Battle of Lewisham
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Lewisham refers to the events of 13 August 1977, when an attempt by the far-right National Front
(NF) to march from New Cross
to Lewisham
in southeast London
led to counter-demonstrations and violent clashes. The day has been seen since as a turning point in the fortunes of the 1970s anti-fascist movement as well as in policing when British police used riot shield
s for the first time outside of Northern Ireland
.
became the focus of intense and sometimes violent political activity by neo-Nazi
s and members of the National Front (led by John Tyndall
) and a breakaway faction (the National Party
led by John Kingsley Read
). In 1976 these two organisations between them polled more votes in a local ward election (to Lewisham London Borough Council
) than the Labour Party
. In response to this, the All Lewisham Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (ALCARAF) was launched with the support of local trade union
s and anti-racist and anti-fascist groups.
On 30 May 1977, the police staged dawn raids in south-east London and arrested twenty-one young black people including a 24 year old woman, in connection with a series of mugging
s. Following the arrests, the police said that they believed the "gang" were responsible "for 90 per cent of the street crime in south London over the past six months." They appeared at Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court
on 1 June 1977, charged with various offences of "conspiracy to rob." During the hearings, some of the defendants fought with the police while spectators in the public gallery attempted to invade the court. The Lewisham 21 Defence Committee was set up soon after, and heavily criticised police tactics.
On Saturday, 2 July 1977, the Lewisham 21 Defence Committee held a demonstration in New Cross. Up to 200 National Front supporters turned out to oppose it, throwing 'rotten fruit and bags of caustic soda at marchers'. More than 80 people were arrested.
all called for the march to be banned, but Metropolitan Police
Commissioner David McNee
declined to make an application to the Home Secretary for a ban to be imposed. McNee reasoned that if a ban were imposed, then this would lead to "increasing pressure" to ban similar events and would be "abdicating his responsibility in the face of groups who threaten to achieve their ends by violent means." Deputy Assistant Commissioner David Helm asked the NF if they would voluntarily abandon the march, which they refused to do. Helm also asked how they would respond if the march was banned, and received the reply that they would simply march elsewhere. This meant that any ban would have to be imposed - and subsequently manned and enforced - across the entire Metropolitan Police district, which would still not prevent the NF from marching outside of the proscribed area. A ban on marching would also not prevent the NF instead holding a static public meeting - "perhaps in provocative circumstances" - which would still attract a counter-demonstration. The police dilemma was further compounded by the limitations of the Public Order Act 1936
, which granted no powers of arrest in the event that a ban was ignored.
There were political differences between anti-fascists about how best to respond, and as a result there were three distinct mobilisations for the counter-demonstration. The All Lewisham Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (ALCARAF) called for peaceful demonstration earlier on the day of the National Front march. The 13 August Ad Hoc Organising Committee, called on people to occupy the National Front's intended meeting point at Clifton Rise in New Cross.. A third organisation, the Anti Racist/Anti-Fascist Co-ordinating Committee
(ARAFCC, the London-wide Federation of Anti-Racist/Anti-Fascist Committees, including ALCARAF) also mobilised activists from across Greater London and published leaflets and posters calling for support for the ALCARAF march and for a physical attempt to stop the NF march.
In the week before the demonstration, a meeting took place in a pub in Deptford between ARAFCC and the Socialist Workers' Party Central Committee member responsible for their mobilisation. This meeting was intended to produce an agreed joint plan (as both organisations intended to physically block the streets to stop the NF march). However, the SWP insisted that the London Ant-Fascist Committees must accept the leading role of the SWP and mobilise their supporters under the direction of the SWP appointed stewards. This demand was rejected by the ARAFCC (whose members included many veteran Anti-Fascists, some anarchists, Communist Party and YCL members and trade union activists) and thus ARAFCC appointed its own stewards and made detailed plans to combine support for the ALCARAF demonstration in the morning with a physical blockade of New Cross Road in the afternoon. Although the official position of ALCARAF was that it was only mounting a peaceful demonstration on the morning of 13 August to show public opposition to the racist march planned for that afternoon, a number of ALCARAF activists collaborated with and supported the ARAFCC plans to mobilise for two events on the day.
