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Forty years on, Altab Ali is not forgotten
LYNNE WALSH looks forward to an event marking the racist murder of a young Bengali worker in London
Catalyst: Altab Ali's murder sparked protests in the Bengali community [Paul Trevor]

MAY 4 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Altab Ali, an immigrant clothing worker who came to Britain as a teenager and laboured in a clothing workshop in Hanbury Street off Brick Lane in London.

The day Ali was killed in 1978 was the day of local elections. There were 50 seats in Tower Hamlets, with the National Front fielding 43 candidates.

They had been organising in the area for a few years regularly, with a paper sale at the corner of Brick Lane and Bethnal Green Road and a bookstall selling Did Six Million Really Die? They frequently terrorised the local Bengali community.

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