The Strength Between Us

12.05–12.45 | They Shall Not Pass: The Battle of Cable Street
Zilkha Auditorium

October 1936: three thousand fascists led by Oswald Mosley march on Cable Street in the heart of the Jewish East End. Six thousand Metropolitan Police officers are on hand to defend them. But London’s socialists, trade unionists, immigrants and dock workers are ready to repel the fascists – and their message is clear and united: ‘They shall not pass!’

This film features Steven Berkoff’s vivid reading of his own dramatic version of the Battle of Cable Street, accompanied by archive footage.

14.30–17.45 | Radical Film School Presents…
Zilkha Auditorium

A selection of films that reflect the anti-fascist legacy of Cable Street in contemporary, internationalist movements. Films by and curated by Radical Film School, a free programme for filmmakers dedicated to experimental, political cinema.

13.00–14.10 | Cursed Objects Live Podcast! Cable Street, Memory and Tat
Zilkha Auditorium

Podcast creators and hosts, historian Dr Kasia Tomasiewicz and writer Dan Hancox, are joined by guests Anindya Bhattacharyya and Ben Rogaly to discuss what happens when radical histories get commodified, how the Cable Street mural shapes memory in East London, and how the history of local grassroots resistance to Mosley and the BUF has been deployed in more recent anti-fascist struggles.

The podcast brings its motto – ‘what if cultural studies was more fun?’ – to bear on a Battle of Cable Street commemorative tea towel, exploring the relationship between radical history, memory and the objects through which we remember it.

14.15–15.30 | Panel Discussion: On Culture and Community
Assembly Room

A discussion on the new voices, movements, creative responses and forms of communication emerging to tackle injustice now. Chaired by K. Biswas, writer, critic and Chair of Resonance FM, and featuring contributions from Maxine Thomas-Asante, a lead for the Power of Pop Fund, and Yassmin Abdel-Magied, author, screenwriter and award-winning social advocate.

12.30–14.00 | Advocacy Academy
Creative Studio

How do young people organise to shape the future of their communities? Led by young organisers from The Advocacy Academy, this interactive workshop explores how communities build power, imagine alternatives and turn ambitious ideas for a better world into action.

Drawing connections between the Battle of Cable Street and contemporary struggles for place and community, we’ll explore what it means to organise around the spaces that shape our lives. Through games, storytelling and participatory activities, facilitators will take you inside Buy Back Brixton, the live campaign to bring Brixton Village and Market Row into community ownership, and explore the tactics used to mobilise people, organise money and challenge private ownership.

15.30–16.45 | Three Hijabis
Creative Studio

Join Football for the Future, a fanzine-making workshop led by Three Hijabis, an award-winning group of social justice entrepreneurs and anti-racism and equalities campaigners.

What would football look like if it was truly anti-racist and decolonised? We’ll discuss football, belonging, safety, decolonisation and anti-racism, exploring these themes through politic somatics and crafting. By the end of the session, participants will have the chance to create their own fanzine booklet.

17.00–17.45 | Performance: Poetry and Spoken Word
Assembly Room

A selection of contemporary poets lead a collective performance celebrating resistance and unity.

16.00 | Anti-Fascist Pasta Party
Alba Caffè

As an act of joyful resistance against fascism, Alba Caffè will be bringing free pasta to the people. Inspired by the historic Anti-Fascist Pasta Party (pastasciutta antifascista) of 1943, when the partisan Cervi family served hundreds of kilos of forbidden pasta to their entire village to celebrate Mussolini’s downfall, Alba chefs and volunteers will be serving up the same democratic dish – steaming bowls of pasta with lashings of butter and parmesan – to East London’s diverse communities, with the simple goal of bringing people together in solidarity.

Served on a first-come, first-served basis and free while stocks last.

12.15–12.55 | They Shall Not Pass: The Battle of Cable Street
Zilkha Auditorium

October 1936: three thousand fascists led by Oswald Mosley march on Cable Street in the heart of the Jewish East End. Six thousand Metropolitan Police officers are on hand to defend them. But London’s socialists, trade unionists, immigrants and dock workers are ready to repel the fascists – and their message is clear and united: ‘They shall not pass!’

This film features Steven Berkoff’s vivid reading of his own dramatic version of the Battle of Cable Street, accompanied by archive footage.

13.00–17.45 | Radical Film School Presents…
Zilkha Auditorium

A selection of films that reflect the anti-fascist legacy of Cable Street in contemporary, internationalist movements. Films by and curated by Radical Film School, a free programme for filmmakers dedicated to experimental, political cinema.

