NIGEL FARAGE SAYS: " "He wanted ex-National Front candidates to run and I said, 'I'm not sure about that,' and he said, 'There's no need to worry about the nigger vote. The nig-nogs will never vote for us.'" ENDS

Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
> Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
>> Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
>>> Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
>>>> Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
>>>>> Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
>>>>>> Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
>>>>>>> Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> And there was a very good TV documentary some time ago that explored the
>>>>>>>> Rockers/Mods seaside excursions, and found from witness statements and
>>>>>>>> police reports that the issue was essentially minor in scale but vastly
>>>>>>>> overblown by the newspapers, doubtless to sell more…newspapers.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The coffee bar that I and my fellow Rockers used to frequent was also a
>>>>>>>> hangout for Mods. Apart from laughing at their mirror-festooned scooters,
>>>>>>>> there was never any trouble between the two groups.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The motorcycle I rode in those days is still on the vehicle register. It’s
>>>>>>> taxed and doesn’t need an MoT.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> It’s worth £shedloads, these days.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Interesting YouTube video on the events.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Note the comment “…greatly exaggerated by the press…”, a theme also
>>>>>> mentioned later in the vid.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> (Some slight violence, some great music, some great motorcycles)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> <https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2GbPUB1VePA>
>>>>>
>>>>> “…[the media] would publish deceptive headlines, such as using a subheading
>>>>> "Violence", even when the article reported that there was no violence at
>>>>> all”
>>>>>
>>>>> Still rife today in the media
>>>>>
>>>>> QUOTE
>>>>>
>>>>> The sociologist Stanley Cohen was led by his retrospective study of the
>>>>> mods and rockers conflict to develop the term "moral panic". In his 1972
>>>>> study Folk Devils and Moral Panics,[7] he examined media coverage of the
>>>>> mod and rocker riots in the 1960s.[9] He concedes that mods and rockers had
>>>>> some fights in the mid-1960s, but argues that they were no different from
>>>>> the evening brawls that occurred between youths throughout the 1950s and
>>>>> early 1960s at seaside resorts and after football games. He argues that the
>>>>> UK media turned the mod subculture into a symbol of delinquent and deviant
>>>>> status.[10]
>>>>>
>>>>> Cohen argues that as media hysteria about knife-wielding mods increased,
>>>>> the image of a fur-collared anorak and scooter would "stimulate hostile and
>>>>> punitive reactions".[11] He says the media used possibly faked interviews
>>>>> with supposed rockers such as "Mick the Wild One".[12] The media also tried
>>>>> to exploit accidents that were unrelated to mod-rocker violence, such as an
>>>>> accidental drowning of a youth, which resulted in the headline "Mod Dead in
>>>>> Sea".[13]
>>>>>
>>>>> Eventually, when the media ran out of real fights to report, they would
>>>>> publish deceptive headlines, such as using a subheading "Violence", even
>>>>> when the article reported that there was no violence at all.[10] Newspaper
>>>>> writers also began to associate mods and rockers with various social
>>>>> issues, such as teen pregnancy, contraceptives, amphetamines, and
>>>>> violence.[7]
>>>>>
>>>>> ENDQUOTE
>>>>>
>>>>> from
>>>>>
>>>>> <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mods_and_rockers>
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE
>>>>
>>>> Fifty years ago this month, on the Whitsun weekend of the 16-18 May 1964,
>>>> the youth of Britain went mad. If you believed the newspapers, that is, who
>>>> went with screaming headlines like ‘Battle of Brighton’, and ‘Wild Ones
>>>> 'Beat Up' Margate’ . Editorials fulminated with predictions of national
>>>> collapse, referring to the youths as 'those vermin' and 'mutated locusts
>>>> wreaking untold havoc on the land'.
>>>
>>>> Whitsun 1964 has become famous as the peak of the Mods and Rockers riots,
>>>> as large groups of teenagers committed mayhem on the rain-swept streets of
>>>> southern resorts like Margate, Brighton, Clacton and Bournemouth.
>>>> Extensively photographed and publicised at the time, these disturbances
>>>> have entered pop folklore: proudly emblazoned on sites about Mod culture
>>>> and expensively recreated in the 1979 film Quadrophenia.
>>>
>>>> Yet, as ever when you're dealing with tabloid newspapers, things are not
>>>> quite what they seemed. What was trumpeted as a vicious exercise in
