Labour's back-down before the racists over the years has inevitably led it into a position where it is openly prepared to implement racist laws. The present Immigration Act, although introduced by the Tories in 1971, is merely a refinement of previous laws which have served to legalise and justify the racism Blacks face in every aspect of their lives.
The racism implicit in this - and previous - Acts is not just limited to the fact liat, under its 'patrial' clause, it discriminates against Biacks entering the country purely oi grounds of colour. Its racist bias permeates into tre very lives of those few who do manage to sei past tue 'immigration officials! and enter the country: It reduces them, effectively, to second-ciass citize is inrust into dead-end jobs and denied ile mosi eleme. tary of rights. Back-lash Far from being a 'legal oddity', therefore, the 1971 Immigration Act (and its predecessors) has become a legal I'cover! for racial prejudice. After all, if it is accepted that Black people can be denied entry on grounds of colour - and denied basic rights on the same grounds - racism has received official sanction. All the Race Relations Acts in the world cannot alter this basic fact.
The fact that the Labour leaders have helped to create - and implement - such Acts is extremely dangerous. Such an attitude, which tacitly admits that Blacks are to blame for high unemployment & poor housing, has helped to create a climate of legalised' racism which right - wing demagogues like Powell will increasingly feed off. Powell is, after all, with his talk of voluntary repatriation, merely taking to a logical conclusion the racist implications in the Acts which Labour helped introduce in the 'sixties. As Robert Moore suggests, in his study 'Racism and Black Resistance', once ".. you play the numbers game, then Black people already nere, and every Black child born here, becomes a problem and the discussion shifts to questions of deportation".
The danger of such an attitude is only too clear