workingclasshistory:

On this day, 9 September 1934, over 100,000 Londoners flooded Hyde Park to protest against a rally by fascist leader Oswald Mosley. Despite there being two police officers to guard each fascist, Mosley’s words could not be heard as they were drowned out by the anti-fascists, who then chased the Nazis out of the park. Some of the right-wing press in the UK, like the Daily Mail, supported Mosley and his fascist blackshirts, while the rest of the press and the BBC supported his right to “free speech”, inviting him to speak and advertise his rally but failing to mention the planned counter-demonstration or allow opponents a platform. So workers took publicising their protest into their own hands. Rail workers painted “March against fascism on September 9” on the front of one of their trains, while delivery workers pasted advertisements for the protest on the side of crates transporting goods to factories and others seized microphones at big cinemas, announcing the protest to the audiences. Thousands of leaflets calling on Londoners to march were thrown from the roof of Selfridge’s department store, as well as shops, buses and government offices, while Nelson’s column was painted and banners promoting the demonstration were hung from the Law Courts and the BBC HQ. The publicity effort was so extensive, newspapers were forced to report on it, and the liberal Observer lamented that “it looks as though the counter-demonstration will be nothing like as small as might be desirable in the circumstances”.
Learn more about the fight against Mosley in the 1940s in our podcast series: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/02/17/e35-37-the-43-group/ https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1523931361125342/?type=3