>>>> national degeneration was to some extent, pre-hyped by the press. It was
>>>> also not as all-encompassing as the headlines suggested: although an
>>>> estimated 1,000 youths were involved in the Brighton disturbances, there
>>>> were only 76 arrests. In Margate, there were an estimated 400 youths
>>>> involved, with 64 arrests. While unpleasant and oppressive, this was hardly
>>>> a teen take-over.
>>>
>>>> ENDQUOTE
>>>
>>>> <https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140515-when-two-tribes-went-to-war>
>>>
>>> QUOTE
>>>
>>> MODS AND ROCKERS ROOTS
>>>
>>> Any discussion of Mods and Rockers must also include discussion of the
>>> Teddy Boys and Teddy Girls. This segment of the British youth subculture
>>> developed after World War II — it predates the Mods and Rockers. Curiously,
>>> the Teddy Boys (and Girls) are seen as the spiritual ancestors of both Mods
>>> and Rockers.
>>>
>>> The curious and somewhat confusing mix of various gang-like youth
>>> subcultures in the late 1950s in Britain plays a role in the
>>> youth-exploitation film Beat Girl. In this 1960 movie — which starred
>>> Christopher Lee, Oliver Reed, Gillian Hills, Adam Faith, and Noëlle Adam —
>>> one can see elements of the developing Mod culture (the jazz-loving,
>>> coffee-bar teen group represented by Faith’s, Hills’s, and Reed’s
>>> characters) and a touch of the developing Rocker culture (in the form of a
>>> large, American-style car that is used in one sequence from the film, and
>>> hair styles worn by some of the minor young male characters). Near the end
>>> of the film, a group of Teddy Boys destroy Faith’s sports car. It is
>>> interesting to note that the nascent Mods and Rockers of the film seem not
>>> to be in conflict with each other, or at least not nearly as much as the
>>> “Teds” (as Faith’s character, Dave, calls them) are in conflict with these
>>> newer groups.
>>>
>>> ENDQUOTE
>>>
>>> <http://subcultureslist.com/mods-and-rockers/>
>>
>> QUOTE
>>
>> MODS AND ROCKERS AS WORKING CLASS YOUTH SUBCULTURE
>>
>> While not detailed the Mods and Rockers per se — they are being used
>> primarily as a metaphor for the changing aesthetics in British youth
>> culture from the 1950s to the early 1960s — it is important to note that
>> sociologists have determined that despite their outward differences (hair,
>> dress, mode of transportation, and so on) the groups share several crucial
>> links. For one thing, members of the youth gangs of the 1950s and early
>> 1960s tended to be working class. And, although some members of the gangs
>> described themselves as middle class, very rarely were Britain’s upper
>> social and economic classes represented in the Mods or Rockers. Likewise,
>> we shall see that skiffle and rock musicians that sprang up within British
>> youth culture in the 1950s and early 1960s also tended to come from the
>> working class.
>>
>> ENDQUOTE
>>
>> <http://subcultureslist.com/mods-and-rockers/>
>
> QUOTE
>
> TEDDY GIRLS
>
> Teddy Girls also known as Judies, a little-known aspect of the more
> well-known Teddy Boys subculture, were working class Londoners, some of
> them Irish immigrants, who dressed in neo-Edwardian fashions. The Teddy
> Girls were the first British female youth subculture. Teddy Girls as a
> group remain historically almost invisible, not many photos were taken,
> only one article was published in the 1950s about Teddy Girls, as they were
> considered less interesting than the Teddy Boys.
>
> TEDDY GIRLS: ARE TEDDY GIRLS REALLY PART OF SUBCULTURE
>
> Back in 1950s, there were small groups of girls who saw themselves as Teddy
> Girls, and who identified with Teddy Boy culture, dancing with the Teds at
> the Elephant and Castle, going to the cinema with them and apparently
> getting some vicarious pleasure from relating the violent nature of the
> incidents instigated by the Teddy Boys. But there are good reasons why this
> could not have been an option open to many working-class girls.
>
> Though girls participated in the general rise in the disposable income
> available to youth in the 1950’s, girls’ wages were, relatively, not as
> high as boys’. More important, patterns of spending would have been
> powerfully structured in a different direction for girls from that of boys.
> The working class girl, though temporarily at work, remained more focussed
> on home. More time was spent in the home.
>
> Teddy boy culture was an escape from the family into the street and the
> cafe, as well as evening and weekend trips ‘into town’. Teddy Girl would
> certainly dress up and go out, either with boy-friends or, as a group of
> girls, with a group of boys. But there would be much less ‘hanging about’
> and street-corner involvement. While Teddy Boys could spend a lot of time
> ‘hanging about’ in the territory, the pattern for Teddy Girls was probably
> more firmly structured between being at home.
>
> ENDQUOTE
>
> <http://subcultureslist.com/mods-and-rockers/>

