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Rubika Shah’s documentary profiles punky reggae protest movement Rock Against Racism, from grassroots beginnings through to a major multicultural event.
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00:04:08In the evenings we'd rehearse at my studio and the day I'd be a working photographer
00:04:12I
00:04:14Was asked by NME would he come down and photograph the punk night?
00:04:18Here I am down the ice jay and suddenly the clash come on and bang!
00:04:22Bang!
00:04:3215 minutes of unbelievable energy and power and volume and lyrics about unemployment and youth alienation and like Jesus Christ and then they were gone and they were off.
00:04:44The economic situation was really bad, the IMF had moved in, they were putting pressure on wage cuts and social services cuts.
00:04:58The whole atmosphere was really dark and hard.
00:05:04The right wing press playing the same old tune, we're gonna be swamped, we're gonna be mobbed.
00:05:08To
00:05:10To
00:05:12Where would you repatriate those immigrants who were born here?
00:05:16To where they wanted to go.
00:05:18In most cases they are the citizens of their countries of origin.
00:05:22Although born in this country.
00:05:24A person would be physically seized and deported,
00:05:28like a person being taken on board Madison's ships of war at the end of the 18th century.
00:05:38So where would you draw the line Mr. Powell?
00:05:42I'd draw it short of that.
00:05:50The National Front were growing incredibly.
00:05:53Webster was a clever organizer, he started a march in the right places, make the right noises.
00:05:59They were, as they said, kicking their way onto the headlines.
00:06:07Keep our country free from invasion when the invaders have got black, brown and yellow bases.
00:06:15I was talking to Red in the pub.
00:06:33We were both really concerned about the rise of the National Front.
00:06:37Especially around my area, in Walthamstow.
00:06:41They were using the usual scapegoats, Asians, blacks, whatever.
00:06:51And so we said what we need to do is do a gig, a thing called Rock Against Racism.
00:06:57Also Bowery was coming out with a load of crap as well at the time.
00:07:01And then Clapton came out with all that racist shit in Birmingham.
00:07:17We all know of Eric Clapton as the great blues guitarist, the god hero of blues guitar.
00:07:23Blues that came out of slavery and here he is supporting the man, Enoch Powell, who's the greatest supporter of white supremacy in Britain at that time.
00:07:33At first we just didn't believe it.
00:07:35I was so angry about it, I just went, we've got to do something about this.
00:07:49I have the answer.
00:08:01When we read about Eric Clapton's Birmingham concert where he heard support for Enoch Powell, we nearly puked.
00:08:07Come on Eric, you're rock music's biggest colonialist.
00:08:21We want to organise a rank and file movement against the racist poisoning music.
00:08:27We urge support for rock against racism.
00:08:31P.S. Who shot the sheriff, Eric?
00:08:35Sure as hell wasn't you, mate.
00:08:43I just went, I've got to send it to all the music press.
00:08:46About two weeks later, it was published.
00:08:57I saw Red's letter in the NME.
00:09:09I wrote back to Red quite quickly and he wrote back to me and invited me along to a meeting.
00:09:16One rainy night, I went over to the East End and the people in the room were artists and writers and political activists.
00:09:35It was immediate.
00:09:36I thought this is a gang I'd like to join.
00:09:46I was going into the print shop fairly regularly.
00:09:49There was Sid and Ruth, so they naturally gravitated and the energy and the excitement of it and the potential of it was what pulled all these people on board.
00:10:05Sid, he'd been a documentary style photographer in Australia, so it was quite natural when he came here to London that he would have his camera with him.
00:10:16I thought we should get it.
00:10:19Ruth really knew what she was doing.
00:10:21She had the graphic sensibility and power that synced right in to the punk explosion.
00:10:33This photograph comes out of ID Magazine and I have whited it out, I think using Tippex, probably.
00:10:46This is the very first fanzine we ever did.
00:10:53I had the idea of temporary hoarding because it said it so well, it was like a street hoarding, you know, like a rough thing in the street.
00:10:59Then purely by accident, the word raw happened to be in temporary, which was great.
00:11:02It was very much a kind of cut and paste kind of approach.
00:11:09I found this quote from Rod Stewart. I really like Rod Stewart.
00:11:12He says, I think Enoch Power is the man. I'm for him. This country is overcrowded. The immigrants should be sent home. That's it.
00:11:20This is the man who just moved to Los Angeles, you know. I mean, the man's so full of shit. And I got rid of all his albums and I haven't listened to him since, which is a great shame.
00:11:29We were interested in the idea of people being able to express themselves and that the expression itself was a political act.
00:11:40Dr. David Whitchery, who was one of our great supporters in the early days, he wrote these words. It's like a little mini one paragraph manifesto.
00:11:51We want rebel music, street music, music that breaks down people's fear of one another, crisis music, now music, music that knows who the real enemy is, love music, hate racism.
00:12:06It was a scary moment because punk could have gone either way. Some of the bands did have NF following.
00:12:27The NF were selling their newspapers outside kids' schools. They were recruiting on the streets.
00:12:36Most fights which happen in school are caused by racism, right? It's not just by jealousy or hate or something which clocks up between them. It's mostly racism.
00:12:49I just think the National Front wants someone to blame for what's happening to the country at the moment.
00:12:54The whole point of Ride, we're trying to put some bit of doubt. Are you really NF? Are you really someone who wants no future? This isn't martial music. This is the roots of this, the ska. They're black music.
00:13:09I went down to this club in Peckham, and I was the only white person in the whole place who never was going, who's this fucking bloke?
00:13:22I met this man, Red Saunders. And he was like, talking sense. You know, he was like, we've got to get together. We've got to build something that we're all proud of.
00:13:37We've got to try and stamp out this ugly demon that's coming into our community. And the only way to do it is to bring people together.
00:13:47You don't mind the white kids coming along?
00:13:50No, well, that's the idea, you see. Reggae is for everyone. You know, it's not just for black people. It's for white people. It's for yellow people, green people. It's for people, you know?
00:14:01There was this incredible cultural explosion going on, which we're really lucky for us in Ra, because we were fans of all this.
