This enquiry asks students to use a range of evidence to work out what happened at the infamous battle of Cable Street. Starting with an old photograph, what do they think happened on this street in the East End of London? Does a song help? After establishing that Cable Street was a battle between 200,000 anti Fascists and Mosley’s black shirts (and the police) we can move on to look at the consequences of this event.
The second phase of the enquiry asks students to evaluate two conflicting interpretations of the impact of the events of Cable Street. Was it really a turning point in our fight against British Fascism? Did this event see the Black Shirts off?
We have found this topic an interesting diversion from the heavy European causes of the Second World War in our 20th Century KS3 scheme. We teach this alongside our 1930s enquiry, James Malley mystery and then follow it with Vidal Sassoon to provide a good context for the inter-war years and the problems of fascism.
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- Lesson presentation: PowerPoint
- Lesson write-up: PDF
- Resource 1-3: PDF
