Southall Rally For Unity Towards Racism – On Saturday twenty seventh April 2019 I joined with a number of thousand others to march by means of Southall, a city ten miles west of Central London callling for unity in opposition to racism. The date marked 40 years after the racist homicide of New Zealand born East London instructor Blair Peach on St George’s Day, April twenty third 1979, 40 years earlier than.
Peach had come to Southall with many others to protest in opposition to a Nationwide Entrance rally being held at Southall City Corridor, the venue chosen intentionally to inflame racial tensions within the space which had change into the centre of a big Punjabi group, attracted by work in native factories and close by Heathrow airport. Properly over half of Southall’s roughly 70,000 inhabitants have been of Asian origin and two thirds of the youngsters have been non-white.
I’d grown up within the native space although we didn’t go to Southall a lot because the bus route there was most likely the least dependable in London, although I sometimes cycled there to look at the steam trains thundering by means of on the Nice Western primary line. My older sister taught at a college within the space and we had seen the inhabitants change through the years; our Irish neighbours have been changed by Indians and we bought on effectively with each. The brand new immigrants to the realm have been laborious working, revitalised many native companies and customarily improved the realm, making it a extra fascinating and thrilling place to dwell.
I wasn’t there in 1979 when Blair Peach was murdered, however the accounts revealed of the occasion have been horrific, with a number of thousand police apparently working amok attempting to disperse the protesters who fought again. Members of the specialist Particular Patrol Group have been reported by eye-witnesses as hitting everyone down Beachcroft Avenue the place Peach and his companions had gone considering wrongly it might allow them to depart the realm. Wikipedia has a protracted article, The Demise of Blair Peach.
Peach was badly injured by a extreme blow to the top, virtually definitely by an officer utilizing wielding “not a police truncheon, however a “rubber ‘cosh’ or hosepipe stuffed with lead shot, or some like weapon“, and died a number of hours later in hospital. Police within the squad which killed him made nice makes an attempt to keep away from detection, one shaving off his moustache and one other refusing to participate in id parades; some uniforms have been dry-cleaned earlier than being provided for inspection and others withheld, and numerous makes an attempt have been made by police to hinder justice and forestall the following inquest establishing the reality.
Peach’s was not the one racist homicide in Southall. Three years earlier Gurdip Singh Chaggar, an 18-year previous Sikh pupil had been murdered by racist skinheads in June 1976 shortly after he left the Dominion Cinema, and the marchers gathered in a parking space near there. His household had requested that the occasion start with a karate show there, after which the march set off, halting for a minute’s silence on the road exterior the cinema the place Chaggar was murdered.
From there we marched to the Ramgarhia Sabha Gurdwara in Oswald Street which Chaggar and his household attended and prayers have been mentioned exterior earlier than the march moved on.
As we walked alongside the Broadway, crimson and white roses have been handed out to the marchers, and the march turned off down Beechcroft Street to the nook of Orchard Ave, the place they have been laid on the spot the place Blair Peach was murdered by an officer of the police Particular Patrol Group.
The march moved on to Southall City Corridor on the nook of Excessive Avenue and Woman Margaret Street. Blue plaques have been put up right here in 2019 honouring the deaths of Blair Peach and Gurdip Singh Chaggar, with a 3rd in tribute to Southall’s outstanding reggae band, Misty ‘n Roots. These plaques have been stolen in June 2020, however have been changed the next yr.
Audio system on the rally there included numerous individuals who had been there when the police rioted 40 years in the past, in addition to John McDonnell MP, Pragna Patel who was impressed by the occasion to kind Southall Black Sisters, commerce unionists, Anti Nazi league founder Paul Holborow, and native councillor Jaskiran Chohan. Notable by his absence was the native Labour MP.
You possibly can appear many extra photos from the march and of the rally on My London Diary at Southall rally for unity in opposition to racism.
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All pictures on this web page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
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Tags: 2019, April 2019, Beechcroft Street, Blair Peach, blue plaques, Gurdip Singh Chaggar, London, march, homicide, Nationwide Entrance., Orchard Ave, peter Marshall, police, police cover-up, police homicide, protest, racial tensions, racist skinheads, rally, Ramgarhia Sabha Gurdwara, crimson and white roses, rubber cosh, Southall, Southall City Corridor, Particular Patrol Group, SPG
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