Southall Youth Movement

The Southall Youth Movement (SYM) was an anti-racist organization that mainly comprised Sikh, Hindu and Muslim men of South Asian backgrounds. SYM was initially set up as the Southall Defence Committee in 1976 after a group of Nazi skinheads stabbed 18-year-old schoolboy Gurdip Singh Chaggar to death outside the Dominion Theatre. When police officers were asked about the incident by passers-by, they dismissed it as the murder of ‘another Asian’. Police insensitivity and fascist intimidation characterized this part of London. For example, the National Front had organized a campaign where they would occupy streets known to house South Asian families. In 1979 they held a meeting at the town hall as part of their campaign of intimidation.

The Southall Defence Committee officialized themselves as the Southall Youth Movement and took a more radical approach to tackling racism in their area. Their first activity was holding a demonstration outside the town hall where the National Front meeting was taking place. The SYM marched around the town hall at 11.30am and were joined by a picket of 200 people. It grew to the thousands, and the demonstration blocked four main roads surrounding the hall. Instead of protecting the immigrant communities who were voicing their fear, the police protected the 100 National Front members. The Special Patrol Group, made up of 2,000 police officers, was mobilized to unleash an aggressive suppression of the demonstration. They used riot shields, cavalry, armoured cars and dogs on the protesters, many of whom were youths from the SYM. Over 700 people were arrested, of whom 342 were charged with criminal offences. Over 1,000 protesters were injured and schoolteacher Blair Peach died after being fatally wounded in the head by a police officer. To this day, no police officer has been charged with his murder. Slogans such as ‘Smash racism’ and ‘No politics’ were chanted in response to the unjust police response. The SYM defended the arrested protesters who were tried twenty miles away from Southall, in Barnet. This was a further example of police restricting local support for the movement.

The SYM were unified by their common distrust of the police and government. They followed the street politics of self-defence and self-help which they learnt from Black Power movements in South Africa’s youth communities. Members also took inspiration from the colonial struggles in their home countries alongside radical left-wing politics in Britain. The SYM identified themselves with their area rather than ethnicity because they did not see themselves as a minority in Southall. Instead, they saw themselves as the youths of Southall, as stated by SYM member Balraj Purewal.

SYM worked with groups such as Southall Rights, religious groups, Southall Black Sisters and trade unions to show solidarity with the Bradford 12. They joined the Federation of Bangladesh Youth Organization as 7,000 protesters marched against Altab Ali’s murder. Other connected organizations were Haringey Asian Action and the National Association for Asian Youth.

The SYM members established Arrest Aid for Young, a funding scheme that supported arrested youths. Cards were distributed across Southall with their helpline. It connected youths and other arrested Asians with solicitors to represent them on trial. The helpline was manned twenty-four hours a day. A youth centre was set up in an abandoned building where members mentored children. This was necessary given that Ealing Council did not provide a service to Southall’s children. The organization also held the Rock against Racism carnival in 1978. Over 1,000 attendees listened to a range of music, from punk to bhangra. The SYM were steadfast in their stance against racism in their local area.