00:14:08We stepped on the trains, like there's a railway station, the train pulls in, the doors open, the punks get on and all the reggae bands get on and bang.
00:14:16And bang.
00:14:19This is the first Ra gig with Mutumbi, Dennis Bovell.
00:14:37Dennis Bovell.
00:14:38That was a hell of a line-up that night. There's a brilliant punk band called 999.
00:14:44You like the way I do it.
00:14:45To me, they had the energy of the clash and the outrageousness of the Sex Pistols.
00:14:51The Royal College authorities went bonkers, because people were hanging off the rafters and the balconies.
00:14:54And they had the energy of the Sex Pistols.
00:14:59The Royal College authorities went bonkers, because people were hanging off the rafters and the balconies.
00:15:06999 came with white working-class punks.
00:15:13Always have black and white bands together to break down the fear, because the NF is trading on nothing but fear.
00:15:20That's why it was so important for Ra to have its own political voice with its own fanzine.
00:15:27So temporary hoarding was able to go a bit further than just anti-racism.
00:15:34And I claim that in the ranks of our Black-Serk legions, the Royal College, the Royal College did not require the Royal College to bring down the fear.
00:15:41And we have to break down the fear, because the NF is trading on nothing but fear.
00:15:45That's why it was so important for Ra to have its own political voice with its own fanzine.
00:15:49So temporary hoarding was able to go a bit further than just anti-racism.
00:15:52And I claim that in the ranks of our Black-Serk legions, the King of the Royal College,
00:16:03legend, not the mighty ghosts of England's past.
00:16:22In this country, in 15 or 20 years time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.
00:16:34Britain, mother of the Empire, has had to welcome in her children and to allow them to settle.
00:16:39They have not been allowed to settle in a dignified manner.
00:16:43And because the blacks have refused to accept indignity and victimage, Britain is stuck with a rebellious black presence in its centers.
00:16:52We challenged ideas of empire, this subjugation of people all over the world, partition in India, the attitudes of the British as a dominant force, a superior race.
00:17:13My dad worked for the crown agents of the old British Empire.
00:17:23I was brought up as a kid in West Africa, in Nigeria.
00:17:30I remember the extraordinary nature of white supremacy with the European clubs.
00:17:37I mean, there was a sort of unofficial apartheid running through the entire system.
00:17:44My dad had reported the Prague Spring in 1968, when a lot of writers and artists had tried to take on the Soviets.
00:17:52And my mum, for instance, had come from America, had been involved in the civil rights movements.
00:18:04I emigrated to Australia in 1960.
00:18:07Some of that time I spent on an island called Palm Island.
00:18:12It was a situation of complete apartheid.
00:18:19We didn't go to school with the Aboriginal children.
00:18:22They had their own school.
00:18:24On my mother's side of the family, my grandmother was a suffragette.
00:18:32So I have at least two generations behind me of activism.
00:18:39The 2008 puppet must go Uisi Sustainable Ce direation to Europe.
00:18:45We'reיließц on the national period which was part of the way we hadn't completed exile.
00:18:54We've got to send the blacks back.
00:19:00We're going to send the blacks back.
00:19:04The Front believe as Hitler's Nazis did,
00:19:06that white Europeans are naturally superior to other people
00:19:10and that the white race has got to be preserved.
00:19:15Britain would be taken out of the common market
00:19:17and new links forged with white Rhodesia and South Africa.
00:19:24Part of what Ra was doing was trying to think about racism
00:19:27in terms of it is a white problem and the idea
00:19:30that we were all still living consciously or unconsciously
00:19:33with the legacy of colonialism.
00:19:49I've got a sort of nutter talking to these native wallets.
00:19:52Get on with that punker and you prize-eating burke.
00:19:57I wish to make a complaint against a Nignog.
00:20:00Move next door, that's what he's done.
00:20:04What do you mean? Is that all?
00:20:13Extreme races have become part of balance,
00:20:16an acceptable point of view within the spectrum of political opinions.
00:20:20Can you imagine the media displaying the rhetoric of, say, black revolutionaries?
00:20:24I hope to achieve, through the ballot box, by getting people elected,
00:20:30first of all an immediate halt to coloured immigration
00:20:33and thereafter the phased repatriation of all coloured immigrants,
00:20:37their descendants and dependents, from Britain to their lands of ethnic origin.
00:20:41And if they don't go, they're going to go.
00:20:46What will happen if they don't want to go back?
00:20:48And he said, don't you worry, they're going back.
00:20:51Then we enter cattle trains and, you know, we know what that means, you know what I mean?
00:20:55Rock against racism was white people finally waking up to the fact that,
00:21:04oh my God, there's racism here.
00:21:07Ha! Please, you know, black people were living it.
00:21:10The front got their best results in Bethnal Greenham Bow,
00:21:22where they polled 19.2% of the vote,
00:21:25and in Hackney South, where they took 19%.
00:21:40The National Front is a Nazi Front!
00:21:44Smash the National Front!
00:21:48The focus was then absolutely on the proper organised politics.
00:22:01Kate Webb was the youngest person who came to work full-time in the RAR office.
00:22:07We were absolutely overwhelmed.
00:22:10We were getting sackfuls of mail,
00:22:12and Red and the other photographers let me have a desk.
00:22:18I used to corral gangs of people.
00:22:21We'd sit there with letters strewn all around the floor,
00:22:24all of us picking up letters, reading them out aloud,
00:22:27and just writing back as quickly as we could.
00:22:31Your kiss so sweet
00:22:34Your sweat so sour
00:22:37Sometimes I'm thinking that I love you
00:22:40But I know it's only lust
00:22:42It was the anti-racist enthusiasm, the commitment to people,
00:22:44to the horror of possibility that we may have a National Front administration.
00:22:46Sweat's running down your neck
00:22:55Heated couplings in the sun
00:22:58I remember getting a letter from a kid in Aberystwyth,
00:23:01who said, my school teachers are fascists.
00:23:03They're so sweet
00:23:04Say, Ted in Bogneregius, you know, Ted who was 14 and going to school in Bogneregius,
00:23:06and we would say, dear Ted, there is no Ra group in Bogneregius, but you are now Bogneregius Ra.
