25 years after the Battle of Lewisham

Monday August 12, 2002 17:31

by Hazel Croft - Socialist Worker

13 August 1977- The day we beat the Nazis

THE BATTLE of Lewisham, which took place 25 years ago this month, was a decisive turning point in the fight against the Nazis in Britain. On 13 August 1977 over 10,000 people-black and white, old and young, women and men-joined together to physically confront the Nazis and stop them from marching. The battle showed how the Nazis could be driven off the streets and it marked the beginning of a mass campaign to smash the Nazis.

The Nazi National Front (NF) wanted to march through the racially mixed area of Lewisham in south London to demonstrate their power. In the 1970s the NF had grown from a tiny fascist organisation to threaten to overtake the Liberals as the third party in British politics. The Nazis were able to feed off people's disillusionment with the then Labour government. Workers' wages had been slashed by 7 percent and unemployment had reached what was then a record 1.6 million.

In 1976 in a by-election in West Bromwich the NF candidate Martin Webster had got 16.2 percent of the vote. In May 1977 the Nazis had gained 119,000 votes in the elections to the Greater London Council-more than the Liberals. In some areas the NF gained over a fifth of the vote.

The Nazis were given confidence by a vicious racist campaign by politicians and the media during 1976, against 250 Asians who had been kicked out of Malawi in Africa. This witch-hunt encouraged the Nazis. At least four Asians were murdered in east London by white gangs in the following two years. The Nazis wanted to harden up their electoral support and whip up a climate of fear against black and Asian people. In the weeks leading up to 13 August the Nazis attacked a series of black and left wing meetings.

They threw deadly weedkiller into a woman's face as she attended a street meeting of the black defence group the Lewisham 21 Defence Committee. The group was set up after 21 black youths were arrested in what the police called Operation Police Nigger Hunt. On 13 August there were two counter-demonstrations against the NF march. The first was called by the Lewisham Campaign Against Racism. This included various dignitaries, trade union officials and the local bishop. The demonstration assembled two hours before the Nazis were due to meet, and on the other side of Lewisham.

The organisers agreed with police instructions to disband the march well away from the Nazis' meeting point. Leaders of the Communist Party, then a much bigger force, also ordered their members to keep away from the Nazis' assembly point. This would have left the Nazis free to march and to gain even more confidence for future attacks.

Socialist Workers Party members, along with the Lewisham 21 Defence Committee, argued that people should block the NF march. This strategy drew on the battles against the fascists in the 1930s that had culminated in the Battle of Cable Street. Then demonstrators physically prevented the Nazis from marching. The second demonstration assembled at Clifton Rise, where the Nazis were due to meet.

Some 5,000 people from outside the area united with a similar number of local people to confront the Nazis. Many of those on the first march came to join the confrontation. There were so many people blocking the streets that the NF marchers could not assemble in Clifton Rise. Instead they were forced into a miserable backstreet, protected by thousands of police.

The counter-demo was a wonderful example of black and white unity. Socialist writer Dave Widgery later described the scene: "As the police prepared their charge, an Afro-Caribbean woman who had been watching from the top floor of her home hoisted her hi-fi speaker onto her windowsill. It was playing Bob Marley's 'Get Up, Stand Up'. Almost directly opposite her a Cypriot woman replied with a clenched-fist salute from the first floor of her boarded-up kebab and chip shop. Two minutes later an officer with a megaphone read an order to disperse. No one did."

The police defended the Nazis. They were allowed through police cordons if they showed their NF membership cards. By contrast the police tested new methods of crowd control by indiscriminately attacking and breaking up lines of anti-Nazi protesters. But instead of running away, anti-Nazi demonstrators fought back and threw sticks and smoke-bombs over the police and into the Nazi marchers. Protesters continually blocked the Nazis as they tried to march through the backstreets.

On at least two occasions protesters broke through police lines and seized and burned Nazi banners. The Nazis were routed. After crawling round the backstreets the NF eventually had to disperse with less than half their route completed. When this news reached the anti-Nazi protesters a huge cry of "We stopped the Front" rang out.

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Nazi leaders were foiled

"THE NAZI Front got the hammering of their lives on Saturday. Black people and trade unionists, old and young, 14 year olds and veterans of Cable Street, Rastafarians and Millwall supporters, Labour Party members and revolutionary socialists-all joined in against the Nazis.

The leaders of the Nazis want to build a mass movement based on widespread racial prejudice so as to take command of the streets. They believe they would then be able to attack, burn out and murder black people and trade unionists at will. They have been foiled."

SOCIALIST WORKER, 20 August 1977

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How a movement grew to stop NF

THE REACTION of the press and mainstream politicians to the magnificent anti-Nazi demonstration, however, was a disgrace. They did not condemn the Nazis or heavy policing, but blamed all the violence on the anti-fascists. Labour Party leaders made disgusting statements.

Michael Foot, then deputy leader of the Labour Party, said, "You don't stop the Nazis by throwing bottles or bashing the police. The most ineffective way of fighting the fascists is to behave like them." Bob Chamberlain, the West Midlands organiser for the Labour Party, called the SWP "red fascists".

But despite the hostile barrage from politicians and press, the Battle of Lewisham launched the start of a mass campaign to smash the NF. It showed ordinary people that with united action the Nazis could be beaten back. Dave Widgery described the impact: "The black community, who had successfully defended their patch, had had a glimpse of a white anti-racist feeling which was much bigger and more militant than the liberal community-relations tea parties might suggest. Every little racist was made smaller. Many people who had reservations about direct action found themselves regretting they had not been there too."

The Anti Nazi League (ANL) was set up shortly after Lewisham. The ANL combined physically confronting the Nazis wherever they raised their head, with powerful propaganda exposing the NF as the heirs of Adolf Hitler. It produced hundreds of thousands of badges and leaflets against the Nazis. A declaration against the NF was signed by hundreds of well known people-from musicians to MPs, trade union leaders to footballers.

There was a flourishing of local anti-Nazi groups in workplaces, colleges and schools around Britain. The same young people targeted by the Nazis as potential supporters were drawn into a movement that fought the fascists. In schools across Britain it became popular to wear anti-Nazi badges. The ANL, along with bands and musicians in Rock Against Racism, also organised three hugely successful carnivals with the top punk and new wave bands of the day.

The first carnival was in April 1978. Some 80,000 people marched from central London through the East End, to join thousands more at a carnival in Victoria Park. The carnival helped transform the atmosphere in the Nazis' stronghold area of east London and throughout the rest of Britain.

By the general election in 1979 the Nazis' vote had fallen to just 1.3 percent. And in the 1981 Greater London Council elections, the Nazis got just 2.1 percent of the vote compared to 5.7 percent in 1977. The NF's national organiser, Martin Webster, admitted in 1981, "The sheer presence of the ANL had made it impossible to get NF members on the streets, had dashed recruitment and cut away at their vote."

Today we once again face the threat of the Nazis, as people feel totally let down by a Labour government that seems to offer them nothing. The Nazi BNP got three councillors elected in Burnley in May and hopes to grow by feeding off people's disillusion. The experience of the 1970s shows that with a mass campaign that exposes and confronts the Nazis we can kick them back to the sewers they came from.

For more information on the Anti Nazi League phone 020 7924 0333 or go to www.anl.org.uk