Never Again

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Never Again Page 29

by David Renton


  If recent years have shown that it is impossible to will a mass movement into being, that insight would have struck the 1970s generation as unremarkable. They too had spent years waiting for the best moment to defeat the Front. As Dave Widgery writes, ‘The ideas, the cultural ingredients, the potential had been there for years but they could only be utilised in a genuine crisis.’8

  One of the reasons why anti-fascism has been a much narrower tradition since 1982 lies in part in the diminished importance of fascism within the broader camp of British racism. In 1976–1977, the Front were the leading component of a much broader move to the right, but ever since then, the dynamic forces have been elsewhere: the mainstream advocates of the ‘hostile environment’, the press and the Home Office. Anti-fascism has seemed less important to its potential audience.

  The far left is in addition smaller and less rooted than it was. The campaigns of the last fifteen years have been in consequence less than the anti-fascism of the 1970s, their mere echo, conjuring the spirits and the names of past generations.

  In his book, Beating Time, Dave Widgery sought to explain what it was about the relationship between RAR and the ANL, which caused the alliance to succeed. ‘It was a piece of double time,’ he wrote

  with the musical and the political confrontations on simultaneous but separate tracks and difficult to mix. The music came first and was more exciting. It provided the creative energy and the focus in what became a battle for the soul of young working-class England. But the direct confrontations and the hard-headed political organisation which underpinned them were decisive.9

  Taken out of context, the final sentence might sound like a justification for emphasising political organisation at the expense of the cultural, but in fact Widgery was balancing three distinct terms: music came first (RAR) and was needed to make the campaign accessible to the millions of people who do not normally take an interest in politics. Then a combination of mass physical confrontation (Lewisham) and left-wing organisation (the Anti-Nazi League) was used to consolidate this breakthrough. All of these parts were needed.

  There is unlikely to be any return to the anti-fascism of the 1970s, with its youth, its scepticism of authority and its physical daring, without their prerequisite: an independent cultural movement following its own rules.

  The campaign of the 1970s occurred in a particular moment in British history. After 1945, there had been twenty years in which the population changed as a result of Commonwealth migration. Initially, as we have seen, there were almost no legal restrictions to the practice of free movement. Yet from the early 1960s, increasing obstacles were put in the path of prospective migrants, so that by the time of Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, there was already in principle no new migration to Britain from India, Pakistan, or the Caribbean. The groups which did arrive after 1968 – the Asians from Kenya, Uganda and Malawi – were refugees and British passport holders. Each new migration of this kind was met by moves attempted to prevent its repetition. Even after Britain had become, in principle, a locked gate to new arrivals, anti-migrant sentiment did not dissipate but seemed with the Front to have acquired a coherent, electoral, expression. If even closing the door to all new black arrivals was insufficient to satisfy the popular demand for restriction, what else could be done to meet the demand for further anti-migrant measures? Enoch Powell found an answer which satisfied him: he decided that the state should now repatriate the remaining unwelcome black migrants. This was also the National Front’s solution; indeed, it argued the same politics without the Conservatives’ equivocation.

  No politician, neither Heath nor Wilson nor Callaghan, had a clear alternative to endlessly increased immigration controls and ultimately repatriation. But what Rock Against Racism and other anti-fascists showed was that the phenomenon of anti-migrant hostility would not continue indefinitely but was a decreasing force, especially among the integrated generation of Britain’s youth.

  In 1976–1982, an anti-fascist campaign of unprecedented popularity won a temporary victory over the gathering forces of both popular and state racism. Of course, racial prejudice was not vanquished. ‘We didn’t stop racial attacks,’ Dave Widgery writes, ‘far less racism.’10 And yet . . . a space was found in which millions of people could breathe. A marker was put down that the struggles against racism and fascism are causes capable of moving hundreds of thousands of people.

  If the movements this book has described are ever to find a genuine successor, it will be through the discovery of new ways of cultural organising, capable of challenging the new nostalgia for the imperial past. It will come from a generation attuned to the anti-fascist legacy, who assimilate it and surpass what went before.

  Notes

  1 M. Worley, No Future: Punk, Politics and British Youth Culture 1976–1984 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), p. 145.

  2 Bishopsgate Institute archive, LHM/128.

  3 S. Clarke, ‘Master-minding the Militant roadshow’, New Musical Express, 31 March 1979; judging by Syd Shelton’s photographs, West Runton appears to have had the youngest and most visibly ‘punk’ audience of all the gigs in the Militant Entertainment Tour: S. Shelton, Rock Against Racism (London: Autograph, 2015), pp. 104–108.