It was at a time when the walls of my dad’s corner shop would also occasionally be daubed with graffiti along the lines of ‘National Front - Pakis Out’.

A few times, that four letter word - and I won’t apologise for using it - was thrown at me in the playground and it did its job, regardless of its careless and perhaps even innocent use.

It took me a long time to reverse the effects of those words and their implications.

I know for thousands of fellow Brits who happen to have a brown skin or non-white heritage, there will be similar stories to be told.

And this week, we have come full circle it seems, with news of a vile ‘Punish a Muslim day’ letter doing the rounds and talk of families pledging not to leave their homes on the day in question for fear of being targeted.#

I wasn’t sure how to take the letter or its contents at first.

Was it a sick joke, the rantings of a pathetic, attention-seeking but cowardly loner, or a plant by someone with sympathies for an extremist ideology who wants to stir up racial hatred? Each of those are plausible explanations, and each is equally abhorrent - and equally sad.

I did wonder if merely talking about the letter was a counterproductive action - feeding the troll as it were.

And so I was in two minds, even as a journalist, about whether the many column inches dedicated to it were justified or appropriate,

But then I read the comments sections of the stories posted online about the letter, and I realised there was, actually, a real need to acknowledge its existence and respond to it.

Many of those comments were, on some level, even worse than the letter itself.

It’s a simplistic analogy, but replace the word ‘Muslim’ with the word ‘gay’ or ‘Jew’ or ‘black’ and remember that feeling of revulsion in your gut. It’s a universal feeling and it applies to all types of hate speech equally.

The letter and its contents have led, rightly, to widespread condemnation, and I was taken by the words of Conservative MP Anna Soubry in Parliament, who said it was time for Islamophobia to have a proper legal definition - and therefore the same consequences - as other hate crimes.

But aside from the material itself, the other upsetting thing is the realisation that history has and is repeating itself.

Imagine groups of young children in playgrounds across Leeds and the rest of the UK, from different backgrounds, playing happily with each other with no reference to skin colour or religion.

Imagine if even one child has heard the hateful words mentioned, even in passing, and repeats them? Words do hurt. And they echo through time.

There is a dialogue vacuum in our society which means we are collectively failing to address the rise of this kind of hate.

In this social media driven world, there is no longer room for nuance of discourse.

But it’s doing us untold collective damage. Surely the mere existence of the letter is proof of that spiritual and social vacuum?

The aforementioned comments sections - some of them on the YEP’s own Facebook pages - really disturb me.

I really want to understand why anyone would think any of the sentiments in the ‘Punish a Muslim’ letter are OK. Let’s talk about this.

But let’s also appreciate the work of people working in our communities to tackle misunderstandings and foster friendship.

They include former West Yorkshire Police inspector Kash Singh, who will today (Friday) launch his OBON (One Britain, One Nation) initiative for 2018, which engages schools to hold a ‘day of pride and unity’.

