I elected to go down by train again because it seemed easiest, despite the discombobulation I tend to feel at the speed of travel: It just feels weird being in Stockport one minute and two and a bit hours later being in London.
I had a nervous moment when the bus took ages to arrive, and another when the platform at Stockport seemed to be filling up almost entirely with Man City FC fans*, many carrying six packs of beer, but they must have got in the reserved coaches on the train because I didn't see them after that.
The train was on time so I got into Euston at 11am, which is the earliest you can get to London from Stockport on a Sunday, which meant I missed the start of the event. I arrived at the Museum just before 12, in time to catch the final few minutes of the exhibition tour and discussion by Lucy Whitman, Ruth Gregory and Kate Webb. The museum itself looks to have been an old warehouse that's been done up - cavernous and minimalist, and very, very cold! Everyone kept their coats on.
Between twelve and one we watched three films, firstly a film about RAR in Leeds and the Leeds Carnival of 1981, then part two of a three part series about RAR, made by a firefighter called Alan Miles, which was called Who Shot The Sheriff? (a reference to Eric Clapton's appropriation of Bob Marley, later referred to in the famous letter that launched Rock Against Racism) in which footage from an LWT documentary on the National Front and Anti Nazi League was deployed, and three short RAR propaganda films that were shown at RAR events on screens and were recently re-mastered and updated slightly.
The LWT footage used in Who Shot The Sheriff? provided a lot of historical context, and the Leeds film showed the resourcefulness of the grassroots foot soldiers of RAR very well (not to mention an instance of a campaign going viral pre internet), whereas the RAR films were kind of a history of late 20th Century racism and how that racism served the interests of various governments and people in power. It was very marxist in tone, which given the links between RAR and the SWP, isn't a surprise. It's funny that tone sticks out so much now, in a way it probably didn't at the time, just because the left were in a very different position in relation to the mainstream than they are now. People hadn't had 11 years of Thatcher yet and the left wasn't seen as an extremist influence from a bygone era at that point. Which, Corbyn or no Corbyn, does seem to be the mainstream media point of view at present.
The footage of the riot in Lewisham when the National Front attempted to march through and anti-nazi groups and residents sought to stop them, ending up in pitched battles and multiple injuries and arrests, was very powerful. You read about these events in (very few) cultural history books, but seeing the footage really brings it home to you what people were up against in the mid 1970s.
After that it was time for lunch downstairs, provided by a caterer from Essex who is a re-settled refugee from Syria. A number of other re-settled Syrians have set-up either restaurants or catering companies in their host countries, most famously in Germany, particularly Berlin, where a number of projects have started. There have also been projects in Austria and Portugal. I hope the UK initiative is successful, it certainly deserves to be as the food was amazing.
After we'd eaten, and chatted, it was off upstairs for the second half of the day and two young, articulate and talented spoken word artists/poets: The Repeat Beat Poet (Peter Johnson) and The Brown Hijabi Poet (Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan). He is a black beat boxing influenced poet, she is a Muslim poet. One of The Repeat Beat poet's was called 'Beware The Vicar's Daughter', a fantastic title for a poem alluding to and criticising Theresa May, whereas one of the Brown Hijabi Poet's was about her not wanting to write a poem about the London Bridge attack last year, but feeling she had to, then wrestling with herself in the poem about notions of The Good Muslim and assimilation and acceptance. Because both poets were discussing identity and racism, along with (to a certain extent) personal politics, I thought that they would both be of interest to Between Two Books in that the book group read a lot of contemporary poetry and a lot of books exploring identity. I really liked both poets and intend to check them out online.
The event ended with a panel and floor discussion on RAR, chaired by Daniel Rachel. Panellists were Pervez Bilgrami of the punk band Alien Kulture, Caroline Coon, Kate Webb and Debbie Golt. Caroline Coon was on sparkling form, but I liked Pervez Bilgrami best; he spoke in a very matter of fact way about the impact of Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech on his childhood, and how he was terrorised by racist bullies at his grammar school, having previously hung out with and been protected by his black friends at primary school. He said that Alien Kulture were formed as a way to try and draw in more asian kids to the RAR gigs and carnivals.
There was some discussion of strategies used to try and fend off the National Front at gigs and the importance of never, ever letting them take the stage. Full on warfare on the dance floor.
It was quite a rangy Q&A, which went off on a lot of tangents, but it was set up to do that so that was fine. There was some discussion of how the younger generation and older generation can work together on anti-racism platforms, but it didn't go very far. I think Peter Johnson (The Repeat Beat Poet) who raised it, went away disappointed. Rhoda Dakkar returned to it at the end of the event by saying that the kids are going to have to find their own way to do it for themselves, we can't tell them how to do it, only support them - to an extent - in doing it. Unfortunately I think Peter had gone by then so he missed that bit.
Afterwards I had a proper look at the exhibition, which was really good and sat very nicely with the wider exhibitions at the Migration Museum. I then bought a lot of Syrian pastries to take to work on Tuesday, and was back at Euston just after 5pm.
I had quite a lot of time to kill before my train was due, but multiple tube lines seemed to be suspended, it was a Sunday after 5pm so everywhere seemed to be closing, plus it was bitterly cold. As such, I went to Pret A Manger opposite the British Library and had soup and peppermint tea, then headed back to Euston to wait for the train at 19:17. I think it's quite possible to go mad staring at the departures boards at Euston, waiting for train platforms to be announced, so I sat on the seats by the loos for a bit and people watched, then went shopping in Heema for a bit.
The train home was very quiet, yet British Transport Police were regularly patrolling up and down the aisles for some reason. Not sure why. There had been what sounded like some noisy football crowd style chanting form just outside the station concourse as I was waiting, but I don't know if that had anything to do with it. Some of the police also got off the train at Stockport and were waiting by the ticket barrier, which was open anyway (as is generally the custom at Stockport). I bet they were bored stiff, not to mention freezing.
*For the record, I have no interest in football. My sister supports Bolton Wanderers FC, a friend supports Bury Town FC, other friends support Man UTD, but most of my friends support Man City FC and have done for years. Weirdly I know no Stockport County FC fans...
This post was updated on Friday 4 May in order to clarify some details about the film Who Shot The Sheriff? Specifically, that the film was not made for Thames TV but made use of footage from a 1970s documentary for LWT about the National Front, and that the director of Who Shot The Sheriff? was Alan Miles.
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