from the East End districts of Bethnal Green, Bow, Limehouse, Mile End, Poplar, Spitalfields, Stepney and Whitechapel. The area hosted a large Jewish population at the time, much of it mobilised via the Communist Party in anti-fascist activities.

The 28 International Brigaders who had been at the Battle of Cable Street before travelling to Spain were Charles Curry, Malcolm Dunbar, Tom Duncombe, Sol Frankel, Joe Garber, Tony Gilbert, Charlie Goodman, Charlie Hutchison, Harry Jacobs, Bosco Jones, Joe Kahn, Lou Kenton, Maurice Levitas, John Longstaff, Timothy McManus, Jim Prendergast, John Rickman, Alfred Salisbury, Jack Shaw, Nathan Steigman, Ted Smith, Tom Spiller, John Stevens, Donald Taylor, Fred Thomas, Wally Togwell, Dick White and Alun Menai Williams.

The Battle of Cable Street saw violent clashes between anti-fascist protesters and the police, who tried unsuccessfully to clear a way for Sir Oswald Mosley’s antisemitic Blackshirts to march through the mainly Jewish area of Whitechapel.

It was biggest and most violent of many such clashes between the British Union of Fascists and ant-fascist protesters around the country. It also led to the government rushing the Public Order Act of 1936 through Parliament, which banned political uniforms and private armies.

If you know of any volunteers who were at Cable Street on 4 October 1936 and are not on the above list, or if you have additional names of Tower Hamlets Brigaders killed in Spain, contact IBMT Chair Jim Jump.

The Cable Street Mural was painted by Dave Binnington, Paul Butler, Ray Walker and Desmond Rochfort and completed in 1983. Pictures: Wikimedia Commons and (top) Morning Star