Black Lives Didn’t Matter: Racism and Politics

by John Sadden

I hesitate to write this because doing so could be viewed as “virtue signalling”, but I am assured by the persistent and persuasive editor of this blog that few people read it, so the scale of the signalling will be insignificant (this is a libellous assertion, on so many levels - The Editor) - and there’s nothing wrong with virtue.

The Anti-Nazi League was established in 1977 at a time when the white supremacist, anti-Semitic National Front was gaining popularity and votes in local elections. NF leaders were photographed wearing Nazi regalia and followers were fond of throwing Nazi salutes and bricks and beating up people from BAME backgrounds. The popularity of the NF centred on their policy of enforced repatriation of non-white immigrants including the Windrush generation. They tapped into post-Imperial racist attitudes that were prevalent and continue to be widespread throughout British society even today. What launched the Anti-Nazi League as a mass movement was its close alliance with Rock against Racism, a campaign that was supported by popular musicians and bands of the time. The movement broadened to challenge gender inequality, homophobia and social and class division, but its overwhelming focus was countering racism.

In April 1978, a meeting was organised in Trafalgar Square followed by a seven-mile march to Victoria Park in the East End where a free open-air concert had been organised. Over 80,000 people attended, the largest anti-fascist demonstration since the 1930s. It was the first time I saw the band The Clash. Their set included a Junior Murvin reggae song, 'Police and Thieves', which commented on police brutality, something I had witnessed but not personally experienced.

BAME youths suffered abuse and violence by the police and the paramilitary Special Patrol Group on a daily basis and their communities were subject to the newly implemented “sus” law which enabled them to stop and search residents at will. A significant number of BAME youths were systematically beaten up and criminalised by racist police officers.

Just before that first Rock against Racism concert, Margaret Thatcher made her infamous “swamping” comments about Asian and black immigration. This calculation worked, prompting many National Front supporters to switch their allegiance to the Conservatives and in the 1979 general election Thatcher was victorious. She proved to be divisive, spurning one-nation conservatism, supporting anti-gay legislation, sucking up to Rupert Murdoch, calling Nelson Mandela a terrorist, supporting some of the worst offenders against human rights on the planet and generally behaving in a way that was less than endearing.

Forty years later, Boris Johnson was elected Prime Minister, having successfully calculated that by co-opting the aims of UKIP and the Brexit Party he could advance his personal career. His racist comments of the past have been useful in generating support. To racists, he is one of them, to non-racists he is parodying racists, or just being a good laugh.  

The “hostile environment” which targeted refugees/immigrants whose presence in the UK was deemed to be against the law was implemented by the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition in 2012 and carried out with gusto by the Home Office.  The Windrush scandal began to surface in 2017 after it emerged that hundreds of Commonwealth citizens had been wrongly detained, deported and denied legal rights. The television drama Sitting in Limbo (shown last week and available on the BBC i-Player (see here)) shows what happens when politicians implement policies that pander to an angry electorate in search of someone to blame for years of austerity, cuts to public services and increased poverty.