All Together Now was an anti-racist festival held in Deptford in April 1978. According to a contemporary report:
''All Together Now' was the name of ALCARAF's (All Lewisham Campaign Against Racism and Fascism) multicultural festival which ran for three Saturdays before the local authority elections.
A Community resource centre, the Albany, and a community theatre the Combination under an ALCARAF banner had the idea of celebrating the multicultural nature of Deptford as a positive step against the National Front's propaganda. So they built a beautiful bandstand on a derelict site in the middle of the busy Deptford market place and made fun and festivities with reggae music, morris dancers, medicine shows about racism, bag pipes, Chilean children dancers and the Kent Miners Band.
Around the main stage was a market of 35 stalls from political parties, anti-racist groups and community organisations. They gave away information, talked to people about their campaigns and sold food and artifacts from many cultures'.
This was a period when the far right National Front had been gaining momentum in Deptford and other areas, but they didn't make the breakthrough in 1978 which they had been hoping for. The festival seems to have taken place in Douglas Way SE8, before the construction of the current Albany theatre building. The original Albany was at 47 Creek Road and later that year, in December 1978, was seriously damaged in a fire which ALCARAF and others believed was caused by a far right arson attack partly prompted by its role in putting on the festival:
'ALCARAF believes the fire was started deliberately. We have said we think there is every probability that this was the work of the National Front or their supporters. We are aware that in this we are directly contradicting the official statements of the Greenwich police. We are in fact gravely concerned at the apparent indifference to this attack. We intend to try to bring pressure to bar on the Home Office and to insist that suspected racist and fascist crimes are treated with the they deserve.
Before doing however, we must explain our reasons for reaching the conclusions above. These can be summarised as follows:
1) the expert opinion of the fire officer in charge of the case is that the fire was almost certainly started deliberately.
2) The Albany Empire and the Combination theatre group who are based there are well-known for their work in the field of race relations.
3) The Albany Institute is affiliated to ALCARAF and they played the major part in staging with us the 'All Together Now' festival in Deptford in the three weeks prior to the May local council elections. We believe this helped significantly in bringing about the National Front's resounding electoral defeat in Lewisham.
4) A note claiming to come from 'Column 88' (believed to be the paramilitary wing of the fascist movement in Britain) and indicating responsibility was delivered to the Albany shortly afterwards'..
Source for festival report: Community Action, no. 37, May - June 1978 - check out the excellent online archive of this publication. Source for ALCARAF statement on Albany fire: 'Stages in the Revolution: Political Theatre in Britain Since 1968' by Catherine Itzin.
