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| Volume 56 Number 28, October 3, 2026 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBCENTRE | SUBSCRIBE |
The ninetieth anniversary takes place in conditions very different from those of 1936 when the Hitlerites and their appeasers were preparing for war. Fascism was a particular form of counter-revolution - it targeted peaceful coexistence and the working class, and was anti-communist in content. The broader aim of counter-revolution is to block the working class and people from becoming the decisive political force, deprive them of their own outlook and prevent them from opening a path to progress. European fascism and Japanese militarism were forms taken by this counter-revolution in definite historical conditions.
Today the peoples face a counter-revolution within the counter-revolution. The period of retreat and neo-liberal restructuring which followed the destruction of the Soviet Union has entered a still more destructive phase. Extreme violence, impunity and obliteration are directed against entire peoples, their history and resistance. The postwar principles and institutions established through the victory over fascism are themselves being torn apart. Genocide is committed before the eyes of the world, while those who resist and stand with the Palestinian people are criminalised. States are restructured around executive dictate, police powers, militarisation and the narrow private interests of oligarchs.
The British state is an active participant in these developments. It arms and supports aggression abroad, puts society on a war footing and expands police powers at home.
The alternative is not to line up behind the old arrangements and the cartel parties which defend them. These arrangements keep the people out of power and authorise governments to act in their name. The lesson of Cable Street is that the people must rely on their own organisation and speak in their own name. There is no question but that there is one working class, which will not accept state-organised racism and racist attacks.
In today's conditions, the spirit of the people is that of resistance to attacks on their rights and attempts to obliterate anything progressive by the rulers who have come to power by force. To the domination of the oligarchs and imperialists, the working class and people step up their resistance, build a people's front, and declare: "It Must Not Pass!", "Stand as One in Defence of the Rights of All!".