I wasn't able to make a big post about it yesterday, but the 4th was the 84th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street.
So, if you think #Antifa is a new thing, you should read up on this. Let me tell you what the Battle of Cable Street was. You'll love this.
Pictured: Antifa.

So, picture this. It's 1936. Germany has a nazi government. The world isn't at war yet, but their rhetoric is big. Here in the UK, the British Union of Fascists are formed in support of the German nazi party.
Anyone who says that the nazis weren't facists, HAH!

So yeah, the British Union of Facists, that's these guys in the black shirts. They had big support from the tabloid media; the Daily Mail loved these guys. And they liked nothing more than doing marches. Big flexing.

So the BUF decided that they wanted to have a big parade down Cable Street in London.
Why Cable Street? Well, Cable Street was the heart of a predominantly Jewish community. The blackshirts knew what they were doing. Intimidation tactics. Fash never change.

100,000 or so residents wrote to the Home Secretary to ask that he not allow this march due to fear of violence.
Instead, he gave them a police escort.
Bodyguards. The police were bodyguards for the fascists. Sound familiar? Should do - it's the same as in America today.
So...

Who do you think says "Oh hell no!" and decided to put their foot down over this?
Activists. Jews from the local community. The Communist party. Socialists. Anarchists. 20,000 of us went to Cable Street. We were met by roughly 3000 facists and 7000 police (or, eh, 10,000 fash).

And yeah, antifa put up a barricade. We love barricades. We get on top of them and wave flags, and sing. Hey, I've seen Les Mis. The barricades kept the most vulnerable people safe, sealing off roadways to prevent the fash from entering.

When things kicked off, they kicked off big. Mounted police, the British Union of Fascists, all armed. The communists, we had sticks and bricks.
And yeah, I say 'we' because these Antifa chaps were treated with the same disdain by governments and media as the modern ones are.

People in the apartments above fought too, hurling chamber pots, old chairs, hot oil, you get the idea.
Police would run up the stairs to the apartments, only to be met with housewives who used furniture to bar their entry.
People fought, together, with whatever they had at hand

This man on the ground, that's Osward Mosley.
You might not know him, but he was the leader of the British Union of Fascists. Watch some clips of him giving speeches on Youtube. He would mimic Adolf Hitler, emulating his rhythm and patterns, body language, everything.

Some people think that if WW2 had turned against us and the nazis had won, Hitler would have possibly installed Mosley as leader of his puppet government. He was that influential.
Anyway, that's him getting the shit kicked out of him by communists and anarchists.

Shortly thereafter, Mosley ordered the British Union of Fascists to pull back.
That left the police.

Without the blackshirts, the police kept up the fight on their own. But they couldn't really stand against a unified force. Especially when they realize that fash are, in truth, too cowardly to stand up when opposed and wouldn't have their backs.
Remember that.

The communists didn't know what to do with the police who surrendered. I mean, what do you do? They hadn't planned any of this - none of this was organized!
They collected the policemen's hats as a trophy, and told them to leg it back home.

So what did all of the violence earn them in the end?
Here's the lesson.
The British Union of Fascists never came back to Cable Street.
The Metropolitan Police withdrew their support for the fascists - they would not provide them backup any more.

The police recognised that they were, in essence, putting themselves on the line for an organization that would not do the same for them.
Without police to act as their muscle, membership in the British Union of Fascists cracked. Numbers diminished.

But before that, the Fascists lead further attacks. The 'Mile-end Pogrom' saw Jewish people attacked, looting, assaults. Here, have a read at the Daily Mail paper from the time.
The lesson to learn from that? Well, it's a big one.

First of all, it showed that you CAN defeat fascism. More than that, though - that the best way to defeat them is through a unified front. It takes people working together, with whatever they have at hand, to win a day.
But it's not a battle that can be won in a day.

Winning one battle is great, but fascists don't let one defeat stop them. You need to keep acting to prevent them.
This is a mural in London. It commemorates one victory. Make sure there are more.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.