In the opening article of this special Red Weekly pull-out, TARIO ALI explains what lies behind the racist upsurge, and the measures The last few months have seen a new phenomenon in the industrial centres of Britain. The Asian communities have begun to wake up, with the youth in the forefront.
Unwilling to sit back passively and accept the provocations of Powell, the National Front and the police, they have fought back in Bradford, in Birmingham and even in Southall, which was once known as the most passive black community in the country. The firebombing of Pakistani workers' homes in Hackney, the killing of Indian students in North-East London, and finally the death of a young Sikh in Southall have acted as catalysts in the present situation.
The militancy of the Asian youth stands in sharp contrast to the complete failure of the elders of the Asian community to deal with the situation. The plethora of Indian and Pakistani welfare associations and sections of the Indian Workers Association have always answered the complaints of their younger members with the word "patience'.
VICTORIES For the last twelve years they have been able to maintain their grip in the communities by playing on the fear which haunts every first-generation black immigrant in Britain — the fear of police harassment, of deportation, of losing his job, of his family not being allowed to join him. The office-holders of the various associations have been able to appear as the necessary buffer between him and the forces of 'law and order' This is still the case, but with one important difference. The young Asians (most of them born and educated here) are now determined to break with the conservatism which has characterised their communities. They have challenged both the fascists and the police. And equally important, they have won some important victories.
It is vital to stress that these victories have been won by taking to the streets, by extraparliamentary actions and by going totally outside the framework of community reformism and labourism. In that sense the events of the last few months are a clear indication that things will never be the same again.
Those black militants who used to try and theorise the passivity of the Asians towards the racists and fascists in the past by stressing that 'fascism and racism are a white problem' and should therefore be dealt with by white anti-racists have received a severe reprimand in the anti-racist mobilisations of the Asians. AND NOW?
The struggle against racism is, of necessity, a struggle which has to be waged on many fronts. All these fronts are of course interrelated, but each has its own relative independence. The first is a burning practical necessity: the need of black people to defend All experience in Britain has shown that the police are incapable of defending the blacks. Deeply infected with racism itself, the police force - the bulk of which is in any case drawn from the most backward strata of white Monday 21 June (Barnes Wallis Building, UMIST, 8pm)
Wednesday 23 June Thursday 24 June Sunday 27 June Tuesday 29 June of Enoch Powell and the National Front.
Racist attitudes in the ranks are so prevalent that few blacks have been able to stomach serving in the police force for more than a short period. All the efforts of Sir Robert Mark and the police hierarchy have been to no avail in attracting blacks to the police force a unique tribute to the deeply ingrained racism which infects that body of men and women.
So the demand for black self-defence is neither utopian nor ultra-left. It is a necessity for the black communities — a point which has been made effectively in Southall by the comrades of the Asian Socialist Forum. It is, however, essential to stress that black self-defence can only develop from within the black communities themselves. Any effort to substitute for this could be both counter-productive and ineffective.
The second front is the fight against racism within the labour movement. As long ago as 1888, Keir Hardie seconded a resolution at the TUC demanding a halt to all immigration of unskilled workers. Today TUC leaders mouth banalities about racial justice and racial harmony - but at the same time call for the abolition of the work permit quota for foreign nationals and stricter checks on illegal immigrants. And of course they defend the racist Wednesday 30 June Bradford Thursday 1 July Leeds Friday 2 July Birmingham Saturday 3 July Oxford Where no time or venue is given, please phone Red Weekly, 01-837 6954, for details society — is in fact sympathetic to the demands | immigration laws.
mere mas gration laws equally vehemently. conference.
other than .....
racist immigration laws in practice.
(General Wolfe, Foleshill Rd, 8pm)
Bristol N. London Nottingham A small fact symbolises racist attitudes in trade unions: the Transport & General Workers Union has tens of thousands of black members, but not a single black is a full-time official and been no dearth of applications!