14.15–15.30 | Panel Discussion: On Communities and Collaboration
Assembly Room

A discussion on how communities can come together for racial and social justice, the conditions needed for successful alliances, and inspiring examples from the past that can help shape our futures. Chaired by Shabna Begum, CEO of the Runnymede Trust, and featuring contributions from journalist and author Taj Ali, artist, writer and political organiser Joshua Virasami, and Samira Ali, a member of Together Alliance and founder of Women Against The Far Right.

12.30–14.00 | Harm to Healing
Creative Studio

An interactive workshop led by Harm to Healing, a community-led organisation run by members impacted by racialised criminalisation.

15.30–16.45 | Healing Justice London
Creative Studio

An interactive workshop on collective care and political organising, led by Healing Justice London, which builds community-led health and healing to create capacity for personal and structural transformation.

17.00–17.45 | Listening Session
Assembly Room

A final session bringing everyone together through the collective power of music, with a performance by the acclaimed interdisciplinary artist, educator and carnivalist Linett Kamala.

We believe that young people should have the power to lead change on the issues shaping their lives. That’s why The Advocacy Academy (TAA) is a home for youth organising in the UK: building the power of young people with lived experience of injustice to organise, build community and take collective action. Over our 11-year legacy, we have supported young people to build campaigns driving systemic change. These include The Halo Collective, challenging afro hair discrimination; Choked Up, fighting for the right to breathe clean air; and Buy Back Brixton, organising alongside local traders to bring Brixton Village and Market Row into community ownership. Now, we’re building on that legacy to grow a movement of youth organising across the UK: digging deep through place-based and intergenerational organising in Brixton; going big through national campaigns; and bedding in the infrastructure, resources and hubs needed for youth organising to flourish nationwide. https://theadvocacyacademy.com/

The Cursed Objects podcast has been running since 2021. Since then, it has racked up over 150,000 downloads, 100 episodes, and a hit exhibition at the Peltz Gallery in Bloomsbury. There are no witches, cauldrons or spells on Cursed Objects – the objects are ‘cursed’ in the sense that they are shaped by the politics, society and culture around them – and they tell fascinating stories about the world we live in.

Anindya Bhattacharyya is a former UAF and ANL press officer and activist, journalist and Whitechapel resident. You can read his essay ‘What is Fascism?’ on rs21 here.

Ben Rogaly writes on Yiddish songs as a source of hope and solidarity and a resource for resistance in a time of genocide. His current project (with Samuel Solomon) is called ‘Facing the trouble: cultural workers in Yiddishland, political Zionism, and the movement for Palestinian liberation’. His latest book is Stories from a Migrant City: Living and Working Together in the Shadow of Brexit.

Dr Kasia Tomasciewicz is a cultural historian focusing on museums, memory studies and modern British history. She teaches at King’s College London.

Dan Hancox is a journalist, writing and editing for the Guardian and others. His latest book is Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World.

K. Biswas is a critic who has written for the New Statesman, The Observer, New York Times, The Nation, Le Monde Diplomatique, The Baffler, and the Times Literary Supplement. He is the Editor of Representology: The Journal of Media and Diversity, and Director of Europe’s largest community radio station, Resonance FM.

Maxine Thomas-Asante is a thought leader in the UK cultural strategy field. She drives the Power of Pop Fund, a pooled fund supporting organisations who use arts, creativity and entertainment to advance justice. Maxine’s work is in service to the power of art and entertainment to mobilise mass audiences towards hopeful futures. Her work advancing justice has engaged both the education and funding sectors, as a researcher, consultant, facilitator, grant maker and, currently, fund lead. Her work proactively centres the voices of communities, from her earliest days in student politics to, now, championing community voices through pop culture and narrative shift.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese diaspora author, screenwriter and award-winning social advocate. A former mechanical engineer, Abdel-Magied’s debut literary novel At Sea was a Dua Lipa Service95 ‘must read’ for 2026. Previous titles include action-packed teen fantasy Silverbrook: Yumna and the Golden Horse, essay collection Talking About a Revolution and two novels for younger readers, You Must Be Layla and the award-winning Listen, Layla. Yassmin is currently a writer on British continuing drama Emmerdale and her original drama series Cruise Control is in development with the BBC. The creator of eyesonsudan.net and adviser on the sudandigitalarchive.com, Yassmin is dedicated to the civilian movement in Sudan and the celebration and amplification of Sudanese culture. In all her work, Yassmin is an advocate for transformative justice and a fairer, safer world for all.