This is one of a large and intriguing collection of films made by West Yorkshire Police, going back to an Amateur boxing tournament and a police sports day, both in Wakefield in 1939.  Most of the films cover the 1960s and 1970s, with demonstrations of one kind or another prominent.  About a dozen of these cover demonstrations relating to anti-fascist activities in the 1970s, mainly in Bradford, but also in Huddersfield and Rotherham.  The YFA also has a similar collection of films from...

This is one of a large and intriguing collection of films made by West Yorkshire Police, going back to an Amateur boxing tournament and a police sports day, both in Wakefield in 1939.  Most of the films cover the 1960s and 1970s, with demonstrations of one kind or another prominent.  About a dozen of these cover demonstrations relating to anti-fascist activities in the 1970s, mainly in Bradford, but also in Huddersfield and Rotherham.  The YFA also has a similar collection of films from Humberside Police ¬– see Anti NF Protest in Bradford (1978-1979).  In fact this latter event seems to have been also filmed, separately, by the West Yorkshire Police.

Demonstrations, and counter-demonstrations, of this kind were a regular feature of the 1970s as the National Front, and a lesser extent the British Movement, sought to win support through high profile public marches and rallies.  With a high Asian immigrant population West Yorkshire was a focus for these, as it has been in more recent times. 

Dewsbury attracted immigrants in the 1950s and ‘60s to work in the shoddy industry (which was badly hit in the recession of the 1970s).  Most of these came from the Indian province of Gujarat, settling mainly in Savile Town, making up 70% of its population.  The other 30 per cent have Pakistani origins.   See the interesting article on the community and its struggles by Dewsbury born Richard Donkin (‘Moslims in Dewsbury’, 2006, References – note the different spelling, that some contend denotes an anti-Muslim stance, though clearly it doesn’t in this case). 

Rather surprisingly, one might think, the war against Nazi Germany didn’t put too much of a dent in the ambitions of British fascists.  Under the leadership of Jeffrey Hamm, they re-grouped, and along with Oswald Mosley, they launched the Union Movement in 1947.  Despite the millions of Jews killed in concentration camps (which Mosely denied), they kept up a virulent anti-Semitism, alongside their virulent anti-trade unionism.  However, Mosely steered the UM towards the novel position of a racist united Europe, a policy that put it outside the rest of the British far right, and of the founding of the National Front in 1967 - see Dave Renton, References.

Apart from identifying those attending the demonstrations, the police would probably use the films to hone their own tactics in response to them.   Although the police had been used to trade union demonstrations, and those for specific campaigns, like the CND and anti-Vietnam marches, large scale clashes between fascists and anti-fascists hadn’t been seen since the 1930s.  The two most well-known of those, at Olympia in 1934 and Cable Street in 1936, have been seen as victories by anti-fascists.  As a result of these the Public Order Act of 1936 was introduced, outlawing, among other things, the wearing of political uniforms in public places.  Because the National Front were organised as a march, it was invariably the protesters who fell foul of the police.  Some examples can be seen of this in the film, although the initial events prompting the arrests are not seen.

It is noticeable that the police are rather less protected than they often are today: riot shields weren’t used by British police outside of Northern Ireland until the so-called Battle of Lewisham on 13 August 1977, when a National Front march from New Cross to Lewisham in southeast London met with a large opposing demonstration.   Nevertheless, there are mounted police; often used to clear a path for National Front marches.  Criticisms were often levelled at the police for being excessively heavy handed in their treatment of those opposing the National Front – the Monitoring Group (an anti-racist charity that promotes civil rights, and which has an office in Bradford) still reports such complaints.   Many agree with the claim of Paul Lewis that, “the Met pioneered the use of kettling in the late 1990s.”  But something very close to this tactic, of containment, was used in the 1970s to keep the two warring sides apart; although it is not in evidence in this film. 

One reason for the clashes was the position of ‘no platform’ taken by many anti-fascists, as it still is.  This view is based on the idea that fascism should not be given the opportunity to spread their propaganda, and that in any case their extreme views disqualify any entitlement to free speech.  Both aspects of this position – as a tactic and as a principle – are contested by others, who see this position as misguided and dangerous.  The whole issue was resurrected when the British National Party leader, Nick Griffin, appeared on Question Time in 2010 – prompting a recent opera on the experience with a libretto by fellow panellist Bonnie Greer.

