• Excerpt: Final Report of the April 23rd Defence Committee [compiled by the Haringey Trades Council]
• Personal Records
• Council Papers
• Civic matters
• file

A draft photocopy of the final report of the April 23rd Defence Committee, compiled by the Haringey Trades Council and reproduced with the permission of the Hornsey Journal. The report documents the actions of the Defence Committee in response to the arrests that ensued following the demonstration organised by the National Front through the centre of Haringey (Wood Green), North London on 23rd April 1977. The confrontation that day between right wing groups and the defence campaign led by anti-racist and anti-fascist protestors (as part of the ‘Rally Against Racism’ on Ducketts Common) resulted in 81 people being arrested, 74 of whom were anti-racist demonstrators. The Haringey Trades Council immediately became involved in the work of the Defence Committee to assist in raising funds for those arrested and to help set up an Inquiry into the police action which they believed had been instrumental in the violence that resulted. The report contains background details re the 23rd April demonstration, the activities undertaken by the Defence Committee and the various groups represented within the Committee, photographs of the protest and anonymised details of the arrests and subsequent convictions and dismissals which followed. index eg anti-racist groups; National Front; Wood Green; Haringey; Ducketts Common; demonstrations/protests; civil rights; racism; fascism; freedom of speech; Lewisham; Ladywood; racial violence. Note that Bernie Grant was Chief Organiser of the Anti-National Front Demonstration held on 23rd April at Ducketts Common, a member of the April 23rd Defence Committee, and a founder member of the Haringey Labour Movement Anti-Racist and Anti-Fascist Campaign whose beginnings are documented in this report.