, the exiled Bishop of Namibia
and others . By agreement with the police the ALCARAF march halted at the top of Loampit Vale between Lewisham and New Cross. However, the Anti Racist/Anti-Fascist Co-ordinating Committee stewards encouraged many marchers to go with them through the back-streets from Loampit Vale to New Cross Road. By this means a great many people from the ALCARAF march succeeded in getting into New Cross Road and onto the route of the NF march. Meanwhile, many of the protestors mobilised by the SWP had gathered in Clifton Rise, a side-street off New Cross Road, but were then contained there by police and unable to get into the main road.
There were clashes when the police tried to move push demonstrators further down Clifton Rise, away from where the National Front demonstrators were assembling in nearby Achilles Street. Police horses were sent into the crowd, and smoke bomb
s thrown.
At 3.00 pm, the police escorted National Front marchers out of Achilles Street, up Pagnell Street and into the main New Cross Road, behind a large 'Stop the Muggers' banner. Although the police had cleared a route along New Cross Road, it was still lined with a great many people (many who had come from the ALCARAF march in the morning). The marchers were pelted with bricks, smoke bombs, bottles and pieces of wood. Anti-NF demonstrators managed to briefly break through police lines and attack the back of the march, separating them from the main body. The protesters then burnt captured National Front banners.
The police separated National Front and anti-fascists, and mounted police cleared a path through the crowd attempting to block progress of march towards Deptford Broadway. Police led the march through deserted streets of Lewisham with crowds held back by road blocks over the whole area. Marchers were flanked by police three deep on either side, with 24 mounted police in front.
Meanwhile the anti-NF demonstrators, joined by increasing numbers of local people (especially youths) made their way to Lewisham Town Centre, where they blocked the High Street. Unable to meet in the town centre proper, the National Front held a short rally in a car park in Connington Road, before being led on to waiting trains by the police.
Clashes continued between the police and counter-demonstrators, the latter largely unaware that the National Front had already left the area. The police brought out riot shields for the first time in England, and baton charges and mounted police
were used in an attempt to disperse the crowd. Bricks and bottles were thrown at police and police vehicles damaged.
Ther was a brief period when the police completely lost control of the centre of Lewisham (later dubbed the People's Republic of Lewisham Clock-Tower). There was also an apparent break-down in the police chain of command, with officers driving Transit-vans at high speed up and down the High Street under a hail of bricks and bottles - until one crashed by the Railway Bridge and the police charged to prevent the injured driver from being seized by the enraged crowd. There was also some minor looting of shops and a vehicle was set on fire before police restored control of the area.
214 people were arrested and at least 111 injured.
British National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....
(NF) to march from New Cross
New Cross
New Cross is a district and ward of the London Borough of Lewisham, England. It is situated 4 miles south-east of Charing Cross. The ward covered by London post town and the SE 14 postcode district. New Cross is near St Johns, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwich...
to Lewisham
Lewisham
Lewisham is a district in South London, England, located in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is situated south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
in southeast London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
led to counter-demonstrations and violent clashes. The day has been seen since as a turning point in the fortunes of the 1970s anti-fascist movement as well as in policing when British police used riot shield
Riot shield
Riot shields are lightweight protection devices deployed by police and some military organizations. Most are a clear polycarbonate, though some are constructed of light metals with a view hole. Riot shields are almost exclusively long enough to cover an average sized man from the top of the head to...
s for the first time outside of Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
Background
In the mid-1970s New Cross and surrounding areas of south LondonSouth London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
became the focus of intense and sometimes violent political activity by neo-Nazi
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
s and members of the National Front (led by John Tyndall
John Tyndall (politician)
John Hutchyns Tyndall was a British politician who was prominently associated with several fascist/neo-Nazi sects. However, he is best known for leading the National Front in the 1970s and founding the contemporary British National Party in 1982.The most prominent figure in British nationalism...
) and a breakaway faction (the National Party
National Party (UK, 1976)
The National Party was a short-lived British far right political party formed on 6 January 1976 and which dissolved before the 1979 general election...
led by John Kingsley Read
John Kingsley Read
John Kingsley Read was chairman of the British National Front from 1974 to 1976 and a founder of the National Party.A former member of the Conservative Party and chairman of the Blackburn Young Conservatives, Read left to join the NF in 1973 having addressed a rally against the arrival of Ugandan...
