-How long have you been living here? What work do you do?
I came to Birmingham three vears ago, and have been living in the East End for one and a half years. I work in a tailor's, making ladies coats. -How do the attacks on Pakistanis happen? Sometimes people come and ask the time; if you can't answer, they just punch you. Or they may ask for a cigarette. or matches: when the Pakistan starts to give them, they will take out a knife and say give us money I have been attacked three times. Once I was going to a said, "Do you want me? i said, "No. Then 15 or 16 white fellows want me. came to beat me. They broke my head. I called for the police: they took me. police only tone, ame the pride or one cattind people who were working there, and another Pakistani › was in another room, all Pakistanis; I was charged with fighting, although I said the others had started it.
case hasn't been heard vet.
Another time | was going to a party: I was running:
Another time I was beaten up, I told the police, but got a lawyer tor mysell, and paid tor him-he is a Pakistani-because my English is bad. - Up to now you say you haven't fought back. Are you LOWE TO HERE HOW Now, it anyone attacks me, i snair ugni, i nave to defend myself. Before I didn't fight with anyone. If l want to stay in this country, 1 shall have to defend myself. It they come with a knue, we shan take a come with a gun, we shall take a gun. If knife. If they hey come with a petrol bomb, we shall take a petrol bomb. If thev are going to throw the petrol bomb, we must throw the petrol bomb; otherwise we will die -Do you have a way of communicating with your friends if anyone is beaten up?
We get information about people being beaten up by telephone; we have to tell each other if anyone is beaten uD If it was in my country, I could beat them; but when I can't speak English, it's difficult.
-Do most of the Pakistanis living here agree that you must fight back?
Many of my friends agree; most of my community. We must not be dogs or animals, but men, in this countrv Some are scared: they don t speak English they say this is not my country, I shall be here two or three years, then go home, so it's not worth fighting. Before everyone thought we should not fight; now, if we are beaten, 1ou want to ugnt back, zo don want - Do some people not want to fight because e they want to have good relations with the police, to rely on the police? home paled on dole musty vonne reyes. We are stronger than English peopie, because wei mower feed them with their bottles, our mothers feed us from ttempt to reduce the militancy of the Pakistar 'ommunitv: bv claiming that the police ar doing their best", and by denying the existence of racialism, both among the police and in the population and the skinhead gangs themselves; it is merely, they say, a question of "a few The authorities have attempted to give the impression that Tosir Ali was murdered by Pakistanis, not by whites. The police issued a statement that skinheads were not involved in the murder of Tosir Ali; in answer to enquiries, they said that they thought it was a matter of private vengeance between Pakistanis, but admitted that they had "no evidence either way". They also picked up a Pakistani named Ryaset Ullah, who had been beaten up on two occasions, had been ignored by the police, and had had his story publicised in the press and on TV; they took him to the police station, kept him about six hours, accused him of murdering Tosir Ali, told him he was "a liar, fucking Moslem" when he denied it, and beat him up; the evidence which apparently allowed them to avenge themselves for the publicity was that Ullah had taken a suit stained with blood from his beatings-up to the laundry. Other Pakistani "suspects" have been similarly questioned and natassee Clapping and Subservience On Saturday April 18th a public meeting was called by the quite unrepresentative Nationa federation of Pakistani Associations. It meeting was intended to undermine the effects f a meeting previously called for Sunday b he militant Pakistani Workers' Union (PWÚ). The Saturday meeting was filled partly with Pakistanis brought in from Birmingham and West London, some of them, like the officers of the Nationa Hederation restaurant owners with property interests at stake; but it nevertheless drew only about 600 people, compared with over 1,000 on Sunday. It was a manifestation of extreme Uncle Tomism. On he platform were two police officers anc Mr. Peter Shore. MP. who had originally been invited to the Sunday meeting, but had chosen to come to the obedient clapping and subservience of Saturday's meeting. The speeches were a series of appeals to Pakistanis not to "take the law into their own hands"; the only speaker who did not make such an appeal was Bishop Trevor Huddlestone, who made the point that law and order based on racialism was Shore and the policemen claimed, to clapping, that they were doing all they could. They used the meeting to deny the existence of racialism, or "bad community feeling" , as Shore preferred to put it. Shore thought that television had made "a grave error in exposing the existence and views of the skinhead "Paki bashers". The police stated: "If a Pakistani js assaulted, he is not being singled out by any group as far as we know " The police, they said, would do everything in their power to protect everybody, whether Pakistani, Chinese or English, "white, brown, yellow, pink or blue" Bui they also attempted to blame the Pakistanis or what was happening . Pakistanis must realise hat they were part of British society, and tha the police were servants of this society; they ant undoretond Rrifich lawe and thou didn?t said we should take our difficulties to "the powers that be", that immigrants had to show ne nost populacion tney were shutul and use ful, people of honour and credit, that only over my dead body" would violence be used against violence, that he worked in close collaboration with the police, and that nobody could tell him black was derogatory; it just happened he was over-baked. Interruptions from the audience were smothered and profusely apologised for.
