The Battle of Lewisham 13th August 1977, 47 years on
13th August marks the 47th anniversary of the Battle of Lewisham, when the fascist National Front were stopped by anti-fascists from marching in the area of London around New Cross.
The NF’s provocative march came just months after the Battle of Wood Green when the fascists attempt to march had resulted in it being split in two by anti-fascists.
It was part of a strategy of tension by the fascists designed to whip up racist sentiment and show that they controlled the streets.
As events at Lewisham 47 years ago underlined, they did not.
A coach load of anti-fascists left Wood Green tube station in North London on the morning of 13th August 1977 and I was one of them.
Memory is a doubtful thing and I’ve been at many anti-fascist protests over the years so one tends to blur into another.
The only real abiding memory I have of Lewisham is of at one point being in a group that had ended up on the wrong side of police lines. These days we’d probably have been arrested. In 1977 the police loaded us on to a London bus and told the driver to take us back over to the anti-fascist protest.
As often on such occasions there was a division between those who wanted to protest at the fascists and those who wanted to stop them. I would invariably be on the latter side (and still would) but the emphasis on a divided strategy was important.
At the Battle of Wood Green there had likewise been those who wished just to make a peaceful protest against racism and fascism and those who wanted to confront the fascists. The two were successfully combined in the umbrella of a united protest.
The Anti Nazi League was formed from the confrontation with the NF at Lewisham and it was certainly one of the motors for it.
The Observer published a good account of what took place on the day:
It underlines that the NF chose to march in the area because they had been gathering local support in some quarters. It also points to the use by police of riot shields for the first time and the hardline tactics used against anti-fascists. In part these were likely to have been developed after the earlier Battle of Wood Green on 23rd April 1977.
There is one gap in the report. It notes that 4,000 protesters ‘turned up’. Of course they did not just turn up any more than the NF did. They were organised. Local churches and the Communist Party organised the morning march. The confrontation was certainly rooted in the local community but organised by the left, the Socialist Worker, the Labour Party and anti-racists and community activists
47 years on what took place at Lewisham and what came out of it remain important for the continuing fight against racism and fascism. Physical confrontation of fascist marches to make sure they are stopped is important but that is an occasional part of a much wider strategy, to build active campaigns in each community and workplace to make sure that racism and racist ideas don’t flourish
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