Stop this tide of racism!
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-12-16Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 6 →
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6400 years of conquest and looting, centuries of being told that you are superior to the fuzzywuzzies and the wogs, leave their stain on you all; such a stain seeps into every part of your culture, your language and your daily life; and nothing much has been done to wash it out... 'British thought and British society has never been cleansed of the filth of imperialism. It is still there, breeding lice and vermin, waiting for unscrupulous people to exploit it for their own in a recent Channel Four broadcast John Fernandes, a black paign for accountability part-time lecturer at the it is unlikely to stick to college, leaked 17 police this promise. in Britain' to City Limits racist' immigration controls magazine. All but one were are proposed as an altercrudely racist, many on native. Why have immigraNational Front lines. The tion controls at all?
The labour movement has a duty to support self-defence of black communities swiftly - by sacking unemployment and other street unless an arrest has case shows that a real been made or there is clear attempt by elected au- cr • Last malina plastic bullets and water needs to be roused to an Under a new Tory Bill threat is just as dangerous their powers to 'stop and as it was in the mid-'70s -search' ', and to detain in fact more so. without charge, will be What policies should the increased. And the author- labour movement have?
College last week settled formally committed to any doubts about the bias repeal of the 1968 and 1971 of the force that will use immigration laws. But College need defence now against adeshis fight back Kings, and that children who Law Centre, 593 Stockport Demonstrating against deportations: Rochdale, January '81 are under 18 at the time of Road, Manchester 12:
Now the DHSS and Government decided to cut Home Office have ruined off his money and next he Basil's and his family's was unable to take up his life. course. Now they will be First their electricity was forced to leave the country. IN the 1979 general election the National Front was trounced. In socialst Organiser we commented, however, that: "The demoralisation that may well follow the Tory victory, a rise in unemployment and the tide of social reaction and 'respectable' racism which the new government will invoke, all provide the best conditions for the National Front to grow in' And so, while antiracist and anti-fascist campaigns have generally dwindled, both otticial racism and the activity of fascist groups like the NF and British Movement have increased.
After the riots in summer 1981 - in which black youth played a major but not exclusive role - the police tried to get their own back. The 'Bradford , black activists charged acquitted after a major campaign, but hundreds of youth faced jail or heavy fines.
The police in many areas are now armed with cannon as well as CS gas.
ities at Hendon Police those powers. ends'. cadets' • essays on 'Blacks college authorities reacted Fernandes.
Racist violence Cuttinues on the streets.
Roused
The labour movement awareness that the racist The Labour Party.. is without a renewed camSalman Rushdie, Even on the left, 'nonIt is just not true that economic problems are caused by too many people' • Britain's population is nearly static (growing at 0.1% a year) -and, very often, rapid population growth goes together with economic booms. In the 19th century, when Europe's economy mushroomed with the rise of capitalism, its population doubled. So far as natural resources are concerned, Britain's population could very well 'increase rapidly again -to the same density as Belgium, say, or Holland.
At the moment, families are considered gulity of deception until they can prove their innocence to the satisfaction of Home Office officials. The campaign lis demanding that all families be assumed as genuine unless the Home Office can prove that they are not.
Finally the BDFC demands that families be allowed to be present at uner own apped. thair annanl IN July Basil Gwatidzo went to sign on at the dole. He is black, so the clerk at the Dhss oince was suspicious and asked him for his passport.
er' , was deported at 24 hours notice, even though on official government It is the crazy logic of the capitalist system of production for profit which generates unemployment and housing shortages -and generated them in the 1930s, too, when there were very few black people in Britain.
Only if you see black people as 'a problem' is immigration a problem. People should be free to live and work where they choose.
Labour's Programme '82 proposes . to 'prohibit searches of persons in the the first application should not de aısquanied ırom further application as a result of Home Office delays.
The BDFC involves families from the Oldham, Rochdale, Ashton, Manchester and Leeds areas, and is calling for public support in defence of basic human rights, against the racist procedures and attitudes of the Home Office.
Mantont, ola Maarhaotor This led to a Home Office check. Basil was told he could have 'no recourse to public funds' and must leave the country.
Basil came to Britain condition that they flew out on the 25th.
One deportee, a student evidence tnat an orrence has been committed'; to disband the Special Patrol Group; to set up a procedure 'accountable to local communities' for complaints against the police; and to 'create elected police authorities' which would take over many of the powers at present kept by Chief Constables. It hopes ararirato rarialict ROTTOIANT behaviour and attitudes within the police' The Hendon 1975, being forced to leave Zimbabwe by the racist Smith regime. He and his family have settled here, and he was expecting to start a course this October through to our High commission on the phone.' The same treatment is UNITY iS STRENGTA noriues o comoat ponce racsim would mean a fuliscale confrontation with the whole police hierarchy. Either Labour would back down and be satisfied with empty gestures -and that's what would happen if Labour's present leaders decided the matter - or Labour would have to be ready to create labour movement/community pat- marament /ramminitu nat. rols in place of the police.
Black communities also at Leeds University. fascist gangs and even against racist police. In onmo aranG hlark. celfDULLIE WWAI defence groups have been set up: they should have labour movement support, which can develop into united black/white WOrkers' defence groups.
And as a precondition for all policies and promises; the labour movement needs to cleanse itself of racism. Fascists should be expelled from the unions.. racists LIVELA VLAV should by purged from all positions in the labour movement, positive discrimination should be operated to get fair representation of blacks in those positions, and trade unions and Labour Parties should launch special campaigns, with literature in appropriate languages, for recruitment in the black communities.
Only when the mostly white labour movement rids itself of racism sufficiently to allow real black/ white workers' unity will a serious ight for socialism be possible; and only a fight for socialism can preserve that unity. For the squalid battle for existence in decaying capitalism generates racism as surely as sewers breed rats. cut off, then Basil had to leave Bradford when the
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