Newham was a centre of the fightback by the South Asian community, writes Jean Gray
One criticism of the Channel 4 series Defiance, is that in reporting the fightback by the South Asian community from 1976-1981, it fails to mention Newham, even though this was the scene of some momentous events, starting on 12 June 1976.
Most people remember John Kingsley Read’s statement at a fascist rally: “One down, a million to go”, when referring to the death of a young Sikh man Gurdip Singh Chaggar in Southall a few days before.
But it is not always mentioned that this appalling statement was made at Stratford Town Hall, following a march by the National Party in opposition to a West Ham Trades council march against racism and unemployment, the two key issues in that period.
At the time, I was the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) delegate to the Trades Council, having previously worked on the Newham Recorder. We had been planning the march for months and the event had received a lot of publicity locally.
However, the week before, the Newham Recorder carried a story on its front page claiming that the National Party were going to march on the same day against immigration in the area.
The article claimed that Newham had become a ‘centre for illegal immigration’ although this was not backed up with any evidence in the story or any comment from the police. In fact, only the National Party was quoted.
It was said at the time that the police had initially turned down permission for the march, but the Recorder story meant they would effectively be unable to stop it, although they insisted that the two marches follow different routes.
It made no difference – hundreds of Trades Council marchers, including young South Asian men, were pelted with all sorts of missiles and many of our number were attacked as we snaked through the streets of East Ham and Plaistow on that baking hot summer’s afternoon
The National Party march ended at Stratford Town Hall where Read delivered his shocking message.
But that was not the end of the matter. The feeling among trade unions and community groups locally was that the media had let them down and they asked, quite rightly, what we could do to ensure some accountability. The NUJ London East Branch of which I was Secretary, decided to take out a complaint under the union’s code of conduct against Newham Recorder Editor Tom Duncan.
The code proscribes editorial material that encourages discrimination on grounds of race. An NUJ national inquiry found that Duncan as Editor ‘failed to maintain the highest professional standards, and to ensure that the information disseminated was fair and accurate’.
A year later, the NUJ fined Mr Duncan £30 for breaches of the code, but he turned it into a cause celebre for the right to edit, centering on his absolute right as an editor to publish whatever he saw fit. He refused to pay the fine and so was expelled, sparking national interest in the case that resulted in Mr Duncan and myself appearing on the BBC’s Editors programme.
It is interesting to note, looking back on coverage at the time, that there was never any defence of the actual article offered, just an assertion that freedom of the press demands an editor’s right to publish material of their choosing. The NUJ argued that even editors must be accountable for what they publish. Subsequent issues of the Recorder carried personal attacks on our local NUJ officers mainly centering on membership of the Social Workers Party at the time, but at no point offering any evidence that Newham had become a centre for ‘illegal immigration’.
Tom Duncan remained Editor of the Newham Recorder for nearly 30 years, becoming an Anglican priest on his departure. He died last year, having been made a Freeman of the Borough in 2000.
According to the website E7 Now&Then, the Kingsley Read speech “was part of the local context for a series of dreadful racist incidents and the catalyst of effective and organised community opposition to them in Forest Gate, in the 1970s and ‘80s.”
Mr. Read was notoriously prosecuted under the Race Relations Act of the time for the language he used that day, but was acquitted at trial.
E7 Now&Then provides a history of what followed, the racism and the anti racist response, leading to the Newham Youth Movement, the Asian Women’s Project and the Newham Monitoring Project.
No news is bad news
Independent news outlets like ours – reporting for the community without rich backers – are under threat of closure, turning British towns into news deserts.
The audiences they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.
If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little bit better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, yearly or one-off donation.
Choose the news. Don’t lose the news.
Monthly direct debit
Annual direct debit
£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month. £50 annual supporters get a digital copy of each month's paper before anyone else.
Enjoying Newham Voices? You can help support our not-for-profit newspaper and website from £5 per month.