That was how the three black defendants in the Spaghetti House siege trial at the Old Bailey responded to the court when mair trial opened last WeeK. win bacK Power salutes, and banners reading 'Bury mascism and rreecom trom oolice orutality', they turned their backs to the whole shabby, lying misrepresentation of the affair by the press, police and law, and refused to recognise the court.
Who are the defendants, and why are they making this protest?
Wesley Dick, Tony Munroe, and Frank Davies have all three been involved in black community politics, most notably the Marcus Garvey School for black chuaren raciniy downeraded under the present education system. Wesley Dick was also involved in the Pan African Congress. Their commitment to these struggles sprang from first-hand experience of conditions in the black communities today - large-scale unemployment twice the rate for waites, rising to 40-50 per cent amongst black youths in some cities. nomelessness. ciscrimina tion in schools, and continual, increas ing racist harassment by the police. FIVE HUNDRED YEARS!
FRANK DAVIES All this, together with the political demands issued by the three during the siege, was concealed by the police and the press at the time of the siege, and is now being concealed during the trial. This way wey nose to oresent Ine Tina vero ict as a sentence tor a common crime, without political connotations or motives.
But although the authorities claim at tnev want to keep politics out 01 the affair, their motive for doing so is itself clearly political. The racist harassment of countless young blacks (without jobs or homes because of discrimination from birth) results from a clear policy of quelling youth opposition with bullying brutality, frame-ups and heavy sentences So also the policy applied to these three has been clearly to isolate, discredit and deny the relevance to the case of the institutionalised discrimination and narassment which recuces voung bacK: to a simple struggle for survival (and hence the impasse of petty crime) under the present set-up.
The real guilt in the Spaghetti House trial lies with the racist system of exploitation, discrimination and harassment which put Dick, Munroe and Davies in the dock - and with all those who go along with it. Our task is not TO MOUTT ITS VICHIMS DUT TO TOnT TO DUT an end to that system itself. Or we too will end up sharing the guilt.
Sheila Matone NAME. WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE IMG? We have been at the forefront in mobilising against the racist upsurge, not only in the labour movement but also among the black communities (at right: special leaflets produced in Urdu and Punjabi).
If you would like to know more about our activities, fill in the form below and send it to: International Marxist Group, 97 Caledonian Road, London N.1.
Red Weekly 17 June 1976 500 companies provide goods and serbeen the developing crisis of the Loyal. Ireland/Spain 9