00:23:18I always knew it would
00:23:20You know the change would do you good
00:23:22You know the change would do you good
00:23:24You know the change would do you good
00:23:26You know the change would do you good
00:23:27You know the change would do you good
00:23:29You know the change would do you good
00:23:35You know the change would do you good
00:23:37You know the change would do you good
00:23:49Damaged goods
00:23:52Send them back
00:23:55I can't work, I can't achieve
00:23:57This was a coup for temporary hoarding at that time.
00:24:18We're working on temporary hoarding, we're working on the next gig.
00:24:27The Rock Against Racism banner that's here and here is rail-on, ironed on.
00:24:35I mean, that's the way, you know, it's all hands-on guerrilla activities.
00:24:40I'm kissing you goodbye, I'm kissing you goodbye, I'm kissing you goodbye.
00:24:59We used to do a gig guide and it would be instructions to the VAR group who were in Lowestoff or Leeds or wherever they were.
00:25:16If you're going to put a gig, this is what you do.
00:25:18Make sure you control the stage, at no point do you let anybody else get to the microphone.
00:25:29We're opposed to the idea of the National Front in there, and we want to sort of stop it at the beginning, at schools in there.
00:25:53Come and join the discussion about what we can do to fight the Nazi National Front in schools.
00:26:02See there, we are black, we are white, we are dynamite.
00:26:05School kids against the Nazis can.
00:26:08I went to a Rock Against Racism gig, and at the end there was black and white people with fists like this, shouting black and white unite.
00:26:20I got some literature from a friend, and I just realised what the National Front were up to.
00:26:29Swamper, better call the rat catch a swamper, we're an alien culture.
00:26:35Swamper, better call the rat catch a swamper, we're an alien culture.
00:26:41Swamper, better call the rat catch a swamper, we're an alien culture.
00:26:46Swamper.
00:26:50Swamper.
00:26:51Warrior, warrior, warrior
00:26:56Warrior in Woolworths
00:27:01Humble he makes it
00:27:04The idea of our winner
00:27:06Thirsty cloths and he skins
00:27:10He's a rebel on the underground
00:27:14She's a rebel of a mother town
00:27:17He's a rebel on the underground
00:27:20She was one of the first artists that talked about
00:27:24Things that people never ever talked about
00:27:37She had fashioned something for herself
00:27:41The common way that black females
00:27:44Are supposed to present themselves
00:27:46Is with plenty of flesh
00:27:48And you know some exotic ripe berry somewhere
00:27:52So one of the current problems at the moment
00:27:55Is identity
00:27:57I think everybody's looking desperately
00:27:59To try and identify with one thing
00:28:01Instead of themselves
00:28:03The school I went to, right?
00:28:04All the kids are supposed to sort of like be factory prodder
00:28:07You know that sort of stuff
00:28:08And like the school's sort of built
00:28:11It's a real depressing school and that
00:28:12And you go there, you don't learn nothing
00:28:13All you're sort of like working for is just to go into the factory room
00:28:15And you go there, you don't learn nothing
00:28:16All you're sort of like working for is just to go into the factory room
00:28:17Which is round the corner
00:28:18Which is round the corner
00:28:19Are there any lot of your fans on the doll?
00:28:20I mean do they feel the same thing
00:28:22And you go there, you don't learn nothing
00:28:23All you're sort of like working for is just to go into the factory room
00:28:25The school I went to, right, all the kids are supposed to sort of, like, be factory prodger,
00:28:32you know, that sort of stuff. And, like, the school's sort of built. It's a real depressing
00:28:37school, isn't it? And you go there, you don't learn nothing. All you're sort of, like, working
00:28:41for is just to go into the factory, which is round the corner.
00:28:45Are there a lot of your fans on the Dole? I mean, do they feel the same way?
00:28:50Well, I mean, if there was jobs, then they wouldn't be on the Dole. And maybe we'd be
00:28:54singing about love and kissing or something.
00:29:02There's all kinds of historical references within the layout.
00:29:05Their thinking was partly to turn them into a gang of outlaws. You know the famous
00:29:10pictures of the James gang? So it's partly that, that they're all in their coffins
00:29:14and their outlaws, but also it's a famous reference back to the 1871 Paris Commune,
00:29:21where they lined up all the communards as they killed them.
00:29:30Temporary hauling was sold mostly at gigs and demonstrations.
00:29:34And when we had enough money to produce a new issue, then we'd produce a new one.
00:29:38Notting Hill Carnival
00:29:50Ah. Me and my beloved.
00:29:56That is Nottinghill Carnival
00:29:57Hill Carnival in the Year of Heavy Manors, which must have been 1977.
00:30:13Contemporary hoarding tried to pick up specific issues.
00:30:16This is a good one here about sus laws.
00:30:21At that time there was a massive amount of police picking up black youth and there's
00:30:25a great quote here, it says, sus, on a date unknown you did conspire with people unknown
00:30:32to rob people unknown.
00:30:39All it needed was the police officer's word against yours and the magistrate would send
00:30:43you down.
00:30:45It was used, as my friend Lyndon Cressie Johnson says, unscrupulously against us.
00:30:55I'll try, I'll try it here.
00:31:10No, come here.
00:31:14You were warned by your parents, if you're going out, be in before ten o'clock.
00:31:37If we were going to a club and someone didn't turn up, the first thing we thought of,
00:31:43let's check out the local police station.
00:31:46Because that journey between the house and wherever you're going, the venue,
00:31:50could be intercepted by the police.
00:31:53And then the challenge was to get them out of the police station,
00:31:57because staying overnight in the police station was also a dangerous affair.
00:32:06I was a radiographer at that time.
00:32:08I was stuck in the back of a car.
00:32:10I was taken to the local department store.
00:32:14And to this day, I always wonder what would have happened
00:32:17if the two white women who came to look at me through the window
00:32:21had said, yes, that's her, how my life might have evolved.
00:32:40The police came to a club where I was having a sound clash.
00:32:46They were coming out of the toilets, so they say, with a prisoner that they had arrested in the toilets.