And a final word for the Leeds man behind the ‘Love A Muslim day’ riposte, which has now gone viral,

It copies the format of the hateful letter word for word but its call to action contains within it terrifying suggestions like throwing flower petals at Muslims and doing good deeds for charity.

It’s everything that the writer of the original letter isn’t - wonderful and witty and thoroughly, all embracingly, best of British.

Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
> Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
>> Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
>>> Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
>>>> Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
>>>>> Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
>>>>>> Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> And there was a very good TV documentary some time ago that explored the
>>>>>>> Rockers/Mods seaside excursions, and found from witness statements and
>>>>>>> police reports that the issue was essentially minor in scale but vastly
>>>>>>> overblown by the newspapers, doubtless to sell more…newspapers.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The coffee bar that I and my fellow Rockers used to frequent was also a
>>>>>>> hangout for Mods. Apart from laughing at their mirror-festooned scooters,
>>>>>>> there was never any trouble between the two groups.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The motorcycle I rode in those days is still on the vehicle register. It’s
>>>>>> taxed and doesn’t need an MoT.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It’s worth £shedloads, these days.
>>>>>
>>>>> Interesting YouTube video on the events.
>>>>>
>>>>> Note the comment “…greatly exaggerated by the press…”, a theme also
>>>>> mentioned later in the vid.
>>>>>
>>>>> (Some slight violence, some great music, some great motorcycles)
>>>>>
>>>>> <https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2GbPUB1VePA>
>>>>
>>>> “…[the media] would publish deceptive headlines, such as using a subheading
>>>> "Violence", even when the article reported that there was no violence at
>>>> all”
>>>>
>>>> Still rife today in the media
>>>>
>>>> QUOTE
>>>>
>>>> The sociologist Stanley Cohen was led by his retrospective study of the
>>>> mods and rockers conflict to develop the term "moral panic". In his 1972
>>>> study Folk Devils and Moral Panics,[7] he examined media coverage of the
>>>> mod and rocker riots in the 1960s.[9] He concedes that mods and rockers had
>>>> some fights in the mid-1960s, but argues that they were no different from
>>>> the evening brawls that occurred between youths throughout the 1950s and
>>>> early 1960s at seaside resorts and after football games. He argues that the
>>>> UK media turned the mod subculture into a symbol of delinquent and deviant
>>>> status.[10]
>>>>
>>>> Cohen argues that as media hysteria about knife-wielding mods increased,
>>>> the image of a fur-collared anorak and scooter would "stimulate hostile and
>>>> punitive reactions".[11] He says the media used possibly faked interviews
>>>> with supposed rockers such as "Mick the Wild One".[12] The media also tried
>>>> to exploit accidents that were unrelated to mod-rocker violence, such as an
>>>> accidental drowning of a youth, which resulted in the headline "Mod Dead in
>>>> Sea".[13]
>>>>
>>>> Eventually, when the media ran out of real fights to report, they would
>>>> publish deceptive headlines, such as using a subheading "Violence", even
>>>> when the article reported that there was no violence at all.[10] Newspaper
>>>> writers also began to associate mods and rockers with various social
>>>> issues, such as teen pregnancy, contraceptives, amphetamines, and
>>>> violence.[7]
>>>>
>>>> ENDQUOTE
>>>>
>>>> from
>>>>
>>>> <https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mods_and_rockers>
>>>
>>> QUOTE
>>>
