Schizophrenia

SCHIZOPHRENIA

1979 was a very weird year. A schizophrenic year. Swinging from Left to Right but with no set rhyme and no set reason. It had started with what was called The Winter of Discontent where thousands of public sector workers were on strike. January 22nd was the Day of Action when an estimated 1.5 million workers downed tools and took part in the largest stoppage of labour in the UK since the General Strike of 1926.

Following the mass protests that took place that day many unions chose to remain on strike until their demands for a proper pay increase were met, among these being gravediggers and waste collection workers. It was the strike action taken by these two particular groups of workers that came to define that period, with the press depicting the streets of the country as strewn with piles of uncollected rubbish and with unburied bodies piling up in cold storage depots. That's not to say these things didn't happen and to have happened at all might be deemed as wholly unacceptable but it wasn't quite on the same scale as projected into the public consciousness by the press - the Right-wing press, it should be noted.

Strikes were flaring up, however, left, right and centre leading to stoppages at water and sewerage works, schools, hospitals and old people's homes. All in a bid to gain nothing more than a basic minimum wage though if reading the newspapers anyone would think Britain was in the throes of revolution and that the barbarians were at the gate. And to some people perhaps they were?

In a further twisting of the truth, when Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan returned to Britain from an international summit in the Caribbean and was asked by waiting reporters what his thoughts were on the strike actions taking place, he replied he didn't believe it amounted to the kind of chaos the reporters were suggesting it was. The headline in the Sun the next day famously declared 'Crisis? What Crisis?' and was taken if not as a direct quote then as the opinion of Callaghan, which of course it wasn't. Or not quite.

After much vilification of the strikers by politicians, newspapers and media pundits, the government made a deal with the unions and their demands were met. The workers had won and were now gaining their feet. The government had lost and was now on its knees. A short while later, Callaghan found himself in Buckingham Palace asking for a dissolution of Parliament, followed thereafter with an announcement of a date for a General Election.

Throughout this Winter of Discontent, the Conservative Party in Opposition had been busying themselves with making hay whilst the sun shone, using the strikes to their own advantage and making mischief whenever possible. In a Party Political Broadcast presented by their leader Margaret Thatcher, the public sector workers were labelled as 'wreckers' and trade union reform was called for to avoid "not just disruption but anarchy".

Meanwhile a little further to the Right, the National Front were busy arranging an election rally for their supporters to be held in Southall, in London, an area well known for its large Asian community. Insulted and somewhat intimidated by what they perceived as a racist invasion into their community, residents requested that the meeting be banned but as this was now an election year, the Home Secretary declined the request and instead ordered that the Metropolitan Police safeguard it and prevent any disruption to what was after all, the democratic rights of a legitimate political party.

Come the day of the rally as hundreds of National Front supporters were bussed into Southall, thousands of local Asian residents and anti-racists rallied to protest against it. The police were there also, of course, and in huge numbers with the express intention of ensuring the NF rally proceeded unhindered. For some strange reason they seemed somewhat overly zealous in administrating the execution of this duty as they sealed off the whole area surrounding the venue, thus preventing any form of peaceful protest at all. Frustrated by the police actions and provoked by the pushing and shoving of them by the police, tension within the amassing crowds inevitably rose. It was from within the ranks of the police, however, that an ugliness suddenly reared its head in the form of the police punching and batoning the protesters for no apparent reason. The police suddenly started going berserk.

From behind their front lines more police appeared but this time wielding riot shields and then from behind them came mounted police practically galloping into the crowds causing widespread panic. A riot situation immediately erupted but this, as everyone there would later testify, was exclusively a police riot.

With barely disguised enthusiasm the police attacked anyone within reach be they black, Asian, white, man, woman or child. Fleeing from the violence a number of protesters sought refuge in a local community building called People Unite, run by members of acclaimed reggae band Misty In Roots. Not so easily thwarted, the police simply charged in after them and in the process smashed everything up inside including the heads of the people in there. Misty In Roots' manager, Clarence Baker, was one of those people and due to being batoned was put in a coma. "Clarence Baker, no troublemaker" as The Ruts would later sing in their song Jah War. "The truncheons came down, knocked him to the ground. See the blood on the streets that day. The blood and the madness." Outside on the streets, others fared even worse.

Blair Peach was a 33 year-old school teacher from New Zealand who was there that day protesting alongside his friends in the Socialist Workers Party. His body was found laid out on a road near the back of the venue where the rally was being held by some local residents who immediately called an ambulance. Later that night in hospital Blair died from injuries sustained from a blow to the head. Witnesses came forward to say they had seen Blair being set upon by police belonging to the Special Patrol Group, a formidable and notorious mobile police unit specialising in public order confrontations though more akin to a hardcore football hooligan firm than any normal idea of how the police should be.

A pathologist's report later stated that Blair had been killed not by a blow from a truncheon but by something more along the lines of a rubber cosh filled with lead. A raid on lockers belonging to SPG officers discovered a cache of such home-made, illegal weapons along with Nazi regalia but no-one ended up being charged for Blair's murder. During the investigation into his death, police officers belonging to the SPG blatantly perverted the course of justice through lying and hiding and destroying evidence but still no-one ended up being charged for Blair's murder. The investigation finally whittled it down to six suspects, highlighting one specific SPG officer as being the one most probably responsible but still no-one ended up being charged for Blair's murder.

10,000 people gathered for Blair Peach's funeral and to this day his name is synonymous with both anti-racism and police violence. In Southall a plaque has been erected in his name and a primary school named after him. But still no-one has ended up being charged for his murder.

The following day after the police riot in Southall the newspapers were full of praise for the way in which the police had maintained the democratic rights of the National Front and allowed them to have their rally. Such a good job had been done in protecting Fascism from a 'Left-wing hate mob'.

Just over a week later the Conservative Party as led by Margaret Thatcher won the General Election.

And at No.1 in the Charts that month and subsequently being constantly played on the radio was Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkel in which Art was plaintively enquiring "How can the light that burned so brightly suddenly burn so pale?" The same question that coincidentally was being asked by a lot of other people though unlike Art they weren't referring to a bunch of rabbits....