00:32:51And the audience saw fit to free the prisoner.
00:32:55They then accused me of standing on the stage with a microphone saying,
00:33:04get the boys in blue.
00:33:07At the end of six months' trial at the Old Bailey,
00:33:11I was sentenced to three years.
00:33:14And after six months in Wormwood Scrubs,
00:33:17my appeal comes up and I win.
00:33:18And I'm told, off you go and think yourself lucky
00:33:21that you didn't have to spend three years in prison.
00:33:25For something you didn't do?
00:33:26Absolutely.
00:33:27Absolutely.
00:33:48Webster, being a clever bastard,
00:34:00designed a march to go right through an area of immigrants and ethnic minorities,
00:34:06you know, a black area of London.
00:34:11We arrived quite early that morning.
00:34:13He went, wow, this is a community that's going to defend itself.
00:34:30I must put you now disgust that in fact permission has been given today
00:34:37to the fascists, to the National Front, to march down the streets of Lewisham.
00:34:43There was a lot of messing around
00:34:48where people didn't really know who was where or what.
00:34:51And there was these continual things.
00:34:52They're coming now, they're coming, everybody get ready.
00:34:54You know, no, no, no, they're not, no, they're not.
00:34:55Yes, they're coming now, right.
00:34:57It was very, very frightening.
00:35:01The only chance today is National Front, nothing else.
00:35:06Take orders from the police.
00:35:08No back-to-end with the opposition.
00:35:10No leaving the column for fight.
00:35:14There's no chanting except for National Front.
00:35:17Have you got that?
00:35:22National Front, National Front, National Front, National Front, National Front.
00:35:29National Front, National Front, National Front.
00:35:33National Front, National Front, National Front, National Front.
00:35:36National Front, National Front, National Front.
00:35:41And it was only an hour later when, bwap...
00:35:50and an hour later, it went bwap.
00:36:08When the front came up with all the Union Jack banners, the honour guard,
00:36:12suddenly there was this amazing onslaught.
00:36:15And I looked across and I saw all these kids steaming into them.
00:36:20These Cypriot youth who all just went straight in, fascists off our streets.
00:36:35...sock them going through to Catherine.
00:36:38We've built the Nazis the biggest defeat they've suffered so far.
00:36:42...unknown to the demonstrators.
00:36:51The National Front had been diverted before reaching the clock tower area of Lewisham.
00:36:57They were routed down Cressingham Road and into a small car park where they were allowed to hold a rally.
00:37:04Before we start the meeting, we have a debt of gratitude to pay to the police today.
00:37:12As we usually do, I want you to show your appreciation for the unfortunate police who've had this problem today
00:37:25by giving them three rousing cheers for the police.
00:37:29Hit him!
00:37:30Hooray!
00:37:32Hit him!
00:37:33Hooray!
00:37:34Hit him!
00:37:35Hooray!
00:37:36Hello?
00:37:37Hello?
00:37:38Hello?
00:37:39Hello?
00:37:42Hello?
00:37:43Hello?
00:37:44Hello?
00:37:45Hello?
00:37:46Anne, from behind!
00:37:49Back!
00:37:58Let him go!
00:37:59Let him go!
00:38:01This is our borough!
00:38:17Some people were saying, nah, nah, I don't think the police would do that.
00:38:22But they did, they just came in.
00:38:24And that was what took me by surprise.
00:38:26I didn't think they were going to start poking at me eyes
00:38:29and kicking me in the crotch and things like that.
00:38:31It did, yeah, it did.
00:38:44That was the first time ever since the Second World War
00:38:47that the British police broke out the ratches.
00:38:54Webster always used to say,
00:38:56you won't believe the amount of senior police officers
00:38:59who support the National Front.
00:39:01Well, you did see it at Lewisham.
00:39:26Well, I feel that the National Front isn't a problem that you can sort of forget about
00:39:34and it'll go away because it is a problem.
00:39:36And if you do leave it, it'll grow and grow.
00:39:38It's like a cancer.
00:39:39There was a massive, massive explosion of solidarity from black militants like Dark As How
00:39:52to Jewish businessmen saying,
00:39:54I don't like your politics, but we'll do anything to help fight the NF.
00:39:59I was surprised it got covered.
00:40:12We weren't superheroes.
00:40:13We were just ordinary people.
00:40:15We were ordinary anti-racist citizens.
00:40:18Everybody from Aberystwyth to Plymouth,
00:40:34youth were reading the NME and the Melody Maker and all these papers.
00:40:37And when they became really clear of the fascist nature of the National Front
00:40:41and they put their full support behind it,
00:40:43the level of RA support went up 5,000%.
00:41:00Alien culture were part of our RA committee in London.
00:41:04It's about sending a message out to people that we're not that different.
00:41:18This is the problem we have as Asians.
00:41:20We live in this culture but come from this culture,
00:41:23so we have a culture outside which is punk gigs and politics.
00:41:27We have a culture at home which is Bollywood films
00:41:30and maybe watching the only Asian programme at the time.
00:41:33The thing to do is organise more, get involved in outside organisation,
00:41:43with white people, with black people.
00:41:45The only way we can do it is together.
00:41:47We have to get our message out there somehow.
00:41:54Asian parents are concerned about a detrimental effect
00:41:57that they feel white culture will have on their children.
00:42:00A lot of Asian youths go to discos and playing bands
00:42:03and they're not actually rejecting their Eastern culture
00:42:08but their parents think they are just because they are doing what they are doing.
00:42:12I'd grown up listening to Beach Boys, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Bob Dylan.
00:42:30You'd rather hear The Jam, You'd rather hear The Clash, Tom Robinson Band, The Sex Pistols
00:42:38because in a sense they belong to you.
00:42:41Tom Robinson really appealed.
00:42:43You know, songs like Winter of 79, they were of the time.
00:42:48I went to see the Tom Robinson Band who were playing at the ICA
00:43:01and I became immediately a really big fan.
