(Part of the Digital:Works Archive)

Administrative/Biographical History

The Southall Youth Movement (SYM) was an anti-racist and anti-fascist group made up of Asian and Black Britons living in Southall, West London.

SYM was established in 1976 after an unarmed Sikh teenager named Gurdip Singh Chaggar was murdered by Neo-Nazi skinheads. SYM organised peaceful protests demanding justice for Chaggar and his family.

In April 1979, SYM organised a demonstration against the National Front meeting at Southall Town Hall. In turn the police protected the National Front and unleashed brute force with the Special Patrol Group against SYM members and other members of the public resulting in the death of schoolteacher Blair Peach.

SYM, along with Lord Paul Boateng, defended the some 300 peaceful protesters who were arrested and tried miles away from Southall in Barnet. SYM set up a youth centre in an abandoned building because the Ealing Council provided no such service to Southall children at that time. There, SYM members mentored kids and taught them different skills such as photography and music recording. The band Misty in Roots was formed at the SYM Centre.

Scope and Content

Material created during the project "Young Rebels: The Story of the Southall Youth Movement", which was developed by The Asian Health Agency in partnership with Digital:Works in 2014.

Includes:

• Eighteen original oral history interviews recorded for the project
• Copy of the booklet and DVD of the documentary created during the project and featuring extracts of the oral histories
• Digital photographs of the individuals who participated in the project
• PDF containing information about the oral history interviews and interviewees.

Quantity

18 mp3, 1 DVD, 18 jpgs, 1 booklet, 1 pdf

More information on Digital;Works and their projects can be found at: digital-works.co.uk.