IT IS clear that the growing offensive of the working class against Thatcher's attacks will mean greater use of the police and other repressive bodies of the state. For example, the events in Southall, hospitalisation of Vauxhall pickets at Harwich, the Kelly and Cavanagh campaigns on Merseyside. Blair Peach's death wasn't the first and certainly won't be the last.
An important point of principle has been raised in this situation especially over the events of 23 April in Southall. The article in Socialist Challenge of 18 October said 'we should be considering a writ in the High Court to demand that (magistrates) Badge, Cook, Canham and McDermott are biased and that they should be removed from the bench'.
Accompanying the article was a photograph of posters reading 'Public Enquiry Now' — a slogan which was also mentioned many times in the reports of the Blair Peach pickets.
Both of these demands go against our principle of class independence. What does it mean to call for a public enquiry? Is it like the one Lord Widgery headed which whitewashed the Paratroop Regiment's murder of 14 unarmed people in Derry in 1972? Or Lord Scarman's enquiry into the police-murder of Kevin Gately in Red Lion Square, which blamed the IMG for his death?
Or does it mean Tariq Ali, Len Murray, Home Secretary Willie Whitelaw and John Methven of the CBI, heading a jury elected from the so-called 'general public'?
Revolutionary socialists call for none of these. We call for a trade union/labour movement enquiry. Why?
Phrases like the 'general public' and 'national interest' are constantly used by the media to hide the fact that the 'public' is divided up into two classes. The capitalist class uses everything in its power to divide and beat back the working class.
Another important reason why we call for labour movement enquiries is to encourage the self-activity and confidence of the working-class. Only working people have any interest in finding out the truth about Blair Peach's death, not his killers.
Our watchword is class independence! Our slogan is labour movement enquiry!
MARK TURNBULL, Liverpool