00:43:06When the us poor bastards took the chop
00:43:09When the tubes gone up and the buses stopped
00:43:13Top folks still come out on top
00:43:16The government never resigned
00:43:19The Carried Club was petrol bombed
00:43:23The National Front was getting awful strong
00:43:27They done and died and dug it and run
00:43:31In the winter of 79
00:43:34When all that guy Jesus was put inside
00:43:38I think I wrote to Tom a fan letter and he wrote back
00:43:41A few folks back
00:43:43He introduced me through his letters to a load of people
00:43:46and I got to know them.
00:43:48There's a photograph here of Tom, this is me, this is Karen, who was a secretary
00:43:54and the two Jewish school girls from Camden
00:43:56who went by the name of Scruff with one F and Scruff with two S.
00:44:00And we formed a kind of band embarrassingly called the Robinson's Rats
00:44:04and we followed them up and down the country.
00:44:23At a gig you'd be dealing with anti-racism
00:44:25and here you're taking it further
00:44:26so here we're looking at the war in Northern Ireland
00:44:29British troops once hailed as peacemakers
00:44:32are now the object of hatred of the Catholic minority
00:44:35accused of allowing the Protestant government to oppress at will
00:44:38We were being held in a grip of fear
00:44:41fear in our communities of the gunman
00:44:43This was about a rape by a soldier of a young woman who told her story in temporary hoardings.
00:44:55This was about a rape by a soldier of a young woman who told her story in temporary hoardings.
00:45:08With temporary hoarding we wanted to introduce the politics of the wider movement continuously into it.
00:45:21So it also had a purpose as educator.
00:45:34We were able to test our ideas, we were able to move to broader areas.
00:45:49We were able to test our ideas, we were able to move to broader areas.
00:46:02In those days there weren't that many people who were making the connection between oppression of lesbians and gay men and racism and fascism.
00:46:23The first article I wrote for a temporary hoarding was a piece called No More Normals.
00:46:34I wanted to point out the way heterosexual people and behaviour and relationships were regarded as the norm
00:46:41and lesbians and gay men were totally invisible in the media.
00:46:58Obviously an important part of temporary hoarding was interviewing bans.
00:47:02So there's an interview here with Adam and the Ants.
00:47:06Wouldn't you like to rip him to shreds?
00:47:09Which is done by Lucy Toothpastner.
00:47:12I did the design.
00:47:16He was determined to say that he was anti-fascist.
00:47:20But he still insisted on his right to use imagery which came from Nazi Germany.
00:47:36What we used to do in our interviews was really challenge and continue the debate
00:47:42as a way to sort of put both sides of these arguments and hear what people had to say.
00:47:47Our world was a world without any social media. Forget social media, there was no mobile phones.
00:48:08You had to put four pennies in a bloody box and press a button.
00:48:11Our world was the underground. The underground press was street posters.
00:48:17London was covered in them.
00:48:20The Clash were one of the most amazing bands.
00:48:22So we've taken the lyrics and printed the lyrics of riot or want a riot of my own.
00:48:28And this could get stuck up as a complete individual poster.
00:48:32And that really was the whole spirit of temporary hoarding.
00:48:39The right wing hijacked white riot as a song because it was white riot. They didn't listen to the lyrics.
00:49:01The white riot is about the fact that I wish the white people would riot like the black people do because, you know, we're not happy either.
00:49:10You can get all the Rolls Royces, all the dough, all the country houses, all the servants you want.
00:49:20I just think there's nothing at the end of that road. No human life or nothing. And that's why I just don't want to go that way.
00:49:29You know, that's why I think that it's all of us or none.
00:49:32The National Front is a Nazi Front! Smash the National Front! Smash the National Front!
00:49:42The National Front is a Nazi Front! Smash the National Front!
00:49:52If you met somebody who was just confused racist, not a full-on Nazi, you could win them away sometimes.
00:49:59But full-on Nazis, no, I never met any of them. I wouldn't have sat and debated. There was none of that.
00:50:11The National Front, celebrating its 10th anniversary by launching a youth section.
00:50:17When we do start sending the blacks back, it's not going to hurt them.
00:50:30And they'll be given financial aid and assistance.
00:50:33And we think that a lot of them will go back willingly without sort of starting kicking up a fuss and violence and that.
00:50:39You get the odd one, perhaps.
00:50:41There were attacks to Ra groups in different areas of the country.
00:50:50People in Manchester describing people climbing through the windows trying to smash the gigs off.
00:50:56Shut up! Shut up!
00:50:59Shut up!
00:51:00Shut up!
00:51:01Shut up!
00:51:02Shut up!
00:51:03Shut up!
00:51:04Shut up!
00:51:05They had to instruct people when they left the gigs to take all their badges off because Nazis would float around where they knew the gig was and jump people.
00:51:14A lot of fans were British movement, National Front.
00:51:19They were real white suburban white flight. They were very hostile to black kids.
00:51:26They, the NF and the British movement, they go to the gigs to cause trouble.
00:51:51In the front, there was a couple of skinheads banging this guy's head against the scaffolding and every time it came up, you know, there was blood more and more.
00:52:02It's just a bad image, really. That's what gets the image.
00:52:05It's just the skinheads, innit?
00:52:07Everyone thought all skinheads were Nazis, which of course was utter rubbish. They weren't.
00:52:12But a lot of skinheads were. You didn't bother to stop and debate the point.
00:52:18When we played London, we knew what we were going to get.
00:52:23Weddonsbury is an area I'd never heard of.
00:52:26We went, walking down, turned the corner where the hall was, and there were 30 skinheads standing outside there.
00:52:34We just looked at each other and thought, oh God, not again.
00:52:38Our job was to peel away the Union Jack to reveal the swastika.
00:52:57Sham 69 had a really confusing relationship with fans.
00:53:03His fan group, quite a lot of whom were working class kids involved in the National Front or on the fringes of it.
00:53:18He had a strong respect for who he thought these kids were and how they were left out of most decisions in the world.
00:53:23And he didn't want to be somebody who said, you should think like this.
00:53:34They're all moving down the same conveyor belt.
00:53:36They're all being subjected to, you do this, son.
00:53:39You come from there, son, so you have to do that.
