Altab Ali

Background

Ali was a 25-year-old mechanic who had recently arrived from Sylhet District, Sylhet Division, Bangladesh in 1969, and lived in the East End of London.

Death

On 4 May 1978, on local borough election night and against a background of agitation by National Front, Ali was making his way to the bus stop after finishing work as a garment worker at a sweatshop in Brick Lane. He was chased along Brick Lane and stabbed to death near Aldgate Station in a racially motivated attack at St. Mary's Gardens, the site of the church of St Mary Matfelon by St Mary's Churchyard, and the corner of Adler Street and Whitechapel Road. Ali was stabbed in the neck, then staggered a few metres before collapsing.

Of the three attackers, two were white and one was black. Ali's killers were Roy Arnold (aged 17) of Limehouse, Carl Ludlow (aged 17) of Bow and an unnamed mixed race male from Poplar (aged 16). It was the 16-year-old who committed the stabbing and when police asked him why, his reply was "for no reason at all". He stated, "If we saw a Paki we used to have a go at them. We would ask for money and beat them up. I've beaten up Pakis on at least five occasions."

Aftermath

At the time, right-wing extremism was on the rise in east London, with the National Front standing for election in 43 council seats. Ali's murder mobilised the Bangladeshi community. Demonstrations were held in the area of Brick Lane against the National Front.

On 14 May 1978, 7,000 people took part in a demonstration against racial violence and marching behind Altab Ali's coffin from Adler Street, where Ali died, to Hyde Park, Trafalgar Square and Downing Street, to demand police protection for the Bengali community and to protest against the National Front and its campaign. It was described at the time as "one of the biggest demonstrations by Asians ever seen in Britain".

The murder provoked a mass mobilisation of the Bengali community locally The protest against the murder politicised a generation of young Bengali activists and many Bangladeshis were drawn into political activity in the aftermath of the murder. This began a movement that eventually pushed the National Front out of Whitechapel, and helped affirm Bengali identity there.

The Anti-Nazi League and the Rock Against Racism movement were born out of the events of 1978.

Legacy

The name Altab Ali became a widely known symbol of resistance against racism generally and is associated with the struggle for human rights specifically in defence of the Bangladeshis in the UK after Bengali the community mobilised in May 1978 to defend itself against racist attacks that were represented in the murder of Altab Ali. As a response to persistent racial tension, residents began to organise neighbourhood committees and youth groups. His murder was the trigger for the first significant political organisation against racism by Bangladeshis.

Altab Ali Foundation was later set up which holds the annual commemoration to all victims of racism, staged in the former St Mary's Churchyard that was renamed Altab Ali Park by Tower Hamlets Council in 1979. Altab Ali Foundation soon became a movement against racism around the East End of London. The campaign against racism that took place after Ali's murder influenced the identification and association of the collective social and community image of British Bangladeshis in Tower Hamlets.

Every year since Ali's death an annual commemoration has taken place in Whitechapel in his memory. In October 2015, John Biggs, the Mayor of Tower Hamlets, announced that the borough would host an annual Altab Ali Commemoration Day.