The Labour Governments since 1964 have by their actions pandered to racism in an extremely blatant fashion. During the 1966 election campaign, Bob I'm not a racist but' Mellish, Crossman and Castle defended immiThere is no left/right divide in the party on the question of immigration. The left social democrats have not waged one single fight against any of the Immigration Acts, and even the Militant group, which has been active in the Labour Party for decades, has not managed to get immigration laws debated at a party At a recent informal meeting of Labour MPs with Maurice Ludmer (an anti-fascist activist from Birmingham), Phillip Whitehead MP went so far as to express the view that the recent orchestrated campaign of race hate in the press might have been inspired by none Callaghan! Whitehead is on the right wing of the party, but he has a rela tively better position than many other Labour MPs on racism. Even so, he too supports Socialists in the trade unions must develop an active anti-racialist current, supporting particularly the right of blacks to organise their own self-defence and to organise indep endently in defence of their interests inside the labour movement. This must be done even though it could adversely affect other activities. Recently in Blackburn, for instance, a number of shop stewards committees affiliated to the Right to Work Campaign withdrew when they discovered that the International Socialists behind it were not for "kicking the blacks out'.
For the same reason, propaganda which blames racism exclusively on the bosses is wide of the mark. It ignores the fact that the racist poison runs deep in the British working class and an antidote can only be found if one first acknowledges this fact.
It is simply not the case that the majority of the British ruling class have decided to play the racist card at this stage. Certainly some opportunist Tory politicians are calling for a halt to all black immigration (which is tiny in any case), and others are going a step further and floating the idea of voluntary repatriation. But they do this not because they are pawns of the CBI, but because they realise that it's a good way to win votes and further weaken Labour. And they are Labour cannot outbid the Tories in racism. That is why it is in the long-term interest of the labour movement itself to mount a vigorous struggle against racism now. In the ultimate analysis a failure to do this will result in the weakening of the strength of the labour movement as a whole.
The third front of struggle has to be an increasing involvement in local and national politics by black people. There is absolutely no reason why candidates of anti-racist united fronts should not participate in local elections and in some areas in national elections. In Southall, in particular, the election of antiracist councillors could provide a useful boost to the struggle as a whole.
In Blackburn, Leicester and Bradford the fascists obtained an alarmingly high vote in the recent local elections. But what is really indefensible is the fact that there was no organised anti-racist intervention other than that organised by the far left groups. New probing operations in this field, too, have there fore to be carried out in the coming period.
Above all, it is vital for us to understand that the anti-racist struggle is likely to be a long and arduous one. It will require a consistent intervention by the far left groups to get the issue even debated within the labour movement What is needed today is unity in action of all forces opposed to the racist immigration laws in order to attempt to forge a broader unity. The International Marxist Group will be taking further initiatives in this direction in the coming period in order to ensure that the projected national demonstration on 4 July is a massive success.
** Radio phone-in spots and the letters page of local newspapers are a haven for racist organisations to propagate their views. But not content with the normal facilities they offer to the racists, Tyneside's Radio Metro last week offered an exclusive studio spot to the Gateshead National Front organiser on their most important phone-in programme.
As soon as this was known, a picket rapidly assembled outside the radio station. Local and national media reported 100 militants laying siege' to the Metro studios. This was the product of immediate and united action by the left on Tyneside.
Called by the Tyneside Socialist Centre, support was drawn from the Newcastle Right to Work Committee (a body set up by Newcastle Trades Council), students in occupation at Northern Counties teacher training college, people who had attended an International Socialists meeting earlier in the evening, and Tyneside IMG.
*No platform for racists and fascists'; 'no poisonous attacks on the black community to be broadcast' -these were the demands presented to is OUR news an announcement that the NF organiser had failed to appear and was reported to be 'in fear of his life?
But the directors of Metro - one of whom is Sir John Hunter, director of the Swan Hunter shipyard - refused to allow the demonstrators' statement to be put on the air. At the same time phone calls likely to incite violence against the black community were streaming out from the studio despite previous assurances from the news editor that no such calls would be broadcast.
Incensed by this double-dealing the picket managed to occupy the studio. 'Some of my best friends are black', protested presenter James Whale when challenged on his own views on the race question. But the protesters began to conduct their own discussion after broadcasting their statement, stopping all calls with racist sentiments.
The mass audience gained by this direct action was able to hear the antiracist militants explain how the wide coverage given by the press to the inflammatory speeches of Powell and his ilk is used to legitimise the thuggery and racial violence employed by the fascist groups. Their action ets in Tower Hamlets following a Red Weekly 17 Jui Al where every speech calling for self-defence received thunderous applause
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needed to combat it HEAR TARIQ ALI SPEAK IN THE BUILD-UP TO THE 4 JULY DEMO -