workingclasshistory:On this day, 27 September 1936 in Leeds,… SOURCE: antifainternational.tumblr.com]]>On this day, 27 September 1936 in Leeds, following a week of tension during which the British Union of Fascists was forbidden by the city’s Watch Committee to march through the largely Jewish Leylands quarter, Oswald Mosley paraded over 1,000 uniformed Blackshirts in Calverley Street, and marched them to Holbeck. Press reports suggest very few of them were Leeds natives. Nevertheless, the Leylands was targeted during the previous night with swastikas and slogans daubed on windows and doors. Opposition to the event had been organised and publicised some days previously, with the Communist Party taking the lead. The anti-fascists chose not to confront them on the streets but at the site of the rally, on Holbeck Moor. The newspapers reported a crowd of 30,000 on the moor, against around a thousand blackshirts. As Mosley spoke, the Red Flag was sung repeatedly to drown him out and he was unable to finish his speech as stones rained down on him and his fascist crowd, with Mosley sustaining a gash under one eye. “It wasn’t a battle, it was a rout. A complete bloody rout,” said one participant. As the fascists scuttled away, the Blackshirts were ambushed by anti-fascists, resulting in 40 fascists receiving injuries.
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Pictured: Mosley in Leeds https://ift.tt/2xG6agw
