aliens - liable to arbitrary deportation. This whole process gave the police the necessary tool to harass and brutalise blacks.
The pattern of events in 1919 and 1958 has lessons for us in understanding the basis of the increasing anti-black feelings amongst the white working class today. Economic recession, fear and insecurity and racist propaganda have not only created a situation of anti-black riots in Britain but also in Europe. It is not only the British State that uses black immigration control to divide the working class and place the blame for the effects of economic recession on black labour.
It is vital to conduct a concerted campaign against the myth that blacks are responsible for the economic failings of capitalism. It is therefore necessary to challenge all immigration controls, because what such controls do is to give credence to the ideas used by racist and fascist organisations to gain support for their anti-working class project.
* The section of this article dealing with the race riots of 1919 relies heavily on Black and White: The Negro and English Society 1555-1945 by James Walvin.