A number of people successfully predicted what turn events in Lewisham on Saturday, August 13 would take. Among them were members of the Socialist Workers Party, who predicted confrontation between themselves and the police and National Front, and the local council, who for weeks had been despairingly saying that parts of Lewisham would fall under siege, and that ordinary citizens would be prevented by violence from going about their daily lives.
Mr David McNee, Metropolitan Commissioner of Police, was not of course compelled to listen to either of them. He advised the Home Secretary, Mr Merlyn Rees, that his force could control events in Lewisham; and the many calls to ban the march were therefore not successful. With 56 of his men injured ╤ 11 of them seriously enough to be detained in hospital ╤ Mr McNee on Saturday night said that the violence in Lewisham was the result of an ╥orchestrated and violent attempt╙ by extremists to prevent the National Front march taking place. He said that the police function was to deal ╥effectively and impartially with breaches of the law╙ and he said that this was done on Saturday.
It is not known whether the police expected the violence which, for example, the Lewisham councillors were grimly sure would occur. The Home Office, in the person of Mr Brynmor John, Minister of State, said yesterday that the police had not given detailed predictions of the scale of violence. ╥The march had within it the potential for violence but the Commissioner used his judgment and we had to abide by his operational decision,╙ Mr John said yesterday.
Certainly the police appeared to be expecting a large scale demonstration against the National Front march ╤ which in the event appeared farcically tiny at around 500 people ╤ because a quarter of the Metropolitan police force were there with more horses than most seasoned demonstrators had ever seen and riot shields to hand, used later in the day for the first time on the British mainland. Did the Home Secretary know of the likely size of the confrontation, and of its likely violence? If he had, would he have allowed the march to go ahead ╤ even with police confidence that police officers could contain the situation? Was the march of the National Front, surrounded as it was off Clifton Rise, Deptford, by thousands of anti-fascists so vital to a healthy democracy that it had to be allowed to pass?
These questions are unlikely to have yet been touched on ╤ it being holiday time for Government and Ministers ╤ but a preliminary report has already gone to Mr Rees, the Home Secretary, and a fuller paper will be prepared by the police for presentation to the Home Office in which the question of police tactics as well as the future trend of such demonstrations, could well be gone into.
The different parties to Saturday╒s scenes of riot and political demonstration all have different criteria for success and failure. For the National Front the day brought mixed fortunes. It had a tiny, unimpressive turnout for its march. The march was cut short and needed a huge police phalanx to get it through the eerily deserted streets of Lewisham. The rally at the end was attended only by hardened National Front supporters and not by interested passers by.
For the anti-Front demonstrators there was failure in that they did not stop the NF march completely. 214 people were arrested ╤ and it is unlikely that there was one National Front supporter among them ╤ on various charges of threatening behaviour, obstruction, assault, possession of an offensive weapon and throwing missiles. They were noticeably ill-organised in New Cross Road, where the National Front march set off, and at one point appeals went up by anti-Front demonstrators to others in their ranks to stop throwing missiles as they were tending to hit, neither the police nor the NF, but their own comrades.
At the end of the day, in the hour-long running battle of Lewisham High Street, frantic appeals went out from some anti-Front demonstrators for peaceful dispersal, but these did not have much effect among frightened, tired and confused demonstrators. Nor did they influence a few people who were set upon violence anyway ╤ surrounding a police van, smashing its windows and shouting ╥Kill them, kill them╙ at the three police officers inside was an example of this. But the Socialist Workers Party proved it could summon support for a counter demonstration, and other groups and individuals made fierce attempts to stop the march. Lessons about police tactics were learnt.
Most interesting, perhaps, is the question of whether or not the day was a success for the police. On the face of it the word success is inapposite. The police have a large number of injured officers; the streets of the capital experienced violence of a kind not seen since perhaps before the war ╤ and ambulance men, who picked up the pieces, thought that Lewisham ╒77 was something new and uglier than they had hitherto experienced. There is no doubt that the police for a time completely lost control of the main street (in which the police station is sited).
Earlier in the day, when the NF march moved off at 3 pm, there was a terrifying moment when anti-Front demonstrators managed to separate a Front section from the main body of the march and from police protection. The police quickly surrounded them again but this was a loss of control. The battle of New Cross Road raged for about 15 minutes before police could get the march out of the reach of the attentions of the anti-Front demonstrators ╤ another loss of real control.
But ╤ the police can say ╤ the NF march went through and this was the duty the police were charged with, even in the face of some 4,000 demonstrators. Morale at the end of the day appeared high among officers. The people who wanted to stop a legal march had themselves been stopped from being effective. The police had experienced a kind of violent mass demonstration which may become more common in the future and had tried out their new riot shields at precisely 4.40 pm in the afternoon.
The inhabitants of this battleground, represented by the sad and angry Lewisham councillors, were, of course, the total losers. The streets of Lewisham had been given over to riot ╤ mostly by people from outside the borough ╤ and for an area which has attempted a number of radical responses to the race question the events of Saturday were heart-breaking. Deputy Leader of the Labour controlled council, Ron Pepper, said yesterday that his council might call for a public inquiry. He had seen provocation from both police and demonstrators, he said.
The mayor, Mr Roger Godsiff, was equally furious. He blamed Mr McNee: ╥I think he just didn╒t understand the situation. He had no idea what to do. We pleaded for him to recommend the Home Secretary to ban the marches because we knew exactly what would happen and he refused. He is the one who must take full responsibility for what happened.╙
Mr Pepper said that, from the steps of the church where earlier in the day the Bishop of Southwark had held prayers for peace, he saw scenes reminiscent of Londonderry. ╥It was worse than anything we had feared; in our worst expectations we never thought it could be like that. Now we want to make sure that no other borough has this maelstrom in their streets.╙
And how the violence of Lewisham on Saturday can be prevented again is the political, as well as practical, question that a great many people must now consider.