00:53:42If you come from a tower block in the East End, you are subject to either working at the docks or so-and-so-and-so.
00:53:50No, you mustn't go out, no.
00:53:52You mustn't leave London and be someone else because that's wrong.
00:53:55You're not born to do that.
00:53:57I went down to see Jimmy and his mum and dad because I wanted to ask them if they were prepared to support Riot.
00:54:14Why not do something really clear and do a gig with a black band?
00:54:18We put on this gig with Sham 69 and Misty and Roots.
00:54:41Misty and Roots and Sham were all backstage.
00:54:45I was doing a bit of comparing and backstaging and a bit of everything.
00:54:53Misty started playing dominoes.
00:54:56And the tension in the room as they started to whack down the dominoes on the table.
00:55:03And it was as if they were saying, come on then, you know what I mean?
00:55:06We're here, we're not going anywhere, you know.
00:55:15And there are like, you know what I mean?
00:55:16The British movement got in. Dozens of them.
00:55:18What a huge deal with me.
00:55:19You know what I mean?
00:55:20You know what I mean?
00:55:21You know what I mean?
00:55:36Yeah, we should've put you on the table, you know what I mean?
00:55:37The British movement got in. Dozens of them.
00:55:44What have we done? You know, I started to really doubt the whole idea.
00:55:48I was a real nervous wreck that night.
00:55:52People were freaking out.
00:55:53If they get on the stage, retreat to defend the PA system.
00:55:57If they get to the PA system, turn it off.
00:56:07It's gotta be a emotional breakdown.
00:56:31You see that?
00:56:37I don't know what to do now. What can I do?
00:56:48I preach peace, I go on there, I do my best.
00:56:55And that's all I can do is do my best.
00:56:58Across the country, there must have been several thousand people from minority communities
00:57:13who just got shit and pissed through their letter boxes.
00:57:16With regularity.
00:57:18People couldn't go one-to-one to school.
00:57:20They had to go in groups of ten.
00:57:22I mean, listen to the stories from Bengali communities in East London.
00:57:25I would say they are shit-scared to walk around the streets.
00:57:31It's not going to stop them from staying in this country.
00:57:39You'd been spat on.
00:57:40People had thrown bottles at you.
00:57:42You'd regularly been called Paki.
00:57:44So it was quite normal.
00:57:48This Asian shopkeeper, who spent three years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp
00:57:52after fighting for Britain in the last war, describes the attack.
00:57:56All these key nets, throw these stones, break my old windows,
00:58:00and all of a sudden one is coming here.
00:58:02I break my teeth in here.
00:58:04Commander Marshall, why is it that the police have apparently not been successful
00:58:13in protecting some Asians, and in fact also some English people,
00:58:17from what is clearly racial violence?
00:58:20It's speculatory to suggest that all attacks on Asians or any other minority
00:58:25are motivated by racial motives.
00:58:27I'm not suggesting that all of them are.
00:58:29I'm just saying that it looks as though we've got a new phenomenon of people,
00:58:33and they may be organised or they may not,
00:58:35but actually going out and hunting for people of particular groups.
00:58:39We have no evidence that they are organised.
00:58:42In 1977, there were seven in and around Brick Lane racist murders.
00:58:57This is when Al Thabali was murdered in the East End.
00:59:12We got firebombed at one point, and we did, we moved, we moved offices.
00:59:41We had to get into all that stuff, where you have to block up your letterbox,
00:59:47where you wipe your feet, you put sand down in case petrol comes through.
00:59:51I, quite often, was terrified.
01:00:02Just after our daughter was born, we got a bullet in the post.
01:00:06I just hid it away straight away.
01:00:12People said, oh, go to the police.
01:00:13I'm like, are you fucking joking?
01:00:15You know?
01:00:16No, because we knew, like Webster said, the police weren't going to be helping us.
01:00:21Every demonstration we went on, they hindered us.
01:00:24It was our people who got arrested, it was our people who got kettled.
01:00:27It wasn't the front.
01:00:32This was a gang of street thugs.
01:00:34They were out to terrify you.
01:00:36Black and white!
01:00:47When RAA and the ANL came together, that's how vital the campaign was.
01:00:54It was life and death for many, many people.
01:01:00I asked Red Saunders, one of RAA's founders,
01:01:03what he saw as the difference between RAA and the Anti-Nazi League.
01:01:09It's a difficult question, Janet.
01:01:12I mean, RAA and the ANA are completely separate organisations,
01:01:15but they work in unity together
01:01:17on the cultural fight against racism and fascism.
01:01:21We were united in the fight with them against the National Front,
01:01:26whereas we were more specifically cultural
01:01:28and into militant entertainment,
01:01:30they were into the political election fight.
01:01:38All of us had gone regularly to the Notting Hill Carnival,
01:01:42and we wanted to kind of pay homage to that,
01:01:44and what a brilliant, vibrant thing that was every year.
01:01:51I remember the Anti-Nazi League,
01:01:53who said that they would help us with funding,
01:01:55wanted us to do it off the back of a lorry.
01:01:57We had completely different ideas.
01:02:03We're going to march from Trafalgar Square to Vicky Park.
01:02:08The NF were getting the 23% of the vote there,
01:02:11so we went, well, that's where we've got to go,
01:02:14the heart of their territory.
01:02:22I think Red wasn't completely sure that we could pull it off,
01:02:24which is very unusual for Red.
01:02:29I remember when we first started talking,
01:02:31I thought, bloody hell, you know, that's huge.
01:02:33I don't know that we can be cut in with that.
01:02:35And then once it went, it just rolled, you know.
01:02:45Get permission from the council, vital stuff.
01:02:47Get a stage, build it,
01:02:50then you get the back line,
01:02:51then you get the generators,
01:02:53and at the same time, get the bands.
01:02:55Who's going to be the bands?
01:02:58We've got to have rebel reggae music.
01:03:00We finished up with Steel Pulse
01:03:02because Hinesworth's Revolution was out.
01:03:07At the same time, myself and Roger were going,
01:03:10it's got to be Tom Robinson.
01:03:14Then the debate started about The Clash.