>>> Fifty years ago this month, on the Whitsun weekend of the 16-18 May 1964,
>>> the youth of Britain went mad. If you believed the newspapers, that is, who
>>> went with screaming headlines like ‘Battle of Brighton’, and ‘Wild Ones
>>> 'Beat Up' Margate’ . Editorials fulminated with predictions of national
>>> collapse, referring to the youths as 'those vermin' and 'mutated locusts
>>> wreaking untold havoc on the land'.
>>
>>> Whitsun 1964 has become famous as the peak of the Mods and Rockers riots,
>>> as large groups of teenagers committed mayhem on the rain-swept streets of
>>> southern resorts like Margate, Brighton, Clacton and Bournemouth.
>>> Extensively photographed and publicised at the time, these disturbances
>>> have entered pop folklore: proudly emblazoned on sites about Mod culture
>>> and expensively recreated in the 1979 film Quadrophenia.
>>
>>> Yet, as ever when you're dealing with tabloid newspapers, things are not
>>> quite what they seemed. What was trumpeted as a vicious exercise in
>>> national degeneration was to some extent, pre-hyped by the press. It was
>>> also not as all-encompassing as the headlines suggested: although an
>>> estimated 1,000 youths were involved in the Brighton disturbances, there
>>> were only 76 arrests. In Margate, there were an estimated 400 youths
>>> involved, with 64 arrests. While unpleasant and oppressive, this was hardly
>>> a teen take-over.
>>
>>> ENDQUOTE
>>
>>> <https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140515-when-two-tribes-went-to-war>
>>
>> QUOTE
>>
>> MODS AND ROCKERS ROOTS
>>
>> Any discussion of Mods and Rockers must also include discussion of the
>> Teddy Boys and Teddy Girls. This segment of the British youth subculture
>> developed after World War II — it predates the Mods and Rockers. Curiously,
>> the Teddy Boys (and Girls) are seen as the spiritual ancestors of both Mods
>> and Rockers.
>>
>> The curious and somewhat confusing mix of various gang-like youth
>> subcultures in the late 1950s in Britain plays a role in the
>> youth-exploitation film Beat Girl. In this 1960 movie — which starred
>> Christopher Lee, Oliver Reed, Gillian Hills, Adam Faith, and Noëlle Adam —
>> one can see elements of the developing Mod culture (the jazz-loving,
>> coffee-bar teen group represented by Faith’s, Hills’s, and Reed’s
>> characters) and a touch of the developing Rocker culture (in the form of a
>> large, American-style car that is used in one sequence from the film, and
>> hair styles worn by some of the minor young male characters). Near the end
>> of the film, a group of Teddy Boys destroy Faith’s sports car. It is
>> interesting to note that the nascent Mods and Rockers of the film seem not
>> to be in conflict with each other, or at least not nearly as much as the
>> “Teds” (as Faith’s character, Dave, calls them) are in conflict with these
>> newer groups.
>>
>> ENDQUOTE
>>
>> <http://subcultureslist.com/mods-and-rockers/>
>
> QUOTE
>
> MODS AND ROCKERS AS WORKING CLASS YOUTH SUBCULTURE
>
> While not detailed the Mods and Rockers per se — they are being used
> primarily as a metaphor for the changing aesthetics in British youth
> culture from the 1950s to the early 1960s — it is important to note that
> sociologists have determined that despite their outward differences (hair,
> dress, mode of transportation, and so on) the groups share several crucial
> links. For one thing, members of the youth gangs of the 1950s and early
> 1960s tended to be working class. And, although some members of the gangs
> described themselves as middle class, very rarely were Britain’s upper
> social and economic classes represented in the Mods or Rockers. Likewise,
> we shall see that skiffle and rock musicians that sprang up within British
> youth culture in the 1950s and early 1960s also tended to come from the
> working class.
>
> ENDQUOTE
>
> <http://subcultureslist.com/mods-and-rockers/>