). In 1976 these two organisations between them polled more votes in a local ward election (to Lewisham London Borough Council
Lewisham London Borough Council
Lewisham London Borough Council is the local authority for the London Borough of Lewisham in Greater London, England. It is a London borough council, one of 32 in the United Kingdom capital of London. The council is unusual in that its executive function is controlled by a directly elected mayor of...
) than the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
. In response to this, the All Lewisham Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (ALCARAF) was launched with the support of local trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s and anti-racist and anti-fascist groups.
On 30 May 1977, the police staged dawn raids in south-east London and arrested twenty-one young black people including a 24 year old woman, in connection with a series of mugging
Robbery
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....
s. Following the arrests, the police said that they believed the "gang" were responsible "for 90 per cent of the street crime in south London over the past six months." They appeared at Camberwell Green Magistrates' Court
Camberwell
Camberwell is a district of south London, England, and forms part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is a built-up inner city district located southeast of Charing Cross. To the west it has a boundary with the London Borough of Lambeth.-Toponymy:...
on 1 June 1977, charged with various offences of "conspiracy to rob." During the hearings, some of the defendants fought with the police while spectators in the public gallery attempted to invade the court. The Lewisham 21 Defence Committee was set up soon after, and heavily criticised police tactics.
On Saturday, 2 July 1977, the Lewisham 21 Defence Committee held a demonstration in New Cross. Up to 200 National Front supporters turned out to oppose it, throwing 'rotten fruit and bags of caustic soda at marchers'. More than 80 people were arrested.
National Front march
In the following weeks, the National Front announced plans for a march from New Cross to Lewisham. Martin Webster, NF national organiser, told the press: 'We believe that the multi-racial society is wrong, is evil and we want to destroy it' . Local church leaders, Lewisham Council and the Liberal PartyLiberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
all called for the march to be banned, but Metropolitan Police
Metropolitan police
Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...
Commissioner David McNee
David McNee
Sir David Blackstock McNee, QPM was Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1977 to 1982 and Chief Constable of the City of Glasgow Police from 1971 to 1977.-Early life:...
declined to make an application to the Home Secretary for a ban to be imposed. McNee reasoned that if a ban were imposed, then this would lead to "increasing pressure" to ban similar events and would be "abdicating his responsibility in the face of groups who threaten to achieve their ends by violent means." Deputy Assistant Commissioner David Helm asked the NF if they would voluntarily abandon the march, which they refused to do. Helm also asked how they would respond if the march was banned, and received the reply that they would simply march elsewhere. This meant that any ban would have to be imposed - and subsequently manned and enforced - across the entire Metropolitan Police district, which would still not prevent the NF from marching outside of the proscribed area. A ban on marching would also not prevent the NF instead holding a static public meeting - "perhaps in provocative circumstances" - which would still attract a counter-demonstration. The police dilemma was further compounded by the limitations of the Public Order Act 1936
Public Order Act 1936
The Public Order Act 1936 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed to control extremist political movements in the 1930s such as the British Union of Fascists ....
, which granted no powers of arrest in the event that a ban was ignored.
There were political differences between anti-fascists about how best to respond, and as a result there were three distinct mobilisations for the counter-demonstration. The All Lewisham Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (ALCARAF) called for peaceful demonstration earlier on the day of the National Front march. The 13 August Ad Hoc Organising Committee, called on people to occupy the National Front's intended meeting point at Clifton Rise in New Cross.. A third organisation, the Anti Racist/Anti-Fascist Co-ordinating Committee
Campaign Against Racism and Fascism
The Campaign Against Racism and Fascism is an anti-racist group based in London with a history going back to the mid-nineteen-seventies...
(ARAFCC, the London-wide Federation of Anti-Racist/Anti-Fascist Committees, including ALCARAF) also mobilised activists from across Greater London and published leaflets and posters calling for support for the ALCARAF march and for a physical attempt to stop the NF march.
In the week before the demonstration, a meeting took place in a pub in Deptford between ARAFCC and the Socialist Workers' Party Central Committee member responsible for their mobilisation. This meeting was intended to produce an agreed joint plan (as both organisations intended to physically block the streets to stop the NF march). However, the SWP insisted that the London Ant-Fascist Committees must accept the leading role of the SWP and mobilise their supporters under the direction of the SWP appointed stewards. This demand was rejected by the ARAFCC (whose members included many veteran Anti-Fascists, some anarchists, Communist Party and YCL members and trade union activists) and thus ARAFCC appointed its own stewards and made detailed plans to combine support for the ALCARAF demonstration in the morning with a physical blockade of New Cross Road in the afternoon. Although the official position of ALCARAF was that it was only mounting a peaceful demonstration on the morning of 13 August to show public opposition to the racist march planned for that afternoon, a number of ALCARAF activists collaborated with and supported the ARAFCC plans to mobilise for two events on the day.
