On this day, 12 September 1992, anti-racist group Anti-Fascist Action fought neo-Nazis heading to a Blood & Honour music gig in the Battle of Waterloo in London. It was probably the biggest street fight against fascists in the city since that in Lewisham in 1977.
Blood & Honour drew crowds of up to 2000 racists to listen to bands with names like “Dead P*ki in the Gutter”. To try to avoid anti-fascists, Blood & Honour didn’t disclose the location but instead chose Waterloo station as a redirection point. So around 100 anti-fascists headed to the station.
One of the participants later recalled: “I was very nervous. I thought we were going to be slaughtered. Everyone knew that Blood and Honour could muster ten times more people than we had.”
But the Nazis were turning up in small groups, and so, the anti-fascist wrote: “We spent the rest of the afternoon ambushing groups of fascists as they arrived, and trying to avoid the police. For example, four fascists arrived by car and were set upon until every window was broken, and the rest of the car was not exactly in showroom condition. The battles raged in all the surrounding streets. A comrade from Norwich and myself piled into a group of three fascists by the Waterloo roundabout. One of them turned to attack my comrade and I stuck my foot out to trip him up and with wonderful luck it was perfectly timed and he keeled over and hit his head, crack, on the pavement.”
Learn more in this short personal account of the events: https://libcom.org/library/bash-the-fash-anti-fascist-recollections-1984-1993/15-waterloo-blood-and-honour-gig-london-1992 https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1805897002928775/?type=3