QUOTE MODS VS ROCKERS AT THE BEACH IN BRIGHTON 1964

It was the ultimate clashes: the mods vs the rockers, two youth movements
in the 60’s that represented a big divide in society, broke into
pandemonium at the beach by Palace Pier in Brighton on May 18, 1964. Gangs
from each group threw deck chairs, threatened pedestrians in the resort
town with knives, created bonfires, and angrily lashed out at one another
on the beach. When the police arrived, the teenagers tossed stones at them
and staged a mass sit-in on the shore – over 600 of them had to be
controlled and approximately 50 were arrested. This now-infamous brawl in
Brighton and other seaside resorts over each group’s claim to fame was even
documented in the film Quadrophenia, which came out in 1979.

When a young Bangladeshi man, Altab Ali, was found murdered on the streets of Whitechapel, London, on May 4, 1978, his murder awoke the local Bangladeshi community.

Ten years after Enoch Powell’s infamous Rivers of Blood speech, Ali’s murder was symptomatic of the racial antagonism stirred up in the 1970s. Extreme white supremacist groups such as the National Front engaged in organised and systematic patterns of violence against the local Bangladeshis of east London, using slogans such as “Blacks Out”, “White is Right” and “kill the black bastards”.

To mark the 40th anniversary of Ali’s senseless murder, I spoke to people who knew him personally, as well as community leaders and local residents who experienced first-hand the culture of violence and hate that contributed to the racially motivated killing.

Ali, a 25-year-old machinist, emigrated from Bangladesh to the UK in 1969. Arman Ali, a close relative, told me about Ali’s “kind-hearted, respectful and polite nature”.

He had just recently married. He worked very hard and like most other British Bangladeshis, his ambition was to seek a prosperous future and support his family with his earnings.

Ali was returning home from work in nearby Brick Lane when he was fatally stabbed in Adler Street, Whitechapel by three teenagers. In 1998, a park near where Ali died was subsequently renamed Altab Ali Park in his memory and continues to act as a symbol of community, hope and peace.
Living in fear

In contrast to the gentrified, trendy vibe of 2018, Brick Lane was a dangerous place to live and work in the 1970s where skinheads and elements of the extreme far right from all over east London came to indulge in routine acts of “Paki bashing”. It’s important to emphasise that these racially motivated violent acts were mainly carried out by an extremist minority. Many Bangladeshis lived harmoniously with their white working-class neighbours.

Most of the victims of violent hate crimes were newly arrived Bangladeshi men working in the rag trade which was primarily concentrated within the E1 postcode. “When Altab Ali was murdered,” recalled Arman, “fear spread within the community. People were afraid of going to work, sending their kids to school, travelling on public transport.”

I spoke to community activist Abu Mumin who describes himself as a “survivor of that era of hate and violence”. He told me: “I shouldn’t be here right now talking to you. I should be either critically injured or dead.” Like Arman, Mumin vividly recalls the culture of fear and intimidation that paralysed a whole community:

‘Paki-bashing’ was a daily occurrence in schools, parks and the streets, and ‘100 metre after school dash’ to our homes to escape the skinheads was routine. I remember an incident in the late 1970s when a concrete boulder was thrown through our window, nearly killing my two younger baby brothers who were sleeping on the bed. We were all living in a state of fear.

Pensioner Abdush Shahid also remembers the 1970s and 80s with immense distress. He told me:

Local Bangladeshi businesses would always get vandalised, and bottles and stones would be thrown on us from the top of buildings as we walked home after work … there were some ‘no-go’ areas for Bangladeshis such as Cable Street, Roman Road and the Teviot Estate.

I can also relate with such painful stories. Growing up in the 1980s in Bethnal Green, my memories of childhood also revolve around running home from school, being spat at, beaten up and being called a “paki”. It was a difficult and traumatic time to live in east London.
Ali’s legacy

Ali’s racially motivated murder was a watershed moment that marked a significant turning point for race relations in east London. Not only did it galvanise the local Bangladeshi community into political action, but it also heightened the call for social justice and equality among many other ethnic minority communities across the UK. His killing mobilised communities in Tower Hamlets to take a stand against hatred, discrimination and intolerance. Many invisible, marginalised and alienated Bangladeshis became embroiled in the politics of “recognition” – demanding social and economic justice, power and representation.

The Bangladeshi community’s response was strong and organised. Ten days after the murder, around 7,000 people marched behind Ali’s coffin to 10 Downing Street demanding better police protection and also highlighting wider issues of institutionalised racism. Bangladeshis teamed up with the Socialist Party and trades unions and engaged in mass demonstrations and strikes, which were successful in eventually forcing out the National Front from the area.

Local resident, Goyas Miah, who was nine at the time of Ali’s murder, sums up the mood of revolt and discontent:

After Altab Ali’s murder in 1978, we found that the only way we could be effective against violent racial attacks was to organise ourselves … the atmosphere was like ‘we’re safer in numbers’ … Self-defence classes were common … The fear and intimidation continued into the 1980s … It was a juncture of realisation … we are here to stay and therefore need to stamp our authority of British Bengaliness.

