Max Levitas, Cable Street veteran who stood up to Oswald Mosley's fascists, dies at 103

"Attacks upon people - Jewish people and non-Jewish people - is the wrong way of living."

Max Levitas, who stood up to fascists at the Battle of Cable Street in 1936, has died at the age of 103.

This is his story. pic.twitter.com/j3O6U9TcqB

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) 3 November 2018

Mr Levitas was one of more than 300,000 people who gathered to shout the Spanish Civil War slogan "No pasaran" - "They shall not pass" – on Sunday October 4, 1936.

Jews, trade unionists, and Communists barricaded Whitechapel against the police-protected march of Sir Oswald Mosley's "blackshirts", forcing them out of the East End.

In a statement released on Twitter, Mr Levitas' family announced their "beloved uncle" had died, saying: "No Pasaran and with Max they never did."

They called him “a staunch antifascist and fighter for socialism”.

We the family of Max Levitas are saddened to announce the death this morning of our beloved uncle, aged 103. Max was a staunch antifascist and fighter for socialism, a Communist, local Councillor & Battle of Cable St veteran. #NoPasaran and with Max they never did. RIP comrade.

— Robert Hunter (@hunterston) 2 November 2018

In a 2011 interview with the JC, Mr Levitas recalled how every entrance to the East End was blockaded and Irish dockers and Jewish tailors built three barricades across Cable Street to thwart the 3,000 black-shirted fascists.

At the time Mr Levitas, who spent his childhood with his large family in the Harcourt Street area of Dublin, had already been fined £10 in court for his activitism.

He was arrested in 1934 for daubing anti-fascist slogans on Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, during a fascist rally in Hyde Park.

He said: "What was happening in Germany made us determined that fascism should not take control in this country.

"On the day in 1936 when we heard they intended to come up Cable Street, we started to build barricades with rubbish and furniture. I was a runner, passing messages to the leadership.

"It went on for hours, until we heard the march was banned by the Home Secretary. You should have been there to hear the cry, and see people jumping and shouting in joy. People who had never drunk beer in their lives, drank a glass of beer. We had won."

He added: "We had asked the Board of Deputies to represent us to the government, asking them to ban the march. And they wouldn't.

"They said all the Jewish people should stay at home. We disagreed entirely. The more you stay at home, the stronger they get."