01:03:16Got to have The Clash, absolutely.
01:03:18The great energy punk band.
01:03:23We had a big row over the running order.
01:03:25Roger and I argued that, actually,
01:03:27we should have Tom on last,
01:03:29not because we necessarily thought
01:03:30he was a better musician or more exciting,
01:03:33but because it was clear
01:03:34that Tom was the kind of person
01:03:35who, at the end of the gig,
01:03:37would bring people together.
01:03:41So the decision was,
01:03:42OK, well, you go and tell them.
01:03:44You go and tell The Clash
01:03:45that they're not going to go on last
01:03:47and get them to agree that.
01:03:48What?
01:03:54You all right?
01:03:55You all right?
01:03:56Come on.
01:03:57MUSIC PLAYS
01:04:18Burnie Rose, that manager, was going on and on and on about,
01:04:22it was all Woodstock and we were all hippies,
01:04:25and they were the real fighters.
01:04:27MUSIC PLAYS
01:04:31They played endless tricks on us and turned the lights on and off
01:04:34and were trying to feel us out and test us who the hell we were.
01:04:39It was very much a question of us swallowing humble pie
01:04:43to support Tom Robinson, who'd been involved since the beginning,
01:04:46so rightly he was headlining,
01:04:49but it went against the grain to support someone,
01:04:52but the cause was more important than our personal ego.
01:04:58MUSIC PLAYS
01:04:58I don't want to go to where the rich are going
01:05:04I don't want to know about what the rich are doing
01:05:11They think they're so clever
01:05:14They think they're so right
01:05:17Once they'd come on board, it's just exploded.
01:05:25MUSIC PLAYS
01:05:27There were threats in the run-up to the carnival.
01:05:30The clash went and demonstrated outside the NF headquarters with Steel Pulse.
01:05:48MUSIC PLAYS
01:05:49They're much too cool to hold placards,
01:05:51Much too cool to hold placards is what I think when I look at these photos.
01:05:56MUSIC PLAYS
01:05:58MUSIC PLAYS
01:06:00MUSIC PLAYS
01:06:01MUSIC PLAYS
01:06:03MUSIC PLAYS
01:06:04We built the stage, I think, on that week before on the Wednesday.
01:06:08MUSIC PLAYS
01:06:09I'd never been so nervous in my life.
01:06:11We had a six-month-old baby at home.
01:06:13I was climbing the wall in the anti-Nazi league.
01:06:17Slept on the stage.
01:06:19So it was protected 24 hours.
01:06:25MUSIC PLAYS
01:06:26It had rained almost the whole of the week before.
01:06:29The park was like a swamp.
01:06:35We were very anxious.
01:06:37We didn't have mobile phones.
01:06:38We had no connection to Trafalgar Square.
01:06:41We had no idea how many people were coming.
01:06:44MUSIC PLAYS
01:06:46MUSIC PLAYS
01:06:49I got there at 7 o'clock in the morning.
01:06:52Oh, my God, you know, nothing's happening.
01:06:54And the weather wasn't very good.
01:06:56The police were ridiculing us, saying,
01:06:59Nobody's going to come to this.
01:07:01No-one's going to march.
01:07:03They're only going for the music.
01:07:05MUSIC PLAYS
01:07:06And I thought, I'll go up to Soho
01:07:08and get myself a bacon butty and a cup of tea.
01:07:11MUSIC PLAYS
01:07:13I came back and just the first big coaches were arriving.
01:07:19This coach pulled up and the doors opened
01:07:22and all kinds of haze of smoke and stuff,
01:07:25and all these punks tumbled out.
01:07:27I thought, hello, hello.
01:07:29MUSIC PLAYS
01:07:32MUSIC PLAYS
01:07:34I came down from Glasgow and a coach travelled overnight.
01:07:48I don't like the Nazis down here to show that they're against them up there too.
01:08:05They just want to bully people into their point of view,
01:08:08and I think people ought to stand up for their opinions.
01:08:11MUSIC PLAYS
01:08:13The rise of the National Front is probably the worst thing that's happened in this country for many years,
01:08:22politically anyway.
01:08:23And we came up here from Hereford simply to show that there are people from our place
01:08:28who care to try and stop this.
01:08:30MUSIC PLAYS
01:08:35MUSIC PLAYS
01:08:37The message of this carnival, not only to the loonies of the National Front,
01:08:42but to all bigots everywhere, is hands off our people!
01:08:46MUSIC PLAYS
01:08:48Black, white, together, tonight and forever!
01:08:54MUSIC PLAYS
01:08:56I saw Tom and he said, he said, I've got the whistles.
01:09:07I said, great.
01:09:09And we started throwing out the whistles,
01:09:11and anyone who was at the carnival will tell you the cacophony of noise was unbelievable.
01:09:16MUSIC PLAYS
01:09:21The march headed off with all these bands on platforms,
01:09:28and those wonderful effigies of Martin Webster, Tyndall and Adolf Hitler
01:09:33that were made by the Splitting Image team.
01:09:35MUSIC PLAYS
01:09:38MUSIC PLAYS
01:09:53When we came down Bestmore Green Road,
01:10:07and all the NF were outside the Bladebone pub.
01:10:10See!
01:10:11Wow!
01:10:12See!
01:10:13Wow!
01:10:14And down the road came thousands and thousands of multiracial kids,
01:10:18punks, everybody.
01:10:20MUSIC PLAYS
01:10:22An hour later, the march was still coming,
01:10:24and they were kind of,
01:10:26um, see, oh, fuck, let's go and have a drink.
01:10:28You know, they just fucking gave up.
01:10:30MUSIC PLAYS
01:10:32This is a multiracial borough and we wanted to stay that way.
01:10:35Every human being has got the right to live and to have employment
01:10:39and shouldn't be treated as less than a human being.
01:10:42Because I feel really strongly about racial prejudice.
01:10:47I think it's a slur and a disgrace to this country.
