To mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street we present a selection of websites offering audiovisual resources relating to British protest movements, pressure groups, activists and campaigners, from the Cable Street fighters and the striking Dagenham Ford workers of 1968, to the more recent student protests against government spending cuts.

The Battle of Cable Street: 80 Years On
This multimedia website commemorates the eightieth anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, when, on October 4th 1936, members of the Jewish community and their supporters prevented Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists from marching in the East End of London. Featuring photographs, posters, newsreel clips, video interviews with people who were there and audio clips of contemporary speeches, the resource documents the background to the battle as well as the events of the day itself.

Chronicle of Protest: The Film
This website complements Michael Chanan’s film about the anti-government protest movement, which covers events – demonstrations, marches, sit-ins – from November 2010 to the end of March 2011. Chanan gives a detailed explanation of the reasons – theoretical, financial and political – for making the film as a video diary, filmed on a handheld camera, with no voice-over or commentary. As a seasoned documentary filmmaker and academic who was radicalised in the 1960s, he sees his film as a celebration of the politicisation of today’s students, as well as an expression of opposition to mainstream media representations of the protesters. The site also features reviews, links and a video blog, featuring some of the footage used in the final film. A DVD of Chronicle of Protest is available to buy via the site and the film is also free to view on Vimeo.

Conway Hall
Conway Hall is owned by Conway Hall Ethical Society and was first opened in 1929. The name was chosen in honour of Moncure Daniel Conway (1832 – 1907), anti-slavery advocate, out-spoken supporter of free thought and biographer of Thomas Paine. The Hall now hosts a wide variety of lectures, classes, performances, community and social events. It is renowned as a hub for free speech and independent thought. The website hosts a small number of videos of the lectures including LONDON THINKS: THE RISE OF UKIP and THE OPPRESSION AND RESILIENCE OF WOMEN.

Reality Radio
This online radio station was established in 2010 by Kate Hudson, General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Shows are recorded at the CND headquarters in London and are available globally and free of charge, as downloads from iTunes and via live streaming. Two programmes are produced. ‘Open Door’ debates key themes in current affairs with an expert guest, covering issues as diverse as the global economic crisis, the political situation in the West Bank and health issues related to the use of nuclear power. ‘The Political Week’ is concerned with British politics and current affairs. Each week a studio guest highlights key issues in the week’s politics, offering views not normally heard in the mainstream British media.

Voices From the Workplace
This series of short films about the fight for equal pay was made by film directors, Sarah Boston and Jenny Morgan, and jointly funded by the TUC, the Wainwright Trust and the European Social Fund. The films consist of oral history interviews with women and union representatives who were involved in major equal pay cases, beginning with the 1968 pay strike by Ford sewing machinists in Dagenham which brought car production to a halt. The film Winning Equal Pay: An Introduction provides an introduction to the series. Each film is accompanied by notes and transcripts in pdf format. The films were made as part of the learning resource Winning Equal Pay: the value of women’s work, a collaboration between London Metropolitan University and the Trades Union Congress to record the long campaign to achieve equal pay for women.

Learning on Screen’s Gateway includes over 1,900 websites relating to moving image and sound materials. These have been subdivided into over 40 subject areas. To suggest new entries or amendments, please contact us by email or telephone (020 7393 1500).