So what of the younger generation of British-born Bangladeshis? I asked the grandson of Abdush Shahid, 19-year-old Rayhan Razzique, whether he knew who Altab Ali was. As a member of a Westernised, affluent, educated and socially mobile generation, Razzique’s response was not surprising: “I don’t know who he is but I know that there is a park named after him.”

At this point, his grandfather looked despondent and told Razzique, who was visibly shocked and upset, the stories of sacrifice, hardship and bloodshed in the 1970s and 80s.

The demographics of east London, in particular Tower Hamlets, have changed drastically over the past 40 years. According to the 2011 census, Tower Hamlets is ethnically diverse, with 55% of the population belonging to an ethnic group other than “white”.

As an area, east London has always been a hub for immigrant communities, from the Irish and French Huguenot refugees to the influx of Eastern European Jews during the late 19th century. And it appears that the defiant message of “we are here to stay” has come to fruition for the Bangladeshi community. The 2011 census puts the the Bangladeshi resident population of Tower Hamlets at approximately 81,000 – the largest concentration of Bangladeshis in Britain.

Since the events of May 1978, Bangladeshis have continued to experience occasional hostility from extremist elements, such as the vicious attack by eight white youths on 17-year-old Bangladeshi student Quddus Ali in Stepney in 1993. However, Tower Hamlets remains, on the whole, a really good example of a multi-ethnic neighbourhood where diversity and difference has not resulted in far-reaching social unrest in recent history, despite a wider backdrop of social and material deprivation. This sense of “community” is perhaps one of Ali’s most significant legacies.

My own research has looked at the generational turn towards a more religiously orientated Islamic identity for many younger British-born Bangladeshis. Sadly, this puts them at higher risk of experiencing Islamophobia.

Albeit in a different and subtle guise, the ugly face of racism and discrimination still persists, though this “new” racism of Islamophobia is not the same as the violent clashes of the late 20th century. Instead, as Arman poignantly reminded me: “The focus of discrimination has shifted away from the colour of skin to ‘differences’ in ideology, values, culture, language and religion.”

The experience of feeling different, displaced and alienated remains a stark reality for many Bangladeshis from east London. So let’s be optimistic about the future, but cautiously so. The fight for a truly multicultural society and social justice goes on.

Spike <aero.spike@btinternet.invalid> wrote:

> And there was a very good TV documentary some time ago that explored the
> Rockers/Mods seaside excursions, and found from witness statements and
> police reports that the issue was essentially minor in scale but vastly
> overblown by the newspapers, doubtless to sell more…newspapers.

> The coffee bar that I and my fellow Rockers used to frequent was also a
> hangout for Mods. Apart from laughing at their mirror-festooned scooters,
> there was never any trouble between the two groups.

I never liked the Rocker fashion of peaked hats, chains, and badge-laden
jackets.

My Rocker gear was a pudding-basin skid lid decorated with Cooper ‘Moon
Eyes’ and MkVIII goggles, leather motorcycle jacket with my club patch,
black jeans, leather boots with sea-boot socks turned over the top, and
black leather gloves.

--
Spike

The English Defence League (more commonly known by the abbreviation the EDL) is a street protest movement formed in the southern English town of Luton in 2009. Its members are largely white, male and, while initially drawn from the settings of organised football violence and traditional right-wing groups, are now much more frequently from a broader demographic of disaffected, aggrieved and forgotten white working-class communities.

The roots of the group are to be found in the disappearance of traditional forms of work and key changes in popular culture as much as in contemporary media-fuelled anxieties about Islamic terrorism, even if the manifestations of these anxieties are largely a continuation of the traditional street-based far-right violence that has long been encountered in England.

While there are obvious differences and discontinuities between the EDL and earlier manifestations of violent inter-ethnic group tensions encountered in Britain’s industrial cities and while the ‘English culture’ that they seek to defend is mythical, the forces that have marginalised and alienated its supporters are all too real. These pressures and social shifts have created a form of anger, frustration and rage which now have no legitimate political outlet,.