Forest Gate-based Clapton Community Football Club will commemorate the anniversary of The Battle of Cable Street this weekend, marking 90 years since a piece of East London folklore.
On 4 October 1936, more than 100,000 Londoners laid barricades along Cable Street in Tower Hamlets, preventing a planned march by British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley through the largely Jewish East End.
The clash, which saw multiple ethnic communities unite against Mosley, is still remembered fondly in East London and at Clapton Community’s Old Spotted Dog Ground, where banners celebrating the anniversary have been hung.
Gaining international fame for their away kit honouring anti-fascist Spanish Civil War volunteers, Clapton CFC have a reputation for opposing the extreme right – one that club captain Jack Francis cherishes.
He said: “I’m proud of winning trophies, but also having a club that has a conscience, and is able to have its politics front and centre.
“It’s basically a social club which happens to have some football attached to it.”
Clapton CFC have marked each Cable Street anniversary on social media since the club’s founding in 2018, and this year have sold commemorative merchandise at the Old Spotted Dog’s clubhouse.
East Londoner Francis, who is Clapton men’s record appearance holder, added: “The occasion is a really good opportunity for us to educate ourselves.
“At Cable Street, Black people, Asian people, Jewish people – everybody was coming together, and that’s sort of what we need now.”
Clapton CFC’s have previously set up COVID-19 relief funding, cold-weather clothing banks, and charity fundraisers for locals in East London.
Francis said: “The clubhouse is always a safe space – there’s a lot of good that can come from a community club.”
Joe Rollin, an organiser for Unite the Union, is involved in planning the anniversary rally at Tower Hamlets Town Hall on Sunday, and welcomes CCFC’s backing.
He said: “They have a really strong anti-racist and anti-fascist tradition. Anything we can do to support them, we definitely will as a union, and they support us too. What a real privilege to work alongside them.”
Rollin remembers seeing ‘really well organised’ National Front campaigners at his hometown Barnsley FC, and believes that Clapton CFC can be a positive counterbalance in football.
“This is an area that we shouldn’t give up to the far right,” he said. “I think we need to be proud about our politics and go into spaces where they organise and make it difficult for them.”
Unite have commissioned a mural commemorating Cable Street at the Old Spotted Dog Ground, to be unveiled at Clapton CFC’s Essex Senior League clash with Great Wakering Rovers on Saturday.
Rollin said: “Being a fan, and now working alongside them is great, and we’re going to do a lot more work like this in the future as well.”
London fashion label Sports Banger are another of the capital’s cultural exports marking Cable Street, partnering with Unite to platform a live music event in Shoreditch on Saturday.
Commemorating the battle isn’t the only cause for celebration in Forest Gate, as last week saw Clapton Community Football Club’s first league victories of the 26/27 campaign in both men’s and women’s formats.
“A long time coming,” added Francis.
All image credits: Dylan Seymour
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