  4 A. M. Messina, Race and Party Competition in Britain (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989), p. 118; C. Rosenberg, ‘Labour and the fight against fascism’, International Socialism Journal 39 (1988), pp. 55–92, 81; E. Roberts, Strike Back (Orpington: Ernie Roberts, 1994), p. 252; Anti-Nazi League, Inside the National Front: Sheffield’s Nazis Uncovered (Sheffield: Sheffield ANL, 1979); B. Dunn, ‘No to NF’, Morning Star, 15 November 1978.

  5 M. Barker, The New Racism (London: Pluto, 1980), p. 1.

  6 C. Mudde, ‘Europe’s Centre-Right is on the wrong track with “good populism”’, Guardian, 30 October 2017.

  7 R. Hyder, Brimful of Asia: Negotiating Ethnicity on the UL Music Scene (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004), pp. 84–86.

  8 D. Widgery, Beating Time (London: Chatto and Windus, 1986), p. 1.

  9 Widgery, Beating Time, p. 114.

  10 Widgery, Beating Time, p. 1.

  INDEX

  43 Group 37

  Adam and the Ants 58

  AEU see Amalgamated Engineering Union

  Ahmed, Tassaduq 124

  Alexander, Pete 138, 155, 158, 161

  Ali, Altab 123

  Alien Kulture 159

  Amalgamated Engineering Union 42, 90, 157, 169

  Anderton, Chief Constable James 93

  Asher, Wayne 38

  Asian Youth Movements 45–46, 106, 128, 137, 162

  Aswad 53, 55, 64, 145

  Atkinson, Graeme 38, 40

  Atkinson, Richard 69, 99, 111

  Baker, Clarence 53, 137, 140

  Barton, Mike 90, 110, 155

  Bean, John 16, 17, 19, 84

  Benn, Tony 3, 7, 111, 165

  Bidney, Harry 37

  Big Flame 40, 91 Big Flame (paper) 24

  Billig, Michael 8

  Bint, Police Constable Greville 146–147

  Birchall, Ian 40, 126

  Birmingham ix, 24, 29, 42, 45, 64, 106, 160

  Biswas, Alok 125

  Blackburn 22, 30, 42

  Board of Deputies of British Jews 100

  Bogues, Tony 72, 72

  Bowie, David 50–51, 63

  Bradford 41, 45, 46, 88, 106, 157, 162

  Brick Lane 108, 126–128, 169

  Brighton 118, 119, 158

  British Union of Fascists 14

  Brown, Geoff 93, 109, 122, 126

  Bulldog 24, 98

  Burchill, Julie 87

  Burton, Dr John 144–146

  Buzzcocks 59, 105, 122

  Cable Street, Battle of 108

  Callaghan, James 7, 85, 173

  Campaign Against Racist Laws 157, 158

  Carnival, Rock Against Racism 107–113, 125–129

  Cass, Commander John xii, 146–147

  Caygill, Matthew 106, 164

&
nbsp; Chapel Market 134, 156

  Chesterton, Arthur Kenneth 14, 15–16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26

  Cimarons, the 53, 63

  Clapton, Eric 51, 66

  Clash, the 55, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 107, 145, 155

  Cliff, Tony 43, 108

  Clough, Brian 91

  Cock, Sybil 124, 125

  Cohen, Steve 40, 157

  Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist) 26–28

  Communist Party of Great Britain 6, 7, 11, 24, 41, 75, 78, 89, 90, 101, 115, 122, 131, 136, 152

