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Thwaites THE RIOTS may have stopped, but the penalty the youth arrested have to pay hasn't.

Many youth are still being held in remand centres. In Risley remand centre, where many of the people arrested in Liverpool 8 were sent, Anne Harris has gone on hunger strike as a protest against her being refused bail.

But the press has been silent. As far as they are concerned, the 3,000 arrested might as well have been wiped off the face of the earth.

Bones

"Even for those who do get hail, it is often on the basis of a 9-5 curfew and others have to report to the police every day. Complaints made against police treatment when in jail go completely unheard.

In Moss Side, when Anthony Doyle went to the police station to make a complaint he was beaten up. 'Positive policing' in Merseyside, has lead to numerous injuries, broken bones, and the killing of David Moore.

A Birmingham youth sent to Brockhill Remand Centre after being beaten up told Socialist Organiser: "Conditions at Brockhill were awful. A remand centre only designed for 180 youth had 370 people in it.

"The screws had a free hand to harass and beat up any youth who stood up for themselves and kept their pride.

"It's a terrible feeling being locked up - especially when you know you've done nothing.

"The three screws who are suspected of having murdered Barry Prosser in Winson Green Prison have been transferred to Brockhill. The attitude of the screws, combined with overcrowding and the fighting spirit of the youth led to a riot inside the remand centre.

«Youth were being dragged into the corridors and beaten with riot sticks to 'restore order""

Kangaroo

And in Nottingham youth were refused legal representation before they went into court.

Police said they'd better plead guilty or they wouldn't get out. One officer told them they had no chance as this was a kangaroo court.

Sentences have been three months or even six months for threatening Skirmish in Liverpool the youth behaviour. The NCCL and the trades council in Nottingham have set up inquiries into the behaviour of the police.

And what of the leaders of the labour movement? What have they been saying? All we've got from the TUC has been the programme for the regeneration of the cities - nothing about the arrested youth.

Nothing. about the treatment handed out the youth.

We must not stand and let this happen.

The National Left Wing Youth Movement of the LPYS is organising defence ilsi.

now labour must defend meetings all over the country and has produced a special broadsheet on the riots.

But that is not enough. These youth must be defended and won to the ranks of the labour movement. We need a national campaign of meetings, pickets of the courts, and leaflets by Labour Parties and trade unions - to show they stand on the side of the youth in jail.

Support the Labour Youth Defence Campaign initially sponsored by Wallasey LPYS, c/0 Wallasey Labour Club, Church Rd., Seacombe, Merseyside.