The Battle of Cable Street, England, October 4th 1936

[Ron]

My good friend Peter G. kindly drew my attention to another thread on this site that was (of course) written in Italian and might therefore have slipped my notice.

In this thread, Baba writes of the famous “Battle of Cable Street” and wonders whether or not, at the age of thirteen, I might have taken part.

I am fortunate in that members of my family decided in 1988 to write a ‘family’ book entitled “And Then There Were Eleven” in which we all (including myself) wrote about our earlier lives and it was to this book that I turned for the events of the day.

My older sister Esther, then aged twenty-three, writes as follows:

That day in l936 Mosley and his Blackshirts mounted a march through east London, intent on provoking the Jewish population, who responded in their thousands to the appeal to close ranks and prevent Mosley from reaching his objective. Poor mother stood clutching a handkerchief to her mouth, petrified as we all left the house, crying "Be careful, for God's sake be careful." And with thousands of others, old and young, Jack and I with our sisters and brothers blocked the way of the Fascist marchers at Gardiner's corner in Aldgate with the cry "They shall not pass". Mounted policemen with truncheons broke up the fighting and many were hurt...but the Fascists did not pass. As evening fell we limped home exhausted, dishevelled, some bruised and scratched - and there at the front door mother was waiting for us with the cry "Thank God, thank God"; with hot soup, warm water, cotton wool and Dettol. Dear mother.

My late sister Debbie, then aged fifteen also remembered the day:

These were the days of Mosley and his Blackshirt hooligans, supporters of Hitler's Nazi movement which became hated by every Jew. My sisters Gertie and Polly were involved with the Young Communist League, so my friends and I joined too, although we did not take it as seriously as they did. In any case, when we found the Y.C.L. members were rather older than we were, we left and joined the Independent Labour Party, a group more of our own age. How well I remember the Mosley march through the East End of London: our Labour Party members hired an open lorry and we all boarded it, bearing banners with slogans "Down with Mosley and his Fascist Movement," and so on. We drove through Whitechapel Road chanting and singing "Keep the Red Flag Flying Here," and we felt so good - we were doing our bit to stop the Fascists reaching the East End.

In my own chapter in the book I do not even mention the day and so, in retrospect, I consider that my parents must have decided that I was too young to be involved. I do, however, still remember the euphoria that swept through the East End of London when Mosley was stopped in his tracks.

Ciau

Ron

[babatriestina]

In this thread, Baba writes of the famous “Battle of Cable Street” and wonders whether or not, at the age of thirteen, I might have taken part.

It was Macondo who wrote of this battle, I'm ashamed to say I heard of it here for the first time Thank you for telling us the family story

[PeterG]

Sorry, baba, that was my fault. The piece began with 'babatriestina wrote' and I confused Macondo's post with that.
Son n' bamberle scavezado in colomba!

Incidentally, I have just realised what 'babatriestina' means. baba xe una donna che chiachiera, in English a chatterbox, so 'babatriestina' is a female chatterbox from Trieste

Quite funny now Ron asking "May I call you Chatterbox?"

Incidentally, Ron, the piece wasn't in Italian, it's in Triestin.

Peter

[babatriestina]

Incidentally, I have just realised what 'babatriestina' means. baba xe una donna che chiachiera, in English a chatterbox, so 'babatriestina' is a female chatterbox from Trieste

well, baba has many meanings: I think it comes from the Slave Baba , Old Lady : Tha Baba Yaga of the Russian tales, the Babuskhe the old Russian women, there are in Slovenia some mountains called Baba ( veliki and mali Baba- Baba picia e Baba grande).
So a Baba is an old lady with the qualities and faults of them.
Some like chatter, and so a Baba is an adjectif we can apply to a man without problems ( some of my male friends are more Babe than their wives, because they like babàr or far babezzi), but in choosing it I was thinking at another meaning: I'm too old to be a Mula , so I'm a Baba. In this meaning a Baba is simply an older female . A lady a bit too showy can be described as a Babòn and if she's not very amiable she's a Babazza

[PeterG]

Baba

I took it to be a Triestin word:

baba donna, specialmente quelle che chiacchierano tanto

see here http://www.tuttotrieste.net/dizit.htm

Peter
[/b]

[babatriestina]

This is a simplified version

[macondo]

No pasaran...

[PeterG]

Friends

Ron's PC is up the creek (to coin a phrase ) and he won't be able to log on for a few days. His close friends are trying to console him.

Peter

[Ron]

Mac

Many thanks for that image, I hadn't seen it before.

As Peter kindly mentioned, I have been computer-less for a few days but am now back to what is described as a state of normality .

Ron