01:10:50MUSIC PLAYS
01:10:52MUSIC PLAYS
01:11:1712 o'clock we were going to start
01:11:44and I know it's a bit biblical
01:11:46but the sun broke out
01:11:48I came onto the stage
01:11:53there was a bloke and a dog
01:11:55there was two kids on bikes
01:11:57and that was it
01:11:58and there was Victoria Park
01:12:01no one in it at all
01:12:02so X-ray specs were going to open
01:12:07coming into Victoria Park
01:12:11and hearing that
01:12:12some people say
01:12:14little girls should be seen
01:12:17and not heard
01:12:18but I think
01:12:19Oh bondage
01:12:21up yours
01:12:221, 2, 3, 4
01:12:23the security was a complete shambler
01:12:38they could defend the stage against the NF
01:12:40but how do you defend the stage against the NF
01:12:52but how do you defend the stage against 80,000 Pogo in 18 year olds
01:12:57defense went down
01:12:59people collapsed
01:13:00people were being brought out
01:13:01this guy
01:13:06he said can I help
01:13:07and I turned around
01:13:08he's this 70 year old
01:13:10St John's ambulance guy
01:13:11with his cap
01:13:12and his uniform
01:13:13the one sung hero of the day
01:13:16I told the council
01:13:22that we expected 500 people
01:13:24because we didn't want to get involved
01:13:26in bringing in portaloos
01:13:27the park keeper came
01:13:30and we introduced him
01:13:31to Steel Pulse's crew
01:13:33and the last time I saw the park keeper
01:13:36it was a big cloud of ganja smoke
01:13:38so that was the council dealt with
01:13:41being there
01:14:04and seeing the numbers coming in through the gates
01:14:07hour after hour after hour
01:14:09the numbers just kept coming
01:14:11we had no idea
01:14:12how many people were going to come
01:14:13and the PA was desperately unsuitable for that gig
01:14:17the sound was awful
01:14:18and yet the thing was
01:14:19just being there
01:14:20was the important thing about that
01:14:23up against the wall
01:14:24up against the wall
01:14:27up against the wall
01:14:29up against the wall
01:14:32up against the wall
01:14:35and then we said to me
01:14:46you should do the comparing
01:14:48I was like
01:14:48oh god
01:14:49I was really anxious about it
01:14:51I used to play this character
01:14:53called Mr Oligarchy
01:14:54in the theatre
01:14:55who controlled all the workers
01:14:56you know
01:14:57I wear my Mr Oligarchy's cape
01:15:02and I ran on stage
01:15:04and I screamed out
01:15:07this ain't no Woodstock
01:15:10this is the carnival
01:15:12against the fucking Nazis
01:15:14and there was a massive roar
01:15:17from the crowd
01:15:17and it sustained me
01:15:19throughout the day
01:15:20we go out and there's 80,000 people
01:15:44and our audience knew who we were
01:15:47and we weren't being booed off
01:15:49we were being accepted
01:15:50in fact they were singing along
01:15:52and we got applauded
01:15:57for wearing Clucox Clampards
01:15:58to a white British audience
01:16:01which was simultaneously humbling
01:16:04and hilarious
01:16:05to know that we made a big difference
01:16:10and to see that there was a lot of people
01:16:12that was against the negativity of racism
01:16:14you know
01:16:16it was still a milestone
01:16:18in what we've achieved
01:16:20we came away from that
01:16:37thinking
01:16:38of all the other horrible things
01:16:40which are happening
01:16:40this is a mass audience
01:16:42saying look
01:16:42you're okay
01:16:43we support you
01:16:44the best thing of all
01:16:50was the jam at the end
01:16:51I do remember the jam
01:16:53I do remember them all coming on
01:16:54and Jimmy Percy coming on as well
01:16:56and joining them
01:16:56Jimmy Percy could bring
01:16:58a group of people
01:17:00into the carnival
01:17:01that we wanted to try and reach
01:17:03there are all kinds of dangers
01:17:05involved in that
01:17:06because you're bringing people
01:17:07who may be involved in fascism
01:17:09or maybe a threat
01:17:10to other people
01:17:10we thought it would be great
01:17:14if Jimmy could get on stage
01:17:15with us
01:17:16to nail his colours to the mast
01:17:18as well
01:17:19to say to the sham 69 fans
01:17:21I'm not a racist
01:17:22we had no idea
01:17:27how many people were out the front
01:17:29and my vivid memory of that day
01:17:32is walking up
01:17:33because it was a very high stage
01:17:34walked up this stage
01:17:36and saw 100,000 people
01:17:38and it was like
01:17:39we're here
01:17:54coming down
01:17:54the floor
01:17:55we had this
01:17:58a big 회�
01:17:59we had this
01:18:01we had this
01:18:01they were doing
01:18:02we had this
01:18:03not all
01:18:06Idon't do that
01:18:06it's almost like
01:18:07you
01:18:07no
01:18:07includes missions
01:18:10LINE Army
01:18:12World Quest
01:18:14World Quest
01:18:15World Quest
01:18:17World Quest
01:18:25World här
01:18:26Worldweat
01:18:31World聯
01:18:33World aquí
01:18:35World once
01:18:36World он
01:18:37White run, white run
01:18:42Black men got a lot of problems
01:18:44They don't mind for the break
01:18:47White people go to school
01:18:49But they teach you how to be thick
01:18:51And everybody's doing it
01:18:53Just let them see
01:18:56And they don't want to run
01:18:58And they got your shoes
01:19:01White run, I wanna run
01:19:03White run, I wanna run
01:19:06White run, I wanna run
01:19:08White run, I wanna run
01:19:10All the power in the hand
01:19:13People rich enough to buy it
01:19:15While we walked the street
01:19:17Two chickens, he was trying
01:19:20Everybody's doing it
01:19:22Just what they told to
01:19:24Nobody wanna go to jail
01:19:29White run, white run
01:19:41White run, white run
01:19:44White run, white run
01:19:47People just wanna sell records
01:19:58White run, white run
01:20:00And now we go
01:20:01Bring it out, please, for the blast.
01:20:31In this society, we're made to feel powerless and useless and that the great and the good
01:20:41should do our thinking for us, and one of the wonderful things that we did in Royal
01:20:45was to say, no, just ordinary people, we can do things, we can change the world.
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