Physical Resistance by Hann Dave

Author:Hann, Dave
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781780991788
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
Published: 2012-12-10T16:00:00+00:00

6

One, two, three and a bit, the National Front is a load of shit: 1966 – 1979

The formation of the National Front (NF) at Caxton Hall, London, on 15 December 1966 was resisted with force. Anti- fascist opposition was large-scale and militant. There were riots outside the hall as well as attempts by the 62 Group and others to disrupt the proceedings. Only about one third of those due to attend the meeting actually made it inside, but those present pressed ahead with plans to launch the new party.

The NF was an attempt by various far-right parties such as the BNP, the Racial Preservation Society and the League of Empire Loyalists to shed the Nazi image that had plagued their chances of electoral success. Accordingly, neither Colin Jordan nor John Tyndall were present at the Caxton Hall meeting. Jordan was absent because he wanted no part of the new organisation while Tyndall was missing because he was in jail for firearms offences. Within a year, however, Tyndall had disbanded the GBM and ordered its 138 members to follow him into the NF. It would not be very long before he forced his way into a leadership position alongside Martin Webster.

There were protests outside the NF’s first annual conference in October 1967 but most anti-fascist activity followed the pattern established earlier in the decade of small numbers of militants engaged in underground actions. 62 Group activists disrupted Colin Jordan’s re-launch of the NSM as the British Movement (BM) at Caxton Hall in the summer of 1968 making off with membership cards. Other paperwork was also removed from the scene. NF documents were taken from their Croydon office in May 1969 and in the following month a stolen lorry was reversed into the NF’s headquarters in Tulse Hill. In October the NF’s annual conference at Caxton Hall had to be moved after two men smashed up the electrical equipment with axes.

While the NF failed to attract much media attention during the early years of its existence, the racist analysis of immigration made headline news after Tory MP Enoch Powell gave his infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech on 20 April 1968. The scale of working-class support for Powell shocked many on the left. Thousands of workers downed tools after he was sacked from his post in the Shadow Cabinet. London dockers and Smithfield meat porters marched on Westminster under the slogans ‘Don’t Knock Enoch’ and ‘Back Britain not Black Britain.’ Left-wing docker, Terry Barrett, claimed that a small group of fascists, who normally had no political influence on the docks, had exploited workers’ fears over job losses. Rather than a spontaneous outburst of racist anger, fascists had a hand in its organisation. Nor was support for Powell amongst dockers as widespread as reports suggested. Only 1,000 of the 23,000 employed across London joined the protest and these were mostly from the small St. Katherine Docks. Just 300 voted to strike in support of Powell the following day. However, communist dockers Mickey Fenn and Eddie Prevost regarded the show of fascist organisation and racist politics as a serious setback.

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