Aug 30th: Today's Feature - Notting Hill Carnival Riots 1976: 3 Perspectives

Robert Golden's best photograph: the 1976 Notting Hill carnival riots

'The crowd was very peaceful – then a fight started, and the police used it as an excuse to charge'

Interview by Sarah Phillips

Wed 13 Mar 2013 15.45 GMT

In August 1976 I was sent to cover the Notting Hill carnival for the Socialist Worker. There was the smell in the air of trouble brewing. The police had already said there was going to be a strong presence, because there had been some trouble the year before. Based on the fact – or fiction – that there were pickpockets in crowds, police in that period took a consistently heavy-handed approach to any large group of black people.

I got there at 10am, before the floats started down the streets, and had a wander. It was very peaceful. There were a lot of white and black people mixing together, and no problems. The parade started at noon, going through the crowds up towards the Westway flyover. By chance I wound up there, where I saw a huge police cordon stopping people from going under the flyover for no apparent  reason.

It was a no man's land between the police and the crowd. Then a young black guy came running from between the police and jumped on top of another black guy in the side I was on. A fight started, and it was used as the excuse for the police to charge. It was extraordinary; if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it. There were women and children, and the police moved in with their batons out, pushing, shoving and beating people. I was in the middle of it all and shot three films before getting out of there, quite shaken up.

I developed the films as soon as I got back. This one was the strongest because of the razor-sharp image of these two people picked out of the crowd. It is a frozen moment in the ballet of violence playing out in front of you. I know that smile on the young man's face – it's the smile of fear. He probably thought he'd done nothing wrong. But the young policeman thinks he is doing what's right.

In reports the next day, there was no indication about what had actually happened; the riot was blamed on "troublemakers". This image tells a different story.

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The 2nd account of the August 30th 1976 Notting Hill Riot comes from Martin Wright.

An account of the riots at the popular West London carnival which were sparked by the arbitrary harassment and arrests of young black attendees by police. Taken together with similar anti-police riots such as those in Broadwater Farm and Brixton in 1981 they forced a dramatic change in policing methods in the the capital.

Carnival

Every year, during the August bank-holiday, Britain’s West-Indian community holds a Carribean-style carnival; with colourful parades, music, dancing and dozens of side events. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country attend. It is held on the streets of North Kensington.

This year, however, the festivities were interrupted on the last day: young blacks harrassed by a police presence numbering 1,600 defended themselves against arbitrary police arrests. At about 5pm rioting broke out between police and young blacks, it spread over the whole Ladbroke Grove area and lasted well into the night. Over 300 police were injured, 35 police vehicles were damaged, several shops had been looted and 60 people arrested.

Harassment

This is an attempt to sort out the reports in the media, and present them in a manner, as I see it, favourable to the young blacks. (Well you don’t expect a pro-police article in an anarchist' magazine do you?) The large police presence was ’justified' by shady allegations of mass outbreaks of 'petty crime' by young blacks in the crowds. But this was no excuse for the massive police presence.

The young blacks, people with good memories, knew that the police were there for the express purpose of TERRORISING them.

Mass arrests of young blacks is so commonplace, the police so hated, by young blacks, that the police force of the entire country has only a couple of dozen black police officers, Cases involving mass arrests in London alone the Mangrove 9, Metro 4, Oval 4, Brockwell Park 3, Swan Disco 7, Cricklewood 12, Stockweli 10; cases that have involved frame ups and police brutality, are examples of the extreme harrassment suffered by young blacks. Individual cases, random street searches and beatings by the police must run into tens of thousands.

It is not a question of how many police should have been there, that is a question for liberals to pick bones over, the question is: Should the police have been there at all? Only the people who attended the carnival can answer that. Anyone who attended the event must have been offended by the sea of police helmets and uniforms, it was after all a carnival not a political demonstration.

Let us now look at the fighting.

Battles

The actual riots were the fiercest and protracted street battles on mainland Britain since the 1936 Cable St. riots. Who won? From newspaper reports it looked as though the police took a real hammering. The battles that raged that day were not like the usual police vs left confrontations, more like the Falls Road battles of the early 70's. Police were knocked over like ninepins by volleys of bricks and bottles (the nearby demolition sites providing ample ammunition). Baton charges were ineffective in dampening the enthusiasm of the rioters as they paid the police back for years of harrassment. Although attempts to build barricades were ineffective, the sheer hostility and mobility of the rioters along with the constant stone throwing drove the police back. The police having no riot equipment such as shields, had to pick up dustbin lids and traffic signs to protect themselves, police also tried charging the crowds with their vehicles, horns blaring, but the intense stoning forced the police to abandon some of them , which were set on fire and several were burnt out. The initiative lay with the youngsters until midnight , when the rioting petered out.

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the riots it was learnt that several shops had been looted, but this was a mere fringe activity, involving as many whites as blacks. Most of the people there were either trying to get away from the riot area or fighting the police. The stalls under Portobello flyover were not looted, they were smashed up and used as ammunition. It is interesting to note the large number of hated transport police that were injured and that a number of their vehicles were burnt out, (The transport police have been involved in beating up young blacks and framing them especially in south London).

The crack Special Patrol Group seemed to inflict most of the casualties on the crowd, mostly randomly, thus helping to spread the rioting, but the ordinary police were hard put to control the situation. Bridges over the Thames were blocked by the police and cars containing young blacks were turned back; but it was too late, blacks from all over london, indeed from all over the country, were at Notting Hill. The Notting Hill riots were a collective reply by the young black community to years of police repression. They were not race-riots but ANTi-POLICE riots by (mostly) unemployed, low-paid, young blacks, the people at the bottom of the economic and social scrapheap.

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The 3rd account of the August 30th 1976 Notting Hill Riot comes from: BBC On This Day Article online

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/30/newsid_2511000/2511059.stm

1976: Notting Hill Carnival ends in riot

More than 100 police officers had to be taken to hospital after clashes at the Notting Hill Carnival in west London.

Most were released after treatment but at least 26 have been detained overnight for observation or further treatment.

Around 60 carnival-goers also needed hospital treatment after the clashes which led to the arrest of at least 66 people.

The trouble is believed to have started after police tried to arrest a pickpocket near Portobello Road on the main carnival route.

Several black youths went to the pickpocket's aid and within minutes the disturbance escalated.

The police were attacked with stones and other missiles.

They armed themselves with dustbin lids, milk crates and wire fencing and charged the rioters.

At one stage a group of black youths were seen moving up Westbourne Park road smashing windows.

Gangs of white youths were also said to have been involved in the violence.

One witness, Raymond Hunter, who lives in Westbourne Park Road said he saw a police van set alight.

"The two policemen managed to get out of the van and fled. The gang then turned the van over and set fire to it," Mr Hunter said.

The disturbances effectively put an end to the annual celebration of Caribbean culture.

Police sealed off roads and closed pubs in the area as well as shutting down Ladbroke Grove underground station in an attempt to contain the violence.

In the past, the carnival - now in its 10th year - has been largely peaceful in spite of tensions with police.

A member of the Notting Hill Carnival Development Committee, Selwyn Baptiste, said they had been optimistic after the first day of the festival passed off peacefully.

"We had no reason to suppose it would be any different today. This was supposed to be about fun and love - not violence," Mr Baptiste said.