by Chris Scales, Archive Officer
While exploring the history of Anti-Racism in Southwark (see our recent post for details), we came across a rich history of marching and protests. Documents and photographs held at Southwark Archives show local people and organisations rising up over the decades to fight for equality and human rights.
Campaigns against racism in the 1960s were established in the borough through the petitioning of Southwark and Bermondsey Trades Councils and Southwark Rotary Club, who led the call to launch what became the Southwark Council for Community Relations. Other early organisations include the West Indian League, set up in 1964 following the suicide of a young West Indian nurse at Lewisham hospital. The League aimed to combat loneliness for West Indians in London, and fight racial discrimination.
In the 1970s the Southwark Campaign Against Racialism and Fascism was set up and took to the streets of Walworth and elsewhere to stand up to the resurgent National Front. Socialist organisations and local branches of the Labour Party also took a prominent part in marching. In 1983 the Southwark Black Consortium was founded to represent the community voice at the new Southwark Race Equality Committee. Later, as Southwark Black Communities Consortium, the organisation ran large protest marches against racism in Peckham and Bermondsey. The Southwark Anti-Apartheid Group took the lead in marching against apartheid in South Africa, something reflected also by the council who declared ‘war on apartheid’ in 1984 and ran yearly Anti-Apartheid programming until the early 1990s.
The following is a selection of images found so far, please get in touch with us if you’d like to contribute further images or information.
Several hundred anti-racism campaigners march from Elephant and Castle to a rally in Brixton organised by the London Communist Party, 26 June 1976 
A 2000-strong march organised by the South London Anti-Fascism and Anti Racism Co-ordinating Committee. Supporters marched from Elephant and Castle down Walworth Road and Rye Lane to Peckham Rye, 10 September 1977 
Southwark Campaign Against Racialism and Fascism meeting in Walworth Road, 1977 
Anti-racism protesters in a march on 23rd September 1978 organised by Southwark Trades Council. The marchers proceeded from Elephant and Castle down Walworth Road, and along John Ruskin Street to join the Anti-Nazi League march at Stockwell en route to the Rock Against Racism rally in Brockwell Park. The chorus chant of the day was: “Black and White, unite and fight, smash the National Front”. Southwark Campaign Against Racialism and Fascism had a stall in the park whose main attraction was a giant effigy of National Front boss Martin Webster with a hole in his mouth, which visitors could kick balls through to win prizes. (Photo by Bjorn Sundstrom, Peckham Pulse) 
Marching from Elephant and Castle to Brockwell Park for ‘Rock Against Racism’, 1978 
Anti-National Front march leaving Camberwell towards Elephant and Castle, 1979 
Southwark Campaign Against Racialism and Fascism at Aylesbury Festival, 1979 
Southwark Campaign Against Racialism and Fascism, ‘No Nazis On East Street’ protest, 1979 
Southwark Campaign Against Racialism and Fascism, ‘No Nazis On East Street’ protest, 1979 
Anti-racist activists picket National Front march on Camberwell Road, 1980 
Southwark Campaign Against Racialism and Fascism marching in Camberwell, 1980 
Southwark Anti-Apartheid Group marching in Westminster, 1984 
Southwark Anti-Apartheid Group at demonstration against apartheid in Central London, 1984 
‘Don’t Buy Apartheid’ protest on Walworth Road, 1987 
Southwark Anti-Apartheid Group at the Jamdown Apartheid day in Burgess Park, 1989 
Lee Jasper from Southwark Black Communities Consortium, and Cllr Winton Stafford, at the anti-racism march from Peckham to Bermondsey, 1991 
Anti-racism march from Peckham to Bermondsey, 1991 
Police hold back British National Party fascists at an anti-racist demo in Bermondsey, 1991 
Local activists protesting at a National Front March in Bermondsey, 2001
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