The Battle of Wood Green in 1977 & Jeremy Corbyn’s record as an anti-racist campaigner
The past few days have, unsurprisingly, seen a considerable amount of commentary about Jeremy Corbyn’s record as an anti-racist campaigner.
I’m a firm believer in making sure historical fact gets in the way of a good argument and a fragment of that is below. It is a direct quote from the now Labour leader in the issue of the Hornsey Journal published the week after the ‘Battle of Wood Green’ in April 1977
It is an important piece of documentary evidence of the detail of one of the first attempts to stop the development of a post-Moseley fascist movement in Britain. The attempts have had their successes but fascism remains an issue 40 years on
Secondly it is of interest because it captures the role of the Haringey Councillor, now Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, in making sure that there was united opposition to the National Front when they tried to march down Wood Green High Rd on the Saturday afternoon of 23rd April 1977.
Thirdly it reflects a world we have lost. The Hornsey Journal which had a team of journalists, well organised in the NUJ, took a clear stand against the National Front. It was the paid for paper circulating in the area, available in newsagents and on newsstands. It has not published for some years. While the Ham and High Broadway still covers the area one wonders how such a demonstration would be reported today, if it was at all.
The paragraph relating to Jeremy Corbyn reads:
From Haringey Councillor Jeremy Corbyn on behalf of the organisers of the counter-demonstrations ‘Why did the police allow the National Front to march through the busiest shopping area of North London, an area populated by several of London’s largest immigrant communities? It must be clear from Saturday’s demonstration that there is the widest possible opposition to these modern day fascists. How much longer must it be before fascism is banned from our streets?’
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