August 13 marks the fortieth anniversary of what has become known and celebrated as The Battle of Lewisham. On that day in 1977, a fascist organisation, the National Front (NF) attempted to march through Lewisham and New Cross, in south London. It was a deeply provocative move in an area with a sizeable black population. Violence, arson and fear accompanied the NF. Swatting away concerns about the Front’s incitement to race hate, the Met’s Chief Constable Sir Robert Mark determined the march should pass.

Eight hundred National Front members were flanked by mounted police. Some 3,500 officers were on foot, equipped with riot shields for the first time on mainland Britain. The march did not pass. Around 8,000 thousand demonstrators resisted the NF. The fascists were stopped and beaten. Trade unionists, socialists, local black youth, gays and women were instrumental in that. Not since Cable Street in 1936 where Oswald Mosley’s Black Shirts were stopped, had intimidating fascist street marches been so trounced. The victory led to the formation of the Anti-Nazi League (ANL).

Jean Marie Le Pen, former leader of the French fascists, the Front National, was also at Lewisham. He licked his wounds and remodelled
the Front National, though it remains a fascist organsisation.

Since that heady day, in the wake of the NF’s defeat in the late 1970s at the ballot box, as well as on the streets, fascists have re emerged. However, via inspiration from the battle of Lewisham, anti fascists were able to stop the growth of the British National Party.

A number of initiatives have been organised to mark this anniversary. Unite Against Fascism (UAF) has initiated a commemorative march
on Saturday 12 August at 1pm on Clifton Rise. Come along and meet some of the key individuals who were active in seeing off the fascists.

UAF and LMHR are part of organising; eyewitness accounts and archive footage. The march will be followed by a Love Music Hate Racism (LMHR) event at The New Cross Inn, 323 New Cross Road SE14. On Sunday 13 August at 7PM LMHR, are proud to host, alongside Goldsmiths College, an evening gig featuring Grime, Hip-Hop, Reggae and Rock artists at The Albany.

Weyman Bennett, joint Secretary of UAF, argues that ‘The stopping of the Nazi, National Front march, set back the fascists for a generation. Anti-fascists took the methods that those who had fought the Battle of Cable Street, carried out. Lewisham represented thousands standing up and saying, ‘No, we will not let violent fascists march through our streets.’ It is part of a struggle that is still ongoing today. More recently, anti fascists have had to stop the BNP and EDL, at the ballot box and on the streets. United action has been central to this and we stand proudly in the tradition that Lewisham represented’.

Geoffrey Alderman wrote on 20 July in the Jewish Weekly as follows:

Last Sunday the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism released details of an investigation it had undertaken into the level and intensity of anti-Semitic hate crime in the UK in 2016. This audit was grounded in figures obtained from all UK police forces. The data makes for grim reading:

• In 2016 anti-Semitic crime in the UK rose to its highest-ever recorded level, rising by 15 percentage points compared with 2015 and by 44 per cent compared with 2014.
• In 2016 the actual number of recorded anti-Semitic crimes was 1,076.
• One in ten of these crimes was violent. But only one violent anti-Semitic crime resulted in a prosecution.
• Small Jewish communities – outside Manchester and London – figured disproportionately as the locations of these incidents, as was the case in earlier years.
• In 2016 almost half of the police forces in the UK failed to charge anyone in respect of any anti-Semitic hate crime reported to them. Indeed the number of anti-Semitic crimes charged decreased by almost a third compared to 2015, and by over a third compared to 2014.
• In 2016 only 1.4 per cent of all anti-Semitic hate crimes reported in the UK resulted in a prosecution – just fifteen cases. Only one of these was a violent crime. In 2015 twelve anti-Semitic crimes were prosecuted, only 3 of which involved violence.
As the CAA’s National Anti-Semitic Crime Audit (from which these highlights are taken) makes clear, the 2016 data reveal a shocking state of affairs, reflecting an abject failure by our law enforcement agencies to carry out their legal obligations. The Audit makes some recommendations as to how this state of affairs might be improved in future years. But before I consider these, I want to draw attention to what the Audit does not tell us – namely why anti-Semitic crime is on the increase and what is its major origin.
To answer these questions we can do no better than to turn to a very recent report – Anti-Semitic Violence in Europe – authored by a leading Norwegian expert in this field, Dr Johannes Due Enstad, who is a Research Fellow at the University of Oslo’s Centre for Research on Extremism.
Dr Enstad investigated incidents of anti-Semitic violence in seven European countries (Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany, France and the UK) between 2005 and 2015. Here are some of his findings:

