Battle of Stockton

The Battle of Stockton-on-Tees, often referred to as the Battle of Stockton, took place on 10 September 1933 at Market Cross in the High Street of Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England. It was a clash between members of the British Union of Fascists (BUF) and anti-fascist demonstrators, including local communists and supporters of the Labour Party. The march was an early attempt by the BUF to rally support in depressed areas, but the anti-fascists protested and drove out the BUF supporters who had been shipped in from other areas.

Battle of Stockton

The plaque in Market Cross, Stockton-on-Tees, marking the battle.
Date10 September 1933
Location
Market Cross, Stockton-on-Tees, United Kingdom
Result Anti-fascist victory; BUF rally in Stockton-on-Tees called off.
Belligerents
British Union of Fascists (Blackshirts)

Anti-fascists

Commanders and leaders
Captain Vincent Collier Unknown
Strength
200-300 2,000-3,000
Casualties and losses
~ 20 injured unknown

Background

Stockton had been hit hard by the economic recession following the Great Depression. The BUF had made previous attempts to hold meetings in Stockton, but they were frequently heckled or attacked by anti-fascists. It was therefore decided by the BUF to make a show of strength. One reason given as to why Stockton was chosen for the rally was to base the growth of the movement on that of the Nazi Party, which rose from a grassroots movement in small towns that suffered economic hardship. Stockton was a small town, and at the time opposition was weak as there was only one Labour Party MP in Teesside at the time.[1]

The plan for the rally, however, had been leaked to local trade unions. Although no-one seems to know for certain how the plan was leaked, historian Richard Griffiths has suggested that the leader of the BUF rally, Captain Vincent Collier, was actually a plant working for the Jewish Board of Deputies and possibly also working for MI5.[2] With neither the Labour or Conservative Parties offering solutions to the problem, locals turned to more radical organisations, with members of the Communist Party of Great Britain, the Independent Labour Party and the National Unemployed Workers' Movement thus decided to set up a "reception committee" ready for the arrival.[3][4][5]

Events

The BUF arrived via a convoy of coaches during the afternoon of 10 September 1933, bringing in 200-300 members from Tyneside, Manchester and Lancashire. They parked on the southern side of the River Tees, on the Thornaby-on-Tees side of Victoria Bridge. They then went to Stockton High Street, to the Market Cross area and attempted to hold a rally led by Collier. However, they were attacked by up to 2,000-3,000 anti-fascist protesters who had hidden themselves in the side streets around the High Street, who then began heckling and spitting at Collier. Although there was little police presence at the start, with just seven constables on duty across the whole town centre, the police later ordered the BUF to leave the High Street, so they went to Silver Street to protect themselves, but this ended up trapping them. Both sides then armed themselves with staves, sticks and pickaxe handles. The anti-fascists also used various missiles including stones, half-bricks, knuckledusters and potatoes with razor blades inserted into them.[1][3][4][6][7]

More police officers arrived to separate the two groups and to escort the BUF back to their coaches, with some BUF members marshalling in Silver Street, a narrow lane linking the High Street to the quayside. However, some BUF stragglers had to out-run the anti-fascists, while other BUF members broke ranks and attacked the hostile crowd. Reports claim that up to 20 members of the BUF were injured. Amongst them was Edmund "Ned" Warburton, brother of John Warburton,[8] of Bury, who was hospitalised and later blinded in one eye due to a stone being thrown at him. No arrests were made by the police on the day.[3][6][7][9][10][11]

Reaction to the event different between the police and press reporting of the battle with: "The police were naturally keen to demonstrate that they competently and successfully handled a difficult situation, while the press were keen to sell papers and sensationalise the events. While the reality may lie somewhere in the middle of these accounts, local contemporary accounts of the ‘Battle of Stockton’ ardently subscribe to the more violent version in order to demonstrate the local residents’ rejection of fascism and the event itself is remembered as a precursor to the more famous Battle of Cable Street."[7]

Commemoration

In August 2017, an organisation called The Battle of Stockton Campaign (BoS) was founded in order to commemorate the battle, the founding members were Stockton Labour Cllr Paul Weston, Katie Weston Sharon Bailey and Tom Biggs,to make it as well-known as the better-known Battle of Cable Street, a similar event that took place in London three years later. On 9 September 2018, a plaque marking the battle was unveiled at Market Cross by the town's mayor, Eileen Johnson.[4][12][13] Other speakers at the commemoration were Stockton North MP Alex Cunningham, North-East MEP Jude Kirton-Darling, actress and President of the International Brigade Memorial Trust, Marlene Sidaway, convener of Cable Street 80 David Rosenberg and Unison's Claire Williams.

See also

Further reading
  • Serdiville, Rosie (2018). The Battle of Stockton: How a Small Town Saw Off Fascists in 1933. Durham: The Historical Association. 1009-1933

References
  1. "18/10/2011". Making History. 18 October 2011. 16.07 minutes in. BBC. BBC Radio 4.
  2. Serdiville, 2018. p. 8
  3. "The Battle of Stockton - 1933". Stockton Borough Council. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  4. "Battle of Stockton 1933: fascists and anti-fascists wage war on streets". The Northern Echo. 8 September 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  5. Serdiville, 2018. p. 6
  6. Serdiville, 2018. p. 7
  7. Channing, Iain (March 2014). "Blackshirts and White Wigs: Reflections on Public Order Law and the Political Activism of the British Union of Fascists" (PDF). Plymouth: University of Plymouth: 98–100. Retrieved 14 September 2018. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. "John Warburton Fleet Street photographer who acted as a bouncer for the British Union of Fascists", The Daily Telegraph, 2 September 2004, p. 29.
  9. "John Warburton". Daily Telegraph. 2 September 2004. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  10. Lloyd, Chris (17 October 2011). "The Battle of Stockton, 1933". Northern Echo. Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  11. Lloyd, Chris (15 October 2011). "The Battle of Stockton, September 10, 1933". Retrieved 26 January 2018.
  12. Price, Kelley (24 August 2018). "Heard of the Battle of Stockton? Not many people know about 1933 riots against fascism". Teesside Gazette. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  13. "Anti-fascist 'Battle of Stockton' honoured". The Northern Echo. 10 September 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
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