The real Eastenders - They stood

I was walking out of Stockwell tube
Down the road and past that famous street
The one that spawned a battle in the 30s
The street corner where the real eastenders stood for justice – Cable street

I was with my mate Anton
His family were Eastern European Jews
As we passed by cable street he told me of his uncle
With arm outstretched towards the river, he said
“The dockers came to help us”

When Moseley and his men spouted hatred
When the fascists marched, flanked by the boys in blue
With message of hatred and bigotry spewing from their mouths
It was indeed the dockers and many others who stood

It was railway workers, civil servants, tailors, labourers, and teachers who stood
Ordinary and extraordinary women and men
They built the barricades
They threw the marbles and smashed the bottles because they had no choice
No one flanked those who stood against hatred
No horses rode by their side

We stood and stared at the mural
The celebration of humanity
The human faces stretched, exaggerated
The emotion in those eyes
The fire in those bellies as they stood for what was right

We pondered how others had stood in those streets beforehand
Young Irish women, Match workers who stood for justice
Followed by their brothers and uncles from the docks
And how people stood today
From nations across the world against the bigots and their sympathisers in person and online
These streets built by migrant people standing together, these communities forged by unity

We walked past Wilton’s music hall
They had fed the poor and hungry of those struggles
We looked to the gleaming glass of the city beyond
At the towers of the architects of poverty, those soulless monoliths populated by the beasts of capital

And once again we thought of those who stood
Who stood for others Who stood for their beliefs
Those who stood and those who will stand again one day
For justice freedom and love
Because the good in people will always outshine the bad

By Barry Faulkner