  Copsey, Nigel xii, xiii, 102

  Costello, Elvis 126

  Crass 120

  Crisis 125, 167

  Daily Mirror 32, 56, 60, 61

  Dammers, Jerry 155

  Damned, the 57

  Dark, Andy 55

  De Lyon, Heather 119

  Deason, John 92

  Delta 5 64

  Dennis, John 66, 152, 159

  Desai, Jayaben 58, 73

  Dhondy, Farrukh 47, 114

  docks, London 11, 12, 104

  Douglass, Dave 68, 73

  Doyle, Jenny 17, 152

  Dury, Ian x, 105

  Eden, Anthony 2, 16

  Eichmann, Adolf 19

  engineers’ union see Amalgamated Engineering Union

  Fabulous Poodles, the 118

  Fancy, Colin 65, 126, 160, 161

  Farrar, Max 92

  Fawcett, Rick 55

  Fenn, Micky 11, 43, 54, 92, 97, 102

  Fenton, James 42

  Fielding, Nigel 29

  Fire Brigades’ Union 95

  Fitzpatrick, Jerry 69, 71, 74, 76, 78, 79–80, 107, 128, 155

  Foot, Michael 7, 41, 83

  Foot, Paul 71, 147

  Ford Dagenham 95, 125

  Forsyth, Frederick 4

  Foster, Christopher 72, 83

  Foster, Faith 83

  Fountaine, Andrew 17, 41, 152

  Furness, Paul 64

  Gang of Four 60, 64, 105, 120, 122

  Garnett, Alf 3

  Garratt, Sheryl 64

  Gateley, Kevin 26–29, 39

  Gill, Ken 89, 145

  Gilroy, Darla-Jane 55

  Gilroy, Paul 106, 115–118

  Gordon, Kim 72

  Gregory, Ruth xiii, 43, 55–56, 63, 65, 66, 159

  Grimes, Carol 55

  Grover, Suresh 46, 150

  Grunwick strike 58, 73, 140

  Hain, Peter 21, 89–90, 91, 113, 157, 163

  Hall, Stuart 32, 158

  Hamilton, Neil 22

  Hann, Dave xii

  Harper, Caroline 64

  Harris, Nigel 90

  Hassan, Leila 47, 55, 72

  Healey, Denis 2, 8

  Heath, Edward 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, 20, 39

  Heffer, Eric 43

  Higgins, Jim 44

  Hill, Ray 18

  Hitchens, Christopher 40

  Hobsbawm, Eric 7

  Holborow, Paul 89, 90, 91, 107, 126, 155

  Howe, Darcus 46, 55, 81, 160

  Imperial Typewriters 23, 24, 73

  Indian Workers’ Association 46, 106, 125, 136

  International Marxist Group 26–29, 40, 41, 42, 57, 87, 89, 98, 106, 136, 139

  International Socialists see Socialist Workers Party

  Jam, the 58

  James, CLR 47, 55

  Jeffreys, Steve 76, 152

  Jenkins, Roy 21

  JOLT 57, 61

  Jones, Claudia 113

  Jones, Mick 61, 108, 109

  Jones, Steve 61

  Jordan, Colin 17, 18, 19

  Joseph, Keith 3

  Jouhl, Avtar 46

  Joy Division 59, 105

  Karlim, Miriam 90, 155

  Kartoon Klowns 52

  King, Dave 54

  Kingsley Read, John 30, 31

  Kinnock, Neil 90

  Kushner, Tony 3

  Kwesi Johnson, Linton 47, 118, 148, 160

  Labour Party 6, 7, 21, 83, 85, 90, 100, 151, 157

  Landman, Maeve 77

  Lang, Jo 141

  Langford, Charli 81, 82

  Lawson, Nigel 105

  Lawson, Richard 31

  League of Empire Loyalists 14, 15–16, 17, 18, 20, 37

  Leech, Ken 14

  Leeds ix, 60, 64, 105, 106

  Leicester ix, 23, 24, 32, 38, 134, 152

  Lennon, John 50

  Leon, Amanda 141

  Letts, Don 62

  Leveller 113

  Lewisham, Battle of 40, 71–84, 87, 92, 93, 145

  Liberation 26–27, 37

  Light, Bob 54, 97

  Liverpool 8, 15, 25, 64, 160

  Luft, Michael 38, 128, 135

  Lythgoe, Albie 88

  Macmillan, Harold 2, 16

  Madness 156

  Malawian Asian migration crisis 32, 172

  Manchester 15, 38, 93, 96, 97, 160, 163

  Mansfield Hosiery Mills 23, 73

  Marshall, George 60, 62

  McCalden, David 31, 40

  McCartney, Paul 50

  Mehmood, Tariq 41, 45, 114, 128, 162

  Mekons, the 60, 64, 120, 121, 122

  Militant Tendency 42, 165

  Misty in Roots 104, 137, 145, 161

  Mitchell, Adrian 50

  Monday Club, Conservatives’ xi, 21, 30, 33, 160

  Morris, Dave 69

  Morrison, Eddy 120–121

  Mosley, Sir Oswald 14–15, 17, 18, 21

  Mullen, Nick 28

  Murdoch, Bob 38

  Murray, Inspector Alan 146–147

  National Review 57

  Nehmad, Annie 139

  Nichol, Jim 11, 56, 88–89, 91, 92, 93, 94, 125, 143

  Nicholas, Chris 108, 110, 111, 143

