A column for our Gujarati readers

Any idea what this says?

Cable Street good, Cable Street bad

People will have to forgive me for returning to Cable Street again and again this month. If you look at our events listing http://www.fiveleaves.co.uk/events.html you will see that Cable Street has become rather significant at Five Leaves Mansions at the moment. The purpose of this brief posting is to draw attention to the new Philosophy Football T-shirt, based on the old street sign. Copies cost £22.99, which seems expensive at first until you realise that a) they are of good quality b) they are made by people who are paid proper wages c) they are a fashion item (did I really mention fashion?). Find them at www.philosophyfootball.com/view_item.php?pid=739.
Mark Perryman, the leftie who runs Philosophy Football, will certainly not be attending one Cable Street event - the one organised by the Stalin Society. It would be nice to think nobody would attend, but there is such a group: "The aim of the Stalin Society is to defend Stalin and his work..." and it has a meeting on Cable Street. I'm not going to say where or when it is, but google will tell you if need be. The Society only costs a fiver to join, £2.50 for the unemployed. A great bargain if you are an unemployed Stalinist.
As far as I know Stalin was not at Cable Street, but 1936 was a busy year for him, what with the first Moscow Show Trial (which resulted in the execution of Zinoviev and Kamenev and others) and the start of the Great Purge. It is hard to see what such a Society could offer us.

Cable Street, ready to roll

We put in the final corrections to the last of our five Cable Street books tomorrow... two are back from the printers, two are in press, the promo leaflet is ready to print, the demo is on and the seven page colour programme featuring ALL the events can be downloaded from: http://www.battleofcablestreet.org.uk/anniversary.html. If you are coming to any of the events around the launch of our books - the launch itself, the lunchtime gig and the evening event with Billy Bragg, Michael Rosen and Shappi Khorsandi let us know as it will be rather busy on the day. Our books can now be ordered from www.fiveleaves.co.uk but very soon we'll post a special offer, 20% off for mail order paid with by old-fashioned cheques (that way we can avoid paying the credit card companies). The nice picture of a previous event is by Dan Jones.

Looking ahead to the Battle of Cable Street weekend

Things are moving on for the Battle of Cable Street anniversary, celebrating 75 years of the day in 1936 when the whole East End rose up to stop Mosley's fascists marching through the area. The weekend starts with a 75th anniversary gala evening commemorating the Spanish Civil War on October 1st, with a poetry reading by Jackie Kay and a performance of Call Me Robson. This is at the New Red Lion Theatre Pub. Tickets are already available from http://www.philosophyfootball.com/ (click on the events button).

On October 2nd the focus is entirely on the Battle of Cable Street, with events running from noon until 10pm at Wilton's Music Hall on Graces Alley in the East End. Here's a view of Wilton's http://www.sphericalimages.com/wiltonsmusichall/index.html There will be stalls during the day, with music by Lost Marbles and street theatre by La Columna. At 1.00pm the forty-strong Grand Union Youth Orchestra perform. At 3.00pm Five Leaves host a reception and book launch for our five Cable Street books - The Battle of Cable Street by the Cable Street Group; Everything Happens on Cable Street by Roger Mills; The Battle for the East End: Jewish responses to fascism in the 1930s by David Rosenberg; October Day by Frank Griffin; Street of Tall People by Alan Gibbons. At 4.00pm we host a panel discussion on the literature of the 1930s with Andy Croft, Mary Joannou and Ken Worpole.

The evening events start at 6.pm with a variety show They Shall Not Pass with poets, singers, choirs and comics including Michael Rosen, Leon Rosselson and Sandra Kerr. And there is more to come - on Tuesday 4 October the film From Cable Street to Brick Lane will be previewed and on Wednesday 6 October there will be a Five Leaves event at Housmans Bookshop, with Dave Rosenberg, Roger Mills and others. Dave is also leading a Cable Street walk during the period.

Alternative Arts is co-ordinating all the activities and there will be a commemorative programme. More details soon.

Battle of Cable Street, diary date

If you had planned to take part in the Battle of Cable Street, you are, unfortunately, 73 years and 364 days late, as the 74th anniversary is tomorrow. However we can say that plans are already being worked up for the 75th anniversary in 2011. I posted about the books Five Leaves will be publishing earlier, on 13th August, but can now say that we'll be running a joint launch for the books on 2nd October 2011, with a panel discussion on the literature of the 1930s the previous day. Alan Gibbons, author of one of the books, will also be doing some schools' work on the 3rd October. Many of the Cable Street events will take place in and around Wilton's Music Hall in the East End. Meantime you might want to diary that weekend, and read an interview with one of the participants, Max Levitas, still active at 95 or watch another, Ubby Cowan, talking about the event:
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/97180, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FuXR2wFHA0