BOOST THE FIGHT AGAINST RACISM BY FUNDING YOUR PAPER 1 May 1979 Pages INTERVIEWING • police officer ubout the preparations for the N's Plymouth last week, a reporter from Independent Radio News began by sasing: 'You don't have an immigrant population here, so you don't have the same problem as in Southall.
The idea thai the "problem b black people and not racism B rooted in the days when Britain and the other European powers began to plunder most of the rest of the world, from the 15th century onwands.
It was slavery, involving the transportation of millions of Africans from their homelands to the colonies of the New fullest elaboration of racist ideas to justify the uprooting of whale concentration camp conditions on the plantations.
Early in the 17th century, commerce Britain experienced • vast expansion based on the revenue from the trule in black human And It was meeting development economics.
of TEMPUELES which provided an the uttitude Imperlalism in Africa: which required the and the MISSUSET TCHELLY merchaadise and the products of their captured labour.
the further of capitalism which prompled the sholition of the slave trade. Between of Hock 1884 and 1H98, most of Africa wis acquired by the European nations in order to service their Then as Cheap labour was needed on which were the spot to exploit the maturai the continent. time capital and excess production Imperialism was in its heyday.
Earl Grey politely expressed riots ATTISE Birmingham *Throughout this part of the British Dominions the coloured upon by the whites as an Inferior race. whose interests ought to be systematically the 1920. into competition with our own, The and who ought to be governed perfected with a view of the udvantage of the superior race.
For Earl Grey's class - the industrialists and financiers racism registered on the profit side of their balance sheets.
working class wus persuaded that the oppression ollier was their tow it was the failures of the capitalist system used to foster En the 19th century it was the then muinly Jewish and Irish, would be used to cut wages or cunse dilution in the skilled trades which led to anti-frish Liverpool and In 1919, lears of anemployment by white suilar brought ahout riots against black sailors in Cardiff, and the imposition # quotes for bucks i Ine National Viion of Seamen in Nazis in Germany scapegoating prepare Their path to power. and then — because divide and rule was in no way sutlicient to deal with the capitalists crisis - liquidated the organisations of the working class.
The National Front today aises the same ideas to violently oppose hlack people in Britain. many of whom were encour wieu to come nore in the si and '60s from the West Indies and the indian sah-continent lo fill low-paid jobs that white workers refused to de • Their verson for comine E summarised In a very simple statement: 'We're here hecause you were there - there, that is. wrenching the economies of the interests of the imperialise heartlands.
The white sense of superiority that racism upholds began After Southall lust week. when 5,000 police physically transformed an Asian com manity into a colony to allow s handful wi Varis to make their threats, no one should doubt that racism can continue fo justify any number of atrocities
call for strong police forces.
protects — capitalist property.
merchants have their way.
confronted.
During the past five years of Labour government there have been important developments in the law as it affecis the working class, and in the methods the state is employing to maintain order, In the space of just 12 weeks after Harold Wilson THE STATE has assumed 'THE purpose of security in its widest sense is to l protect a way of life." That statement could have come from the Labour or Tory manifestos, both of which In fact it was made by an executive of the Chubb private security firm, which makes no secret of what it This election campaign, which has seen thousands of police moved about the country to counter those Jefending democratic rights, has given a foretaste of the 'way of life' we can expect if the law and order RIC SISSONS looks at how the state has been strengthened over the past five years, and how it can be office, he calmly presided over three major police-army occupations of Heathrow airport in a vain search for "terrorists"
The presence of troops on the Sreets of Helfast and Derry had been a common sight, and it now becoming Britain.
ROF HE ARGE These laws have all been used The lessons and techniques from Ireland have not been lost on the police here Training in riot control and uns practice are now common. The plexi-glass riot shields are on hand for demonstrations decorant has be the growing presence of the Special Patrol Group, The SPC was sct up in 1965 under a Labour government This 200-strong London-based force of shock troops has inspired the formation of the Commando Squad in Lincolnshire, the Special Squad in Lancashire, vices Squad in Bristol, and the Birmingham SPG.
The SPCi's first victims were two young occupants of the Indian embassy. deployed in areas with large black communities, such strikes, the level of co-ordina notable the Special Sercapabilities more than Heavily lingerprints Brixton and Hackney, their | million. latest victim was Blair Peach The police have also been stepping up their surveillance harass through their based Hendon. Operational in 1974, were black.
135m. Has been apent to ensure that nearly four million peopie are on file, with Suretary.
By country.
bocE anolher deportation Hosenball trial.
There are an array of laws under which the police can people on the strocts.
In 1975. 30,000 people were arrested on Sus. Half of them Two major new laws were introduced limiting democratic rights. The 1977 Criminal Law Act makes it easier to stop factory occupations and squattin the Prevention of Terrorism Act. passed by Parliament one night in 1974 afler the Birmingham bombines, allows the police to detain people for 1K hours without charging them and for a further five days with the approval of the.
December 1978, 3.589 the PTA. Of these, onis 24 were charged under the Act, and a further 160 excluded from che Freedom of Information has victim of the Labour government. with the Agee and for which the government tefused to give an explanation — and the ABC The growing baison between different parts of the apparatus was never clearer than in recent strikes.
East London Teachers Association mourning the death of BLAIR PEACH our ex-President We have lost a man who was not only an anti-racist but a dedicated socialist who fought and worked on issues inside and outside the union He played an important role int a variety of campaigns: the During the FRU strike, For example, co-ordinating committees were set up nationally and regionally with represen tatives of the Home Office, the police, the Aims and tire service officers They were based in Territorial Amas buildings and used police opcration rooms.
The Labour government has done much to defend capitalist law and order, as Callaghan has been so anxious lo explain Attacks on basic working class rights can never have been more severe and calculated than at The same brand of law and order has been on behalf of the Nazis National Front, A Labour secretary gives go-ahead for Southall to be turned into a police state to protect a bunch of racists, while the Public Order Act is used to divert a demonstration from the NF headquarters.
The lesson of the past five years is that the working class cannot rely on the legal syatem The bosses' way of life can only be challenged by workers organising independently of the state. To GO otberwise will ensure their laws and their order