In the ’70s you got clear messages watching TV which mocked the Asian people coming here. Defiance: Fighting the Far Right II: A Killer in the Ranks, Balraj
The political parties were effectively falling over each other to be more anti-immigration. So in Southall we started building community resistance. ibid.
If the fascists got away with it without any opposition, what would happen to the small communities around the county? ibid. chap
The police decided they are going to make the centre of Southall a no-go area. So they set up roadblocks … [People] were not allowed to go to their own homes. ibid.
I left East London on that day with Blair Peach … The fight against racism was very important to us … We ended up penned into the Broadway for a long time … ibid. teacher
Suddenly, we saw mountain police coming with their truncheons drawn hitting everybody. ibid. chap
I do not know the thought processes of these officer. ibid. Asian rozzer
They [rozzers] protected them [National Front] and unleashed violence on us. ibid. woman
I had a fractured skull and a blood clot on my brain. ibid. Clarence Baker
Our [community] centre was destroyed. ibid.
You had police officers blatantly lying in court. ibid. Balraj
Kids had their lives ruined because of the criminal prosecutions. ibid.
14 witnesses told Commander Cass they saw Blair Peach hit by a police officer. No police officer admitted seeing Peach at the time and place his injuries took place. ibid. captions
Police Protect the Fascists! Defiance: Fighting the Far Right III: The Right to Fight, protest chant
Skinheads and they were smashing up the windows … They came in the coachloads. ibid. Balraj
Walthamstow: Scientists have now confirmed that petrol was poured through the letterbox and then ignited. ibid. TV news
Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge not wholly or in full measure but very substantially. A moment comes which comes but rarely in history when we step out from the old to the new when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance. At the stroke of the midnight hour when the world sleeps India will awake to life and freedom. Play for Today: Destiny, BBC 1978
In Birmingham today the right-on Enoch Powell, Shadow Spokesman on Defence, We must be mad, he says … ibid. right-wing meeting gets the news
Another England brash and bold, a new world brave and bright and cold. The Sergeant looks at England and it’s changed before his eyes … ibid. commentary
Join with us and make our country great again. ibid. Nation Forward party spokesman
I remember long ago when I was small the Coronation, the climbing of Mount Everest, a kind of homely dainty patriotism harmless, slightly precious self-content, a watercolour world, you know. And then talking to these people, their monstrous chauvinism, grisly xenophobia, a dark desire for something, dark and nasty. ibid. dude
Come down to it the choice is Socialism or Barbarity. ibid. bloke in prison cell
First there’ll be the blacks and Asians. Then the Jews and Irish. And this ain’t easy speeches – this is true. And then it’ll be the unions. Oh ar make no mistake. The Labour Party – that’ll do. The others too. All in the interests of the nation. And to save the nation, they’ll destroy the nation. All of it except themselves. And if we let ’em, we’ve got ourselves to blame. Our fault. We turned our back. ibid. striker