Forty years after the most serious clashes in contemporary British history between the youths of the inner cities and the police, the name of Brixton and its memory merges with the recent activities of Black Lives Matter. The present essay examines the 1981 disturb-ances, which involved issues of race, class and public order, and shows how Thatcher’s governments tried to interpret the crisis of British society and the decline of the multicul-tural paradigm.
Keywords: Rivolte inglesi, Thatcherismo, Legge e ordine, Generazione Windrush