This demonstration in Dewsbury takes place before the formation of the Anti-Nazi League in 1977.  This signalled a significant change in tact by many anti-fascists, principally the Socialist Workers Party, who now took a softer line, drawing in the support of well-known figures such as Jack Charlton, Michael Parkinson and Dave Allen.  As can be seen in the home-made placards that the demonstrators are carrying – and of course in the name of the Anti-Nazi League – the hope was that in associating the National Front with Hitler and Nazism their appeal would be limited.   Whether or not this works, their successor, the BNP (whose leader Nick Griffin was a young NF member at the time), have tried to conceal such associations. Today, it is more likely to be the English Defence League (EDL) that organises street demonstrations.   For more background on British fascism, and the clashes with anti-fascists in the 1970s, see also the Context for Anti NF Protest in Bradford (1978-1979), and especially the work of Dave Renton, who has done more than anyone else to provide a history of this.

Alongside the NF marches racist attacks rose in the 1970s. Although there is little in the way of reliable figures on racial violence in the 1970s, anyone who was around at the time will remember the ‘Paki-bashing’.  Indeed, the real picture on racial violence and harassment is difficult to gauge as so much goes unreported (not least because of a distrust of the police).   Even what counts as a racist attack is contentious.   The Macpherson Report of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry of 1999 defined it as, ‘any incident which is perceived to be racist by the victim or any other person.’ 

But tensions in race relations were hardly a new phenomenon in the 1970s. Anti-Semitism has a very long and shameful history; and as the recent BBC's Mixed Race season, presented by George Alagiah, highlighted, mixed race couples in Britain were given a rough time throughout the last century.  The Institute for Race Relations (IRR) was formed in 1958, with a view to the international as well as the domestic situation.  In the year following this film, the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) was set up by the 1976 Race Relations Act, under the auspices of the Home Office (subsequently merging with other organisations in 2007 to become the Equality and Human Rights Commission).

The whole issue of immigration and multi-racial society is of course highly emotive, and sharply polarises people.   At the heart of the events seen in the film lies racism: a complex phenomenon that runs throughout much of history and much of the world.  Indeed, in its less extreme forms, it isn’t always easy to detect.  It often hides behind a Christian cloak, even though many Christians see Jesus as being nothing if not profoundly anti-racist.  To avoid the charge racism some, like the EDL, prefer to be explicitly anti-Muslim, or claim that they just want to protect ‘English values’ or traditions.   At a time of sharply rising unemployment, and when few can get onto the housing ladder, it is no surprise that resentment is aimed at those who are most visible.   Sections of the media have been accused of misrepresentations that fuel resentment and hatred, and which aid a hidden political agenda.  Some point to the polarisation into insular communities as being a real hindrance to developing better relations.

But of course this was much more than just differences in belief.  For those who happened to be born with a different colour skin life could be hell; daily facing a hostile world at best, and at worse verbal abuse and physical violence.  There can be little doubt that organisations like the NF helped to stir up this hatred:  as evidenced by this quote from Martin Webster, NF national organiser, 'We believe that the multi-racial society is wrong, is evil and we want to destroy it' (the South London Press, 2 August 1977, cited in Wikipedia). 

In this regard there has been some improvement after the 1999 Macpherson Report of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry: although this too has been criticised as inadequate by the Lawrence family.   The IRR (which has been monitoring deaths from racial attacks from the 1970s) notes that today victims are often refugees, asylum seekers, migrant workers and overseas students.  Ten years ago a report by the Observer found that race attacks are almost 10 times more likely to happen in rural areas.  In 2010 the Institute of Race Relations released a report on summer race attacks, often alcohol related, detailing 37 racist attacks between July and August, especially against takeaway workers, those using public transport and Muslims.  Four of these were in West Yorkshire, two in Bradford.

Organisations like Hope Not Hate and the English Disco Lovers (EDL) are trying to ensure that we don’t see a return to the kind of regular and open race hatred witnessed in the 1970s.  Certainly open racism is much less tolerated, and so some progress has been made.  But this is little comfort to those still on the receiving end.  Since 9/11 much of the focus of hostility has been towards Muslims – disregarding the major divisions among Muslims – as documented by Islamophobia Watch (References).   Other organisations, like the Monitoring Group, try to keep track of continuing racist violence, and many argue that racism is still far too prevalent in the police and law courts.  There have been many studies unpicking the economic, social and psychological roots of racism.  Clearly all of these need to be addressed; but there are no easy answers. 

References

Richard Donkin, Moslims in Dewsbury
Dave Renton ’s History of fascism in Britain
Dave Renton, An Unbiased Watch? The Police and Fascist/Anti-Fascist Street Conflict in Britain, 1945-1951
The Monitoring Group
The Institute of Race Relations, Racial Violence: The Buried Issue
Racism and race crime redefined
Paul Lewis, A history of police kettling
Hope Not Hate
Islamophobia Watch