At 6.30pm on the 23rd April a commemoration was held for Blair Peach, an East Londoner and anti-racism campaigner who died 40 years ago from injuries received during a demonstration against the National Front in Southall, West London. The commemoration took place at the Muslim Centre on Whitechapel Road.
Who was Blair Peach?
Peach was a native New Zealander born a year after the end of the Second World War. He remained in New Zealand for 23 years, earning a degree at Victoria University, Wellington. During his studies he co-edited a magazine with his flatmates and traveled to the UK. In 1969, Peach emigrated to the UK after being turned down for national military service because of his ‘unsuitable character’. He settled in the East London area and began working at a Phoenix Special School in Bow. Peach was a member of the Socialist Workers’ Party, Socialist Teachers’ Association and the National Union of Teachers; he frequently attended rallies in support of left-wing causes.
How was he killed?
Though nobody has been charged for the murder, many believe that Peach was killed from a blow to the head delivered by a Special Patrol Group officer who was policing an Anti-Nazi League demonstration against the provocative presence of the far-right in Southall, an area to the west of London where many residents hailed from the sub-continent of India. Residents had been petitioning against the meeting of the National Front, precursors of the British National Party, which was due to take place during the evening of 23 April 1979 at the town hall. Noting a previous occasion in which skinheads with far right sympathies had trashed a pub in nearby Hanworth, anti-racists began arriving in Southall from 1pm onwards. They were met by 3000 police officers, 100 of them on horseback. Agitation grew among the crowd as the police began to kettle and cordon them. Eye witnesses observed that tensions rose further when the police tactics changed from ‘contain to disperse’. Police records show that portions of the crowd began throwing missiles and attempting to break police lines.
Peach had been in the area since 4.45pm and attempted to leave the area with friends but they found themselves in the middle of a full-blown riot. Missiles, flares and firebombs were being thrown at police; one policeman was struck so badly that his jaw was fractured in three places. Police reacted aggressively, clearing the crowds, hitting anyone in their way with truncheons. This was the situation in which Peach was fatally injured. He was rushed to hospital where he was found to be suffering from an extradural haematoma (bleeding between the brain and the skull) caused by a blow to the head. Blair Peach died a few hours later after an unsuccessful operation.
The Aftermath
An inquiry was launched the next day, but no officer has ever been charged with having dealt the fatal blow. Police officers, bystanders and demonstrators gave conflicting accounts. Commenting on the failure to find the culprit, Commander John Cass, the head of the investigation, stated that “the attitude and untruthfulness of the officers involved is a contributing factor.” Years later, The Times commented that “the police had entered a dark place which they have been struggling to emerge from ever since”.
Jamaican dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson’s song entitled “Reggae Fi Peach” captures widespread public attitudes towards the police following the death of Blair Peach:
“Everywhere you go its the talk of the day,
Everywhere you go you hear people say,
That the Special Patrol them are murderers (murderers),
We cant make them get no furtherer,
The SPG them are murderers (murderers),
We cant make them get no furtherer,
Cos they killed Blair Peach the teacher,
Them killed Blair Peach, the dirty bleeders.
Blair Peach was an ordinary man,
Blair Peach he took a simple stand,
Against the fascists and their wicked plans,
So them beat him till him life was done.
Everywhere you go it’s the talk of the day,
Everywhere you go you hear people say,
That the Special Patrol them are murderers (murderers),
We cant make them get no furtherer, The SPG them are murderers (murderers),
We cant make them get no furtherer,
Cos they killed Blair Peach the teacher,
Them killed Blair Peach, the dirty bleeders.
Blair Peach was not an English man,
Him come from New Zealand,
Now they kill him and him dead and gone,
But his memory lingers on.
Oh ye people of England,
Great injustices are committed upon this land,
How long will you permit them, to carry on?
Is England becoming a fascist state?
The answer lies at your own gate,
And in the answer lies your fate.”