Stephen Lawrence: Leaders of Youth Against Racism in Europe call for genuinely independent inquiry

The news that an undercover police officer was tasked with trying to find out any information that could discredit Stephen Lawrence’s family is terrible and shocking, but unfortunately not surprising. Last year’s revelations of police attempts to discredit the victims of the Hillsborough disaster show that this was not an isolated incident.

The officer concerned, Peter Francis, infiltrated Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE) over several years and was known to us as Pete Daley.

Lois Austin, Socialist Party member and national chair of YRE at the time, stated:

“It took eighteen years for the police to convict any of Stephen Lawrence’s murderers. Meanwhile, time and money was being spent searching for ‘dirt’ on a bereaved family, and secretly infiltrating Youth Against Racism in Europe, a peaceful organisation of young people, which was organising mass protests against racism and the BNP. There was no purpose to infiltrating YRE, far from being secretive we publicly advertised our events – the police could have read our leaflets and newspapers, or attended our public meetings, to find out what was going on.”

Ludicrously, Peter Francis has previously claimed that the “key success” of his work was discovering that the 1993 demonstration YRE co-organised to protest against the BNP’s headquarters was going to be “far larger than thought” (The Observer, 14 March 2010). YRE had repeatedly told the police that the demonstration, following four racist murders within two miles of the BNP HQ, would be huge. Fifty thousand attended. We wanted to march peacefully past the BNP bunker. The police response was to refuse to allow us to march at all, and to carry out an incredibly brutal attack on peaceful young people using their democratic right to protest.

Hannah Sell, deputy general secretary of the Socialist Party and national secretary of YRE at the time, said:

“Cameron has called for an immediate investigation into what took place, but all previous experience shows that an investigation by the police or individuals appointed by the government will result in another cover up. Francis himself says he wanted to report what he had done to the McPherson enquiry, but was prevented from doing so by senior officers. We demand a real democratic independent inquiry, made up of representatives from the trade union movement and the anti-racist and environmental protest groups that have suffered infiltration. Such an inquiry must not be limited to the role of the police, but also look at where the orders came from and the role of the government.

“Nor do we accept that this, as the Metropolitan Police have implied, is a thing of the past. Surveillance of peaceful protesters has increased dramatically in the recent period and police brutality, as shown by the tragic death of Ian Tomlinson, also continues. Today a new generation are becoming involved in campaigning against racism, and also against the government’s austerity policies. New ‘Pete Daley’s’ will be sent to infiltrate anti-racist campaigns and left wing organisations to try and cut across protest. They will not succeed. But questions about whose interests the police act in, alongside demands for them to be made democratically accountable, will be an important aspect of future campaigns.”

Stephen Lawrence murder - the untold story

How socialists and the local community fought back against racism and the BNP

On 3 January 2012 Gary Dobson and David Norris were found guilty of the horrific murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence and sentenced to life imprisonment. Stephen was murdered almost 19 years ago in a racist attack by a white gang in south London.
Media coverage after the trial has focussed on the issues which emerged after the murder - such as institutionalised police racism and police incompetence, and how much has changed since. But there has been little mention of the presence of the far-right racist British National Party (BNP) in the area at the time and also the united community and trade union anti-racist campaign to drive them out.
Lois Austin, then a leading activist in Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE) and the Labour Party Young Socialists, whose branches initiated the campaign, spoke to the Socialist:

Firstly I want to pay testament to the Lawrence family and how strong and tough they've been to see it through this far. It is galling to see parts of the British establishment and the right-wing media, such as the Daily Mail, lauding the Lawrence family. At the time most of the British establishment turned its back on the family and the justice system didn't deliver for them and neither did local politicians.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s YRE was involved in a local campaign that eventually closed the racist BNP's headquarters in Welling.

Immediately after Stephen's murder we made appeals to Bexley council and the press to help get the BNP out because it was the BNP's divisive campaigns that were leading to an increase in racism and racist attacks in the area.

The media has also been almost completely silent on the mass protests that took place after Stephen Lawrencewas murdered.

Much has been said about the Lawrence family being left isolated and alone and they were by most of the political and media establishment, but that was not the case when it came to support from ordinary people. Thousands came out onto the streets to show their anger at the murder and their support for the family.

In May 1993, just a few weeks after Stephen Lawrence was murdered, over 8,000 joined a demo called by YRE and others - including Panther, the black socialist organisation. Mainly local young people, black and white, marched past the BNP HQ demanding that something must be done to rid our area of these racists.

Read the rest of the article:  http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/13470/11-01-2012/stephen-lawrence-murder-the-untold-story