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 shields for the first time outside of Northern Ireland.
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In the mid-1970s New Cross and surrounding areas of south London became the focus of intense and sometimes violent political activity by neo-Nazis 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 unions 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 muggings. 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."[1][2] 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.[3] The Lewisham 21 Defence Committee was set up soon after, and heavily criticised police tactics.[4]
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.[5]
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' [6]. Local church leaders, Lewisham Council and the Liberal Party 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.[7][8] 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."[9] 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.[9]
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.[10]. 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.
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 Southwark, the exiled Bishop of Namibia and others [11]. 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 bombs thrown.[12]
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.[11]
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.[11]
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.[13]
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.[14]
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.[13]
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