Ranjit Must Stay

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narassment ana a growing lan communities were THE Precinct Six Defence they were walking with five Camnaion' is oronnisino a de- ather neonle in Leeds Citv Eddie Horner killed a policeman. Fleet Street was quick to rejoice at his jail sentence not so quick to ask why it all happened. Andrew Hornung Eddie Horner was knocked down by a scab truck on the Laurence Scotts picket line 500 nannle ed the demonstration in Sheffield on Saturday February 12 against the deportation of Ranjit Chakravorty, a leading member of the Bengali community in Sheffield.

, It was part of the campaigns in Sheffield reflecting both increased police Whitelaw: deportations supremo investigates THE biggest selling papers on Saturday February 11 were, of course, the Daily Mirror and the Sun. Millions of workers and their families - maybe 20 million people - will have picked one of these papers up. Of them, several million will have read the court's verdict on Eddie Horner: "20 years for Precie Wile killed cop 1s caged for life" (Sun).

The facts, according to the Sun, were simple. Eddie Horner was "obsessed with politics" "shy chess-playing bookworm" , a loner who didn't join his workmates in reading girlie magazines, "crackpot cop-hater" weapons-freak "'who dreamed of starting a bloody revolution"

Apart from that and extracts from the judge's speech, all we learned is that Horner led two others in a raid on a factory from which he had been sacked: that they were stopped by policeman Jimmy Porter and some members of the firm's management; and that Horner shot Porter dead. awareness ana connaence in the Asian communities in Sheffield.

The demonstration was organised by the Asian Youth Movement, who mobilised for the event as well as significant sections from the local labour movement.

Problems inside the AsPreThe Mirror offered no alternative: same page, same length article, similar pictures of the widow and children, same picture of Horner and similar praise for the dead policeman (''Cop who cared").

But of course Britain is a democracy. Workers don't have to buy the Sun or the Mirror. They can buy the middle class Guardian. There the story - which, naturally, includes the obligatory obituary to the policeman who 'loved people" and "hardly ever lost his temper" - is more enlightening.

On September 22 1981, Horner and 42 other workers took part in a one-day unofficial strike over a new pay deal that would have cut their wages by £10 a week. The employer, Chamberlain Phipps byllpaper factory in Bisnop Aukland responded by sacking the lot.

"'They were refused unemployment benefit on the grounds that they might be re-instated and £12.50 a week was docked from the supplementary benefit paid to their dependents on the flected by a counter-demonstration of around 40 Asiars of a different religion, mainly reflecting the more right-wing sections of the Bengali community. They were playing right into the hands of state racism by chanting the slogan, 'Ranjit must go' Ranjit's case has been taken up by Sheffield Labour MPs Joan Maynard and Martin Flannery.

They have spoken to Home Secretary Whitelaw about Ranjit's case, and brought public attention to it in Sheffield.

Ranjit has been given support from Sheffield City Council and from many trade union branches in Sheffield.

The march ended with a rally at Sheffield City Hall, where the militancy of the Asian community was reflected in speeches indicating that in some respects sections of the Asian communities are becoming far more advanced as regards the role of the state than many white workers.

Despite labour movement support, one of the official slogans of the march was 'Labour, Tory, both the same/They both presumption that they would be receiving strike pay ... One of Horner's workmates, Chris Jackman, had £22 a week for his wife and six children."

Maybe Horner was a weapons freak as the Sun suggests; the Guardian made that ha had lawr repons cal nt nau long been a member of a gun club. Maybe he was a psychopath. I don't know.

What we do know is that he had used his democratic right to strike - while his employer had used his democratic right to sack 43 unrhare and enniamn their WULACED ALL LULUCHI VICH families to at least temporary poverty.

We know too that he had appealed to the welfare state (which duly deprived play the racist game .

Yet after the odious record of successive Labour governments, the Sheffield labour movement has at last begun to put its weight behind the Asian community's struggle. Slogans like this - though understandable — will only hinder that process going further into the rank and file of the white working class. legation to the Leeds City Council meeting on March 9 as part of its protest against the jail sentences imposed on Les Haw and Mohan Pipial.

On February 16 an Appeal Court upheld sentences of six weeks (for Les Haw) and three months (for Mohan Pípial) on charges of threatening and abusive behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace' Mohan and Les were arrested on July 17 when him of part of his entitlement on the basis of two presumptions, both of which turned out to be wrong).

Nor did Horner pick up the gun then. The strikers put their case to Derek Foster, their local MP. rusher Iespunutu Factor roonandor armle and he spoke to the honourable members of the House of Commons on the plight of the strikers. Once again the appeal to democracy proved fruitless.

All this time Horner and other workers continued to art as anor democrats: thev took part in a series of peaceful protests and pickets of the factory. The courts responded by recognising the democratic It is the responsibility of white labour movement activists to show their active commitment to the fight against racism from the state and in the labour movement itself, and thus to make sure that the Asian working class are not alienated from the workers' movement.

DAVE AYRTON Centre. Two policemen told the group to split up, and when they protested Mohan and Les were arrested.

The Defence Campaign believes that Mohan and Les have been victimised for their political activity and their support jor the paper 'Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!' Contact: Precinct 6 Defence Campaign, c/o LAP, 59 Cookridge St, Leeds 2. rights of the factory owners - and issued an order banning the protesters from the industrial estate where the factory was situated.

But Horner seems to have been a patient man. 'He lobbied his union, the TIIO and tha Tahnur Party The National Union of Footwear, Leather and Allied Trades refused to make the strike official, and the TUC would not back it." mined man. With a deter- And Horner was striker, he marched the 288 miles to london to present a petition. In Doncaster, on the way to London, the two joined the, picket at the Laurence Scott works, the scene of considerable police

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Socialist Organiser no.121 February