On the night of the murder, while the police were at the scene, a red Vauxhall Astra drove past. It was full of white youths laughing and jeering. It came back a few minutes later.
The attack on Stephen was part of a spate in the area carried out by racists.
Activists in south east London remember how the racists were left to rampage for years—while the police turned their fire on them.
In May 1993, just a few weeks after Stephen Lawrence’s murder, openly sieg-heiling BNP councillor Derek Beacon was elected on the Isle of Dogs.
Duwayne Brooks was Stephen Lawrence’s best friend and was with him when he was murdered. He was a victim of a racist attack and a witness to that attack.
Within days of Stephen’s murder, people were out on the streets leafleting and petitioning. There were two demonstrations in the next ten days through Eltham.
At the Socialist Workers Party conference national secretary Charlie Kimber introduced a session on building the party.
Weyman Bennett from the central committee introduced a session on riots, racism and anti-fascism.
Leading off the session on students, Hannah Dee spoke of a "new radical left" inside the universities that has been built up during the student movement.
An important discussion took place about women’s oppression. Delegates discussed the fight against sexism. They also wanted to ensure that women were leading within the party.
Here we reproduce an archive Socialist Worker article from the 1998 Macpherson Inquiry which probed the police's failure to solve Stephen's murder. Police attacked a demonstration outside the inquiry as Stephen's killers came to give evidence
Socialist Worker was one of the first newspapers to highlight the Stephen Lawrence case. We have been part of the campaign for justice for 19 years and have helped expose how police racism and corruption let the killers walk free for so long.