  Notting Hill Carnival 47, 58

  O’Brien, John 30

  O’Callaghan, Einde 79, 80, 82, 97, 110

  O’Farrell, Mick 92, 164

  Oxford 39

  Painter, Roy 30, 31

  Parker, Ted 70, 73, 74, 76, 78, 79

  Parsons, Tony 87

  Peach, Blair x, xii, 140–148

  Pearce, Joe 84, 98, 121, 122, 134, 138

  Peel, John 131, 159

  Penney, John 163

  Peoples Unite 136, 137

  Piratin, Phil 108

  Powell, Enoch 10, 11, 12, 17, 32, 43, 96

  Prevost, Eddie 97

  Purbrick, Louise xiii

  Purewal, Balraj 45, 137

  Pursey, Jimmy 61, 62–63, 104, 105, 111, 126, 171

  Race Today Collective 46–47, 55, 72, 91, 113

  Rachel, Daniel xii

  Racial Preservation Society 14, 37

  Rana, Balwinder 135, 136, 143, 159

  Red Lion Square 26–29, 37, 145

  Reed Herbert, Anthony 30, 152

  Reilly, Danny 71, 91, 169

  Relf, Robert 42

  Rhodes, Bernie 107, 108

  Rhodesia 1, 21

  Roberts, Ernie 43, 90, 127, 128, 155

  Robinson, Tom xiii, 53, 60, 107, 109, 111, 120

  Rock Against Communism 122, 154

  Rock Against Sexism 120

  Rosenberg, David 97, 108, 135

  Rosselson, Leon 57

  Rotten, Johnny 60

  Rowbotham, Sheila 39

  Ruts, the 60, 63, 125, 145

  Saltley Gates, Battle of 5, 43

  Samuel, Raphael 112

  Saunders, Red 44, 51–52, 55, 56, 63, 65, 66, 78, 104, 105, 110, 126, 127, 152, 159, 161

  Saville, John 90

  Scargill, Arthur 5, 73

  Scarman, Lord Justice Leslie 26–29

  Searchlight xii, 18, 100, 154

  Searle, Chris 147–148

  Second World War 3–4, 56, 61

  Sedgwick, Peter 7

  Seifert, Michael 89

  Sex Pistols 57, 58, 60, 61, 120

  Sham 69 61, 62–63, 104, 105, 126, 155–156, 171

  Sharma, Vishnu 46

  Shelton, Syd 53, 56, 65, 66, 72, 80–81, 108, 110, 152
/>   Shemeld, John 40, 65, 111

  Siblon, John 118

  Singh Chaggar, Gurdip 46

  Singh, Marsha 42

  Sioux, Siouxsie 61, 63

  Sivanandan, Ambalavaner 92

  Smithfield Market 11, 12, 21

  Socialist Labour League see Workers’ Revolutionary Party

  Socialist Workers Party 26, 29, 41–44, 65, 74–76, 83, 85, 87–88, 106, 108–109, 112, 114, 115, 122, 128, 129, 136, 163

  Society of Graphical and Allied Trades 95

  Southall 42, 45, 46, 47, 134–150, 161–162

  Special Patrol Group 140, 146–148, 156

  Specials, the 155, 161, 169

  Steel Pulse 53, 107, 109, 122

  Steel, Mark 59, 126, 145

  Strouthous, Andy 77, 163

  Strummer, Joe 59, 107, 108

  Stubbs, Celia 145

  Styrene, Poly 60

  Sullivan, Anna 69, 131, 156, 163, 164, 165

  swastikas, wearing in punk scene 61–62

  TASS see Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section

  Taylor, Robert 33

  Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section 40

  Temporary Hoarding 55, 56, 58, 62, 65, 109, 165

  TGWU see Transport and General Workers’ Union

  Thatcher, Margaret x, 8, 83, 105, 152, 157, 170

  Thompson, Edward Palmer 90

  Tilzley, Steve 128

  Tomlinson, Ricky 25

  Toothpaste, Lucy xiii, 57, 58–59, 61, 10

  Transport and General Workers’ Union 24, 140, 169

  Tyndall, John x, 16, 17, 18–20, 21–23, 26, 29, 30–31, 38–39, 41, 81–85, 94, 106, 108–109, 134, 153, 154

  Tyneside 38

  Ugandan Asian migration crisis 12, 21, 170, 172

  Union Movement 15

  United Black Youth League 45

  Verrall, Richard 152

  Victoria Park 107–113, 121

  Walker, John 96, 122

  Walker, Martin 28, 38, 108

  Webb, Kate 53, 65, 66, 152, 159

  Webster, Martin x, 16, 21, 25, 29, 30, 41, 79, 84, 93, 94, 99, 106, 152

  Weller, Paul 58

  Wells, Seething (Steven) 60

  West Runton 169

  Wheen, Francis 95

  White, Police Constable Raymond 146–147

  Whitelaw, William 3, 33, 144

  Widgery, Dave 8, 12, 41, 44, 53–54, 55, 56, 59, 61, 66, 77–78, 80, 82, 88, 107, 108, 109, 118, 121, 122, 123, 127, 129, 134, 152, 153, 159, 171–172

 

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