I was 19 yrs old when Blair Peach was murdered 38 years ago today.
“The anti-fascist protester Blair Peach was almost certainly killed by police at a demonstration in 1979, according to a secret report released today.”
“Documents published on the Metropolitan police’s website shed new light on the death of Peach, a 33-year-old teacher from New Zealand, whose death marked one of the most controversial events in modern ( British) policing history.”
“A campaigner against the far right, Peach died from a blow to the head during a demonstration against the National Front in Southall, west London.” Full report embedded below;
Blair Peach killed by police at 1979 protest, Met report finds 2010
I started getting involved in anti-apartheid demonstrations in 1980/81 but was out of the country when the most intense resistance took place culminating in my close friend Marx Jones “Flour Bombing Eden Park”
Aotearoa New Zealand has an extremely chequered racial history but one of the great ‘Take outs’ of our highly successful anti-apartheid struggle is that we were forced to confront the endemic racism we had in Aotearoa N.Z.
Linton Kwesi Johnson’s tribute to Blair is embedded below;
Linton Kwesi Johnson – Reggae fi Peach (Tribute to Mr. Blair Peach) – LIVE in Paris
Had he not been murdered I don’t doubt that Blair would have been a driving force in our anti-apartheid struggle.
1981 Tour Badge Photo Credit Naani Abercrombie
Gone but Never forgotten Blair.
Dean connected me with wonderful members of the Irish Republican Socialist Party in Belfast during the war.
I don’t doubt for a second that he kept me save with that gesture.
Adventures of a Member of the Diaspora in Occupied West Belfast
I'm an anti-imperialist, environmental activist and blue ocean sailor, who is passionate about the earth and all it's inhabitants without favour. Brace for imminent impact as we bare witness to the non-linear unraveling of the biosphere and habitability disappearing for most if not all complex life on the only habitable planet we know of. To quote President Niinistö in North Russia: ‘If We Lose the Arctic, We Lose the World’. Folks we have lost the Arctic.
Kevin Hester 
Your apt and timely post it being Easter Wherein the best-known protester of all time Was put to death on the Gallows End of story
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More on Blair’s murder from Socialist Worker;
https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/48227/Southall+79%2C+when+the+police+killed+Blair+Peach?fbclid=IwAR0WIKMpa123rRA11yw8PN0a88mFX6SKyerugLekyHVM3w0LLmYAoMuxC1E
More from the NZ Herald
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12213019&fbclid=IwAR26UZV0o-GTQT6YJ3KOV2lgNBKsKB4jdAKOM3NBWlWwl4eWG-APme4v1SU
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Gone but never forgotten
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/112195186/blair-peach-40-years-on-kiwi-killed-by-british-cops-at-antifascist-protest-remembered?fbclid=IwAR0iYVAlOr4VDjEuY7dRsLOAjETOdouRb7PkB1DmEqo7KI2QGX6QnwNdAzQ
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Check out the article below and the Vimeo video. The Brits are no better than the murderous, racist police in the USA.
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/oct/12/ultraviolence-ken-fero-documentary-injustice-deaths-police?fbclid=IwAR0j7tqROhjHPHmybvBF2qDyRzY6gpd56lljRmQDFgk23yxkPDVK8s8bUaY
This documentary is very relevant to Blair’s sacrifice and anti-racism;
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Campaigners to call for a new inquiry into the teacher’s death in 1979 when riot police charged at protesters in west London
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/apr/21/southall-demands-justice-killing-of-blair-peach-1979?fbclid=IwAR2lvVJMdoKI7wfPvmAkFRiPho9wBLU_NlAQdY3WQ_PItLpqqlZ8EF2qMLI
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Everywhere you go its the talk of the day
Everywhere you go you hear people say
That the Special Patrol them are murderers (murderers)
We can’t make them get no furtherer
The SPG them are murderers (murderers)
We can’t make them get no furtherer
Cos they killed Blair Peach the teacher
Them killed Blair Peach, the dirty bleeders
Blair Peach was an ordinary man
Blair Peach he took a simple stand
Against the fascists and their wicked plans
So them beat him till him life was done
Everywhere you go its the talk of the day
Everywhere you go you hear people say
That the Special Patrol them are murderers (murderers)
We can’t make them get no furtherer
The SPG them are murderers (murderers)
We can’t make them get no furtherer
Cos they killed Blair Peach the teacher
Them killed Blair Peach, the dirty bleeders
Blair Peach was not an English man
Him come from New Zealand
Now they kill him and him dead and gone
But his memory lingers on
Oh ye people of England
Great injustices are committed upon this land
How long will you permit them, to carry on?
Is England becoming a fascist state?
The answer lies at your own gate
And in the answer lies your fate
R.I.P. Blair, gone but never forgotten.
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