Talk:Blair Peach
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page. | ||
| Start | This article has been rated as start-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ] | ||
It was a little more serious than
...a demonstration by the Anti-Nazi League against a National Front election meeting taking place in the town hall.
The local Asian population were very vocal in their opposition to the meeting (and it should be noted that the area the candidates were being chosen to represent was nowhere near Southall, and was part of then NF policy to hold contentious meetings in areas of high non-white populations to both gain media coverage and to intimidate the locals) and attempted to physically stop NF members from gaining access to the hall. The NF were unprepared for the level of hostility and physical threat, being used to intimidating other ethnic groups who did not have the traditions of the local Pathan/Pashtun derived population, and called in the police. The arrival of the Special Patrol Group, notorious in their application of force against non-Middle Class/white groups (my opinion based on observation), precipitated a riot. Peach was struck during this phrase. Further and more intense rioting resulted in the aftermath of his reported death. This was primarily between the local Asian population, together with sympathisers and other locals against the police, who were regarded as part of a racist, reactionary, State apparatus. The NF were very little in evidence after the initial trouble.
Whilst Peach is notable, and worthy of his own article, the premise behind the protests, and why they turned into days and nights of rioting, and the subsequent results (the SPG was serverely criticised, and eventually disbanded, and the NF were banned from holding meetings outside of constituencies they were contesting and also declined as a political force). As such, I think an article titled Southall Riots should be created, detailing all of the above. I am not, however, the person to write it - I would not be able to contain my bias' toward both the event and the political/cultural landscape of the time. LessHeard vanU 21:02, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Peach was not assassinated
Assassination requires the targeting of an indivudual - Peach was killed by policemen who believed that it was sufficient that he was agitating for the removal of the NF from the area, and was therefore a legitimate case for a swinging truncheon. (very personal rant follows) Anyway, the SPG were too thick a bunch of racist thugs to be able to target an individual.(rant ends). LessHeard vanU 12:41, 24 August 2007 (UTC)