Saturday, 13 August 1977
At 11:30 am, the All Lewisham Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (ALCARAF) demonstration gathered in Ladywell Fields, a park in Lewisham. Over 5000 people from more than 80 organisations heard speeches by the Mayor of Lewisham, the Bishop of SouthwarkBishop of Southwark (Anglican)
The Bishop of Southwark is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Southwark in the Province of Canterbury.Until 1877, Southwark had been part of the Diocese of Winchester when it was transferred to the Diocese of Rochester...
, the exiled Bishop of Namibia
Namibia
Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...
and others . By agreement with the police the ALCARAF march halted at the top of Loampit Vale between Lewisham and New Cross. However, the Anti Racist/Anti-Fascist Co-ordinating Committee stewards encouraged many marchers to go with them through the back-streets from Loampit Vale to New Cross Road. By this means a great many people from the ALCARAF march succeeded in getting into New Cross Road and onto the route of the NF march. Meanwhile, many of the protestors mobilised by the SWP had gathered in Clifton Rise, a side-street off New Cross Road, but were then contained there by police and unable to get into the main road.
There were clashes when the police tried to move push demonstrators further down Clifton Rise, away from where the National Front demonstrators were assembling in nearby Achilles Street. Police horses were sent into the crowd, and smoke bomb
Smoke bomb
A smoke bomb is a firework designed to produce smoke upon ignition. Smoke bombs are useful to military units, airsoft games, paintball games, self defense and pranks...
s thrown.
At 3.00 pm, the police escorted National Front marchers out of Achilles Street, up Pagnell Street and into the main New Cross Road, behind a large 'Stop the Muggers' banner. Although the police had cleared a route along New Cross Road, it was still lined with a great many people (many who had come from the ALCARAF march in the morning). The marchers were pelted with bricks, smoke bombs, bottles and pieces of wood. Anti-NF demonstrators managed to briefly break through police lines and attack the back of the march, separating them from the main body. The protesters then burnt captured National Front banners.
The police separated National Front and anti-fascists, and mounted police cleared a path through the crowd attempting to block progress of march towards Deptford Broadway. Police led the march through deserted streets of Lewisham with crowds held back by road blocks over the whole area. Marchers were flanked by police three deep on either side, with 24 mounted police in front.
Meanwhile the anti-NF demonstrators, joined by increasing numbers of local people (especially youths) made their way to Lewisham Town Centre, where they blocked the High Street. Unable to meet in the town centre proper, the National Front held a short rally in a car park in Connington Road, before being led on to waiting trains by the police.
Clashes continued between the police and counter-demonstrators, the latter largely unaware that the National Front had already left the area. The police brought out riot shields for the first time in England, and baton charges and mounted police
Mounted police
Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. They continue to serve in remote areas and in metropolitan areas where their day-to-day function may be picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and...
were used in an attempt to disperse the crowd. Bricks and bottles were thrown at police and police vehicles damaged.
Ther was a brief period when the police completely lost control of the centre of Lewisham (later dubbed the People's Republic of Lewisham Clock-Tower). There was also an apparent break-down in the police chain of command, with officers driving Transit-vans at high speed up and down the High Street under a hail of bricks and bottles - until one crashed by the Railway Bridge and the police charged to prevent the injured driver from being seized by the enraged crowd. There was also some minor looting of shops and a vehicle was set on fire before police restored control of the area.
214 people were arrested and at least 111 injured.
External links
- "Lewisham '77: success or failure?" By Jenny Bourne, Institute for Race Relations, September 2007
- "A black and white glimpse of the past" by Darcus HoweDarcus HoweDarcus Howe is a British broadcaster, writer, and civil liberties campaigner. Originally from Trinidad, he moved to America in the 1960s, then arrived in England intending to study law, where he joined the British Black Panthers, the first such branch of the organization outside the United States...
, New Statesman October 2007
- "National Front march through Lewisham 1977" Eyewitness account of events