labour which could be drawn upon to meet the needs of this expansion.
The importation of each adult worker represented a vast saving on education and training for the British state. It was also possible for employers to pay black workers even lower wages than had previously been paid to European migrant workers, such as the large number of Polish people who came over after the Second World War.
But as the boom came to an end, and the question of race was thrust into political prominence by the Notting Hill riots, British industrialists and politicians began to look to the European system. This system of migratory labour was both more profitable and more efficient for the ruling class. ZAHARIA GALIARA with her husband. Her baby daughter died at birth after Zaharia was detained at Heathrow. Racist security men had to be shown the baby's head emerging before they postponed her deportation. Whereas Commonwealth immigrants had the right to settle in Britain, immigrants in European were without political rights and their stay could be terminated when the situation dictated decrease in the level of employment.
Thus a shift began in Britain towards a system which would establish a rigid distinction between citizens and aliens - a shift of which the Nationality Bill is the latest expression.
But not all ties were cut with the Commonwealth. British capital wanted to be able to attract trained and skilled workers - doctors, teachers and the like — who could be integrated without the expense of training into the social services, then undergoing a period of rapid expansion.
The Tories introduced 1962 Commonwealth Immigration Act. Settlement was only allowed for those with employment vouchers, which were restricted in number. By 1964 vouchers for unskilled workers had been choked off. In 1965 a ceiling of 8,500 vouchers was established by the of Harold Already the screws had been tightened on black immigrants. Labour capped this with its explicitly racist 1968 Commonwealth Immigration Act.
Campaign Faced with a strong campaign against the entrance of Kenvan Asians expelled by the Kenyatta Government, the Labour Government capitulated. The Home Secretary, Jim Callaghan, introduced measures denying the right of residence in the United Kingdom to UK passport holders who did not have parents or grandparents born in Britain- in other words, those who were black.
The final removal of all significant distinction between black British or Commonwealth citizens and workers of any other nationality wishing to enter the country came with the Tories 1971 Immigration Act. Entrance is now only for those with a specific job awaiting them in Britain. Immigrants can be deported on the nod of the Home Secretary. British citizenship can only be applied for after five years residence. Such workers cannot change their job without permission from the Department of Employment within the first 12 months of residence.
Black British and Commonwealth citizens have no right to enter the country. In addition, relatives wishing to join "non-patrials' have to fight their way through a jungle of red tape Success is dependent on the ability of relative concerned to prove immigration officials that BY THEIR FRIENDS SHALL YE KNOW Impartially, one might adjudge that the words of the Labour Party have been more unrealistic, but that their actions have belied their words. In 1964 they not only broke their pledge to repeal the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, but imposed further restrictions, administratively in 1965 and legislation in 1968. ENOCH POWELL in his banned City of London speech, 10 November.
they are who they claim to be.
As in the recent case of Zaharia Galiara, whose baby died as a result of her detention and attempted deportation at Heathrow Airport, dependants can be refused for the most arbitrary or easons In this way the transition to a European style migrant labour system has been prepared. The importation of labour is now tightly controlled by the state according to economic or political criteria.
The Labour Government has not ICC spelled out the contents of the new Nationality Bill beyond Lyon's statement in March. But the overall effect will undoubtedly be to clamp down on the rights of large numbers of people still living, still marrying and having children, still needing to move across borders.
This will be combined with two measures that do not require legislation: a register of immigrant dependants, and an increased surveillance by the police of the immigrant community in the hunt for illegal immigrants.
Racists Labour in office has always accommodated to the demands of the racists and the needs of big capital. The Nationality Bill lays the cap stone on the new system of contract labour that has been established in Britain through successive immigration laws. The illusion that there is a nationalist solution to Britain's crisis that can unite bosses and workers is sustained by the endless chatter of the lefts around import controls.
That nationalist poison is continued in their refusal to fight for the repeal of all immigration laws, which proclaim that black workers in this coun try are somehow responsible for the lack of jobs, housing, education and the rest of the social services. Nation alism not only seeks to unite the bosses and workers, but it divides the working class.
The lefts must be forced to fight for the implementation of the Labour Party conference resolution on racism. This paper will be campaigning for the repeal of all immigration laws and the free movement of all workers across national boundaries.
BUILD THE 21 NOVEMBER DEMONSTRATION!
AN END TO ALL IMMIGRATION LAWS!