Rock Against Racism: a timeline

Rock Against Racism (RAR) lasted from autumn 1976 to winter 1981. Key figures included Red Saunders, Roger Huddle, David Widgery, Clarence Baker, Andy Dark, Ruth Gregory, Syd Shelton and many other besides. The best histories of Rock Against Racism are David Widgery's book Beating Time (now sadly out of print) and Alan Miles' film Who Shot the Sheriff?

The following helps to explain where Rock Against Racism came from:

1967 National Front formed. Leaders included John Tyndall, Andrew Fountaine and A. K. Chesterton.

1968 Arrival of Kenyan Asian refugees. April: Enoch Powell's 'River of Blood' speech. Dockers march in support of his anti-immigrant message.

1970 Election: Conservative government formed. Ten National Front candidates obtain a total of 11,449 votes, at an average of 1,145 where they stand.

1972 Arrival of Ugandan Asians. Unofficial strikes by dockers and printers bring an end to Edward Heath's Industrial Relations Act. December: NF candidate wins 2,920 votes at a bye-election in Uxbridge.

1973 Salvador Allende's government overthrown in Chile. Twenty-four building workers tried from North Wales at Shrewsbury for offences under the Industrial Relations Act. May: NF candidate wins 4,789 votes at a bye-election in West Bromwich.

1974 February: General election, results in hung parliament. Fifty-four National Front candidates obtain a total of 76,865 votes, at an average of 1,423 where they stand. April: Portuguese revolution. October: General election, Labour government formed. Meanwhile, ninety National Front candidates obtain a total of 113,844 votes, at an average of 1,265.

1975 American forces withdraw from Vietnam.

1976 Soweto uprising. Arrival of Malawi Asians. They experience hostile coverage from the Sun and Daily Mirror. National Front receives widespread press coverage. Council elections: eight National Party candidates in Blackburn elections receive on average 40 per cent of the vote. National Party and National Front meet growing anti-racist resistance. Many local umbrella committees formed and counter-protests in London, Bradford and elsewhere. Eighteen people arrested at Notting Hill Carnival. August: beginning of Grunwicks strike. Eric Clapton speech. Roger Huddle, Red Saunders and others form Rock Against Racism.

January      Unemployment stands at 1.2 million

January      Disputes within the National Front. John Kingsley Read          

                attempts (and fails) to expel John Tyndall

February     James White bill attempts to remove abortion rights

March        Right to Work demonstration

March        Harold Wilson resigns as prime minister, replaced by James

Callaghan

April          Strikes on Liverpool docks, among engineers in Kirkby and

Warrington

May           Fiftieth anniversary of General Strike

May           Press scares against Malawi Asians

May           Local elections. National Party wins two seats in Blackburn,

National Front secures nearly 15,000 votes in Leicester.

June          Gurdip Singh Chaggar murdered in Southall

June          Sixty London dockers sign an open letter welcoming Malawi

Asians to Britain.

July           National Front candidate wins 3,255 votes at a bye-election

                at Thurrock

August        Start of Grunwick strike

September    Sounds, NME and Melody Maker publish the letter that leads

to the formation of Rock Against Racism

When we read about Eric Clapton's Birmingham concert when he urged support for Enoch Powell, we nearly puked. Come on Eric... Own up. Half your music is black. You're rock music's biggest colonist... We want to organise a rank and file movement against the racist poison music... P. S. Who shot the Sheriff Eric? It sure as hell wasn't you!

October        Strikes at Trico succeed in winning equal pay

November        Eighty thousand march in London against public sector cuts

                Twenty-five thousand march against racism.

December        Sex Pistols' 'obscene' interview with Bill Grundy

1977 Following success in spring local elections, the National Front announces plans to stand in more than 300 seats in next general election. Further violent clashes, culminating in anti-fascist success at Lewisham in August. Anti-Nazi League formed in November, with Paul Holborow, Peter Hain and Ernie Roberts as three leading members. Local groups set up in most cities in Britain

January        Twenty-five thousand strike in Sheffield against job losses

March        Unemployment reaches two million

                National Front candidate wins 2,955 votes at a bye-election at

                Birmingham Stechford

April          Tory Gravesend council bans Sikh festival

April          Three thousand confront National Front in Haringey

May           Local and GLC Elections. National Front receive 5.7 per cent

of the vote where they stand, pushing Liberals into fourth

place in nearly one quarter of constituencies.

May           Police anti-mugging arrests in Lewisham

June          Queen's Silver Jubilee

June          Fighting between police and pickets at Grunwicks

July           Tom Jackson of the post workers' union calls an end to

solidarity action in support of strikers at Grunwicks. Mass

pickets continue

July           NF members attack 'Lewisham 21' protest, many injured

July           Unemployment reaches 1.6 million

August       White-collar APEX union calls off Grunwicks pickets, threatening to stop the workers' strike pay

August        Battle of Lewisham

November        Anti-Nazi League formed

Bournemouth East bye-election: National Front candidate fifth with 725 votes

1978 Margaret Thatcher's television interview: 'People are rather afraid that their country might be rather swamped by people with a different culture.' First Anti-Nazi League Carnival, afterwards Communist Party of Great Britain agrees to back the Anti-Nazi League.

March        National Front candidate wins 2,126 votes at Ilford North

April          First Rock Against Racism Carnival

Even though, despite ITN's having made it its lead story on the ten o'clock news that night, not a single one of Tuesday's popular dailies carried a word about what an RAR spokesman correctly felt to be "one of the most important concerts this country has ever witnessed" - a scandalous reflection of the national press' preoccupation with violence and tragedy. It was a day to remember, and none of those present will ever forget it...

July           Anti-Nazi League conference

July           Manchester ANL Carnival, also events in Cardiff and London

July           Demonstrations to remove NF from Brick Lane

September        Second London Carnival

1979 Iranian revolution, Shah toppled. Idi Amin driven out of Uganda. Strikes by bakers, journalists, social workers and lorry drivers. April: General election, Tory government elected. During campaign, Blair Peach killed at Southall. 303 National Front candidates obtain a total of 191,719 votes, at an average of 633 in each seat. Not one of the NF candidates manages to save their deposit. Following this setback, National Front splits into rival factions, and is now clearly in decline.

1980 Rise of British Movement, as a violent home for ultra-nazi former members of the National Front. Large number of racist attacks. Anti-Nazi League re-launched on a new basis, specifically to confront BM. St. Paul's riots in Bristol.

1981 Combined far-right vote in 1981 Greater London Council elections is just 2.1 percent. But continuing racist attacks, notably against New Cross thirteen. Anti-Nazi League members participate in Campaign Against Racist Laws. Youth and international conferences, anti-fascist marches in Oxford, Leeds, Coventry and elsewhere. Toxteth riots, July. Anti-Nazi League slowly wound down from autumn 1981 onwards. Rock Against Racism follows.

1992-4 Growth of fascist parties in France, Germany and Austria. Anti-Nazi League re-launched and confronts the British National Party in East London.

2002 British National Party candidates elected to councils in Burnley in Oldham. Other BNP councillors follow in subsequent by-elections. Love Music Hate Racism launched.

2004 New anti-racist coalition launched, Unite Against Fascism.

Links: 

Esther Leslie and Ben Watson, The Punk Paper: A Dialogue
Repeat fanzine, Rock Against Racism

Rock Against Racism: the Return

Steel Pulse, Carnival