• During the decade 2005-15 Russia had the lowest level of recorded violence against Jews.
• Top of the list was France, where, during this period, there were over 4,000 violent anti-Semitic incidents, described as “physical violence against individuals and serious attacks on buildings that potentially threatened human life.” These incidents do not include vandalism or verbal harassment.
• The UK came second to France, with almost 3,900 violent incidents.
• The situation facing the miniscule Jewish communities of the Nordic countries was dire – above all in Sweden. Dr Enstad points out that “Measured in number of reported incidents per 1,000 Jews — a measure indicating exposure, or Jews’ chances of being subjected to antisemitic violence — Sweden comes out on top with a score four times higher than France, with Germany and the UK in the middle.”
Who do you suppose carried out these attacks?
Only in Russia were the perpetrators predominantly thugs of the skinhead and neo-Nazi varieties. In analysing the data provided by both law enforcement and communal agencies in Sweden, France, Germany and the UK, Dr Enstad concluded that “right-wing extremists, who are often associated with anti-semitism, in fact constitute a clear minority of perpetrators. Respondents in all four countries most often perceived the perpetrator(s) to be ‘someone with a Muslim extremist view’.” And he added this observation: “It is also worth noting that in France, Sweden and the UK (but not in Germany), the perpetrator was perceived to be left-wing more often than right-wing.”
Have you got that? Except in Russia, Muslim extremists were the major perpetrators of violence against Jews, and in general – again excluding Russia – the miscreants were perceived as left-wing rather than right-wing. To quote Dr Enstad again: “Available data on perpetrators suggest that individuals of Muslim background stand out among perpetrators of anti-Semitic violence in Western Europe … Attitude surveys corroborate this picture in so far as anti-Semitic attitudes are far more widespread among Muslims than among the general population in Western Europe.”
Now I am aware that these conclusions will sit unhappily with received wisdom, especially in this green and pleasant land, and that the purveyors of this wisdom are likely to feel very uncomfortable as they read and digest the Enstad report. But until we all recognise that, in this green and pleasant land, it is Islam (admittedly of a certain variety) that is fuelling violence against us, we shall never begin to grapple with it.
The CAA Audit makes some very useful suggestions as to the ways in which training and guidance can assist in raising awareness of anti-Semitic hate crime among our police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service. But this training will be of limited benefit unless it also encompasses awareness of the root causes of the problem.

TellMama writes as follows:

On  15 July, the NASFAT family of mosques walked towards their national peace rally in Trafalgar Square. A deeply spiritual group who believe in community and family, this predominantly African group of social activists and organisers came to show their support against extremism and against groups like Boko Haram. One of their banners read, “Say no to extremism”, whilst another read”No to Boko Haram.” They marched, they stood tall with their voices resonating in the centre of London and with pride in their steps. Their faith and their beliefs had led them on a journey against extremism and intolerance.

Since 9/11 and 7/7 many have asked Muslims to speak up and speak out. Well, on a summer’s afternoon, here were Muslims of African heritage, a minority within a minority, who came from Manchester and various parts of the country to stand against extremism and intolerance. At the heart of their message was one which stood in solidarity with all communities who believe in a better future, where women and young people are not drawn into, abducted into or brainwashed into hatred and extremism.

Attacked by an arsonist filled with hate

24 hours later, the NAFSAT Community Centre in Manchester was ablaze. Five fire engines could do nothing to reduce the damage. Training rooms were gutted, the centre reduced to a shell and the rooms in which placards were put together against extremism, now stood empty and blackened by the hatred of someone who believed that this community should have no space to live free from fear in their local area. How can we accept that?

The NAFSAT Centre in Manchester had reported multiple anti-Muslim hate crimes against the centre to Tell MAMA, the national anti-Muslim hate monitoring project. Letters of hate, pig’s heads and a torched minibus have affected this law abiding British Muslim community of African heritage, just because they are perceived to be different. The centre has suffered overt racism and anti-Muslim hatred and women at the centre have also been targeted for being visible Muslim women. Gender, anti-Muslim and racist hatred have affected users of the NASFAT Community Centre, yet the patience of this community has meant that they have absorbed such hatred with dignity and patience. How can we allow such hatred and intolerance to continue on?

You can send a message that they matter

You can make a difference. You can send out a message to those who think that they can intimidate communities through racism, prejudice and intolerance. You can send out a message that the NAFSAT Community Centre in Manchester will rise again. For even as the centre users surveyed the ashes of their centre, young men in cars jeered at the them from passing cars. “We don’t want you here”, they barked at the women who had come to see their local centre reduced to a charred skeleton of what they had invested decades into.

So stand with us; stand with those who march against extremism and hatred; stand with the users of the Nafsat Centre who have lost their centre; stand with them and rebuild their centre as a symbol against intolerance, hatred and prejudice in our country. Your support and your support alone can raise the NAFSAT Community centre from the ashes of hatred.

You can make a donation here.