Fascist gang in Sou
Socialist Organiser1981 1981-07-11Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 7 →
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FACED with a vicious racist provocation from marauding gangs of fascists, , protected by the police, the Asian youth of Southall last Friday (3rd) took the only course open to them -they mobilised to defend their community and to drive out the racists.
Darshanlal Kalhan, an Asian whose shop was attacked and family threatened by racist skinheads, summed it up: 'Whatever our boys did, it was purely in self-defence. It was an unprovoked attack. There will be no foolish action from our people, but it anyone comes again and tries the same thing, God help them. We can control our children so far, but no further"
The trouble started as skinheads — many wearing swastikas and National Front regalia - converged on Southall for a "gig' (in reality a thinlydisguised fascist rally) featuring a well-known racist band, the '4 Skins' at the Hambrough Tavern.
As they walked up the Broadway, Southall's main street, they began smashing shop windows and abusing Asians.
Black youth reacted swiftly to defend their community, and it was only then that the police arrived in force — clearly determined to protect the racists. As the blacks lay siege to the Hambrough, the racists shouted Nazi slogans and hurled stones irom behind the police lines.
As it became clear that the blacks were not prepared to allow the racist 'gig to continue, the police "escorted skinheads away from the pub and many of them into nearby Delamere Road, a quiet residential street. There, about 50 skinheads ran riot, while a police cordon kept angry Asians away at the top of the Delamere Road.
"'They were running up and down asking where the Indians lived' said a white resident; (Sunday Times).
The racists would certainly have smashed through whole areas of Southall had not more Asian youth, some armed with molotov cocktails, arrived.
But it was not a race riot' '. The battle was between the young Asians on one side and the racists and their guardians in blue, on the other. White residents were not attacked, and black and white people cooperated in putting out fires.
As in Coventry, the black community of Southall has realised that they cannot place any reliance on the police to defend them from racists.
Increasingly blacks especially Asian youth — are gaining in confidence and organising their own defence.
It is up to the labour movement to mobilise support for this, and to cooperate with the organisations of the black communities to build workers' defence squads.