MikeDunnAuthorToday in Labor History April 23, 1977: The Battle of Wood Green occurred in North London, when 3,000 antifascists, including future MP Jeremy Corbyn, fought off a 1200-member march of the fascist National Front. The fascist movement in the UK had been building in strength since the late 1960s, under the leadership of AK Chesterton, a veteran of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists. By the 1970s, the fascists were capitalizing on working-class anger over inflation, low wages, and austerity measures implemented by the Labour government. They had begun provocative and often violent marches through largely immigrant neighborhoods, smashing windows and attacking anyone who didn’t look white. From January, 1976 through August 1978, there were over two hundred such incidents, including two murders. In this context, organizers lobbied the police to ban the April 23 march. The police, of course, refused. So, they began organizing the community to fight back, which they did to great success. Groups participating including several sitting MPs, as well as trade unions, anarchists, socialists, immigrants’ rights groups, Rastafarians, local gangs, and Rock Against Racism. They repelled the fascists with smoke bombs, flares, bricks, bottles, road blocks, and ambushes. 81 people were arrested, the overwhelming majority of whom were antifascists.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #fascism #nazis #antifascism #nationalfront #immigration #racism #rockagainstracism
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