Harassment This meeting seems to have been the culmination of a series of attempts, by police agents, Uncle Toms and others, to sow confusion among the Pakistani community, and ntroduce doubts among people previousl aw une or me neen co organise chelow protection; doubts based on talk of Communists , extremists, advocates of indiscriminate violence against all whites; the turning of vigilantes into a dirty word. In addition, the police have begun attacks on the embryonic patrols which exist: when seven young Pakistanis went to see what had happened to two Pakistani kids who had been beaten up, they were thrown out of a cafe and two of them were arrested by the police outside, although they had not been involved in any fighting; the found a penknife, the Pakistanis, for the first time, challenged the right of the police to stop Notes on the Paki action Why pick on Pakistanis? The answer, now accepted by both aggressor and victim, is that the Pakistanis don't fight back. Most Pakistanis don't fight back. Most Pakistanis see the immediate solution as being along Lines of set-detence ne dea or Dorice orotection has long since become a joke-these East Enders have no illusions about who the police protect. The grim ict is inat sem-protection construtes cudrong ones against the skinheads AND the police.
Pakistanis in the East End have been encouraged by the success of citizens' street patrols in the Euston area where "Paki-bashing has become rare. Similarly the knowledge that West Indians are not readily singled out for physical assaults due to their reputation for offering fierce resistance, has convinced th majority of Pakistanis of the urgency of casting off suople foising epithets as a docile and peace-loving such (foisted upon them by ex-colonials), and t show that courage the ability to resist acts of terrorism are just as much part of their character However, even some of those who subscribe to these views are overwhelmed by the difficulties of organising the 6.000 or so Pakistanis in the area. Personal seit cetence technigues are cleariu now verv applicable to old people, and in any case, a Pakistani is seldom attacked by one or two thugs, but by a pack of them. In such circumstances the best method is that o escape. vigrante groups would no doubt reduce tre attacks, but the police have already threatened to disrupt any such preventative measures. Youths who have dared to defend themselves against their attackers have more otten than not been charged with assault For a young on hisper lad and arora riding one uncommon) carries the risk of being called "offensive weapons"
Militant Pakistanis are of the opinion that while these ohstacles have to be faced re alisticallv it would destroy evil forces, fight for a collapse of their enemies, prove to the racists that there is a limit to their patience. They would not accep that there should be one law for whites another for blacks. If the state could not protect them, they would protect themselves Pakistanis must not live as slaves but as human beings.
Black Solidarity It is clear that the Pakistani community is emerging from its isolation and relative non involvement in politics. The events of the last few years, and especially of the last two weeks, have demonstrated to Pakistanis the hollowness of the pretence that the British state upholds and protects the rights of all sections of the community, and that all are equal before the law. Their situation forces them, perhaps more quickly than other sections of the working class into a consciousness of their oppression and a determination to organise themselves for their own defence and to fight for their rights. The WU meeting was strongly supported by othe sections of the black community, and it wa emphasised that they should unite in solidarity against oppression. . The black community can thus become one of the most advanced and militant sectors in the struggle for the overthrow of capitalism.
The Red Mole declares its solidarity with the Pakistani Workers' Union demonstration on May 3rd.
Teresa Hayter action on the part of the community to defend their lives and property. As a West Indian militant put it "In England vour home is vour castle; but it you can cetene it. inev i take it awav trom vou.
Opposition to any self-defence whatsoever comes from an unrepresentative but vocal minority, bolstered bv MPs. police and the Establishment in general. Thest and order", wilfully ignoring the question of whos Jaws they are and what sort of order they uphold questions that everv immigrant and industrial militant white and black, has to ask himself.
To some extent, this slavish attitude can be explained by the fact that some people are afraid of The consecuences or an action, even or d ourely retensive king nellevine inat the reaction to кагате trained Pakistanis will be increased brutality and violence, that vigilante groups will provoke more reanisee aacks. benie ai mis is tre ted or Del crushed by the weight and power of the Establishment and the sheer numbers of the white population A darker side of the situation is the not intrequent attacks made on rakistanis ov memoers or owne immigrant groups, Cypriots, Turks, Indians and West Indians. This tragic fact, however , illustrates the causal elements of the race situation in Britain; the result of poverty, exploitation and an imperialist ideolog which seeks to divide national groups against one another in the interests of the capitalist status quo. In the East End each community competes with the others tor poor housing, sweated jobs and trusory status. It is not unknown for exploited people to turn in on themselves. It parallels the case of the exploited worker who identities himselt with the bosses anc attacks nis mates wi wores ano artitudes borrower from the boss.
Tanveer Khan * Farte ahout nolice harassment and nartial ity ar
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took no notice. I was a member of the Pakistan theirare Association, but they did nothing for me. I