... AND BLACK RESISTANCE ped by the fascist right culst Saturday with the murder eren't the first to be attackedacks in East London for ng up their activity elsewhere. demonstration by the National t gained two seats in the recent on from shoppers who linp of ten-to11 year old boys ist'. A thousand-strong march • Against Racialism Council a vicious press campaign agtemporarily housed in a try to this country of British lawi. Far from combatting the • joined in the outcry. Former h declared last week: 1 am igh.' s racist policies have helped d how the black communityg to organise their own fight ps and the fascists.
battles with police protecting the fascists.
The roots of the new black resistance have been growing for some time. Behind the mocking chants lies the experience of immigrant workers brought in as a source of cheap labour for unskilled, menial and service jobs, only to be discarded when there is no longer a labour shortage. And behind the anger of the youth is the 'Send us back, who'll drive your buses, send us back, who'll sweep your streets' was the mocking counter-chant sent up by blacks on the 3,000-strong anti-fascist march in Bradford a few weeks back. The open black challenge to fascism was repeated in Birmingham, when Asian and particularly West Indian youth fought street suffering for black workers. Unemployment amongst black workers is already over 10 per cent - twice the white rate. And among black women the unemployment rate is three times that for white women. the quota. dating blacks from taking action to organise at work, and the TUC is calling for the complete abolition of But an all-out offensive against the black community is not about to be launched. Along with the stick of greater surveillance goes the carrot.
Although the Race Relations Act -along with the Immigrant Assimilation Officers, the Community Relations Officers and so on - has even bleaker. done little to confront any of the real problems confronting blacks, it has provided a suitable liberal No jobs facade to the real aim of the ruling iceberg. Black youth are constantly running up against the police. It is they who are singled out for special hatred by Powell and the racists.
It's not hard to see what lies behind their revolt. Unemployment amongst black youth in the cities is as high as 40-50 per cent in some areas. In schools black children, especially West Indians, are downgraded to make their job prospects ...and Black resistance for heading off their own self-organisation and buying off the black leadership in the communities. So now the tough line is returning: young blacks, facing all the problems of a ghetto situation, are becoming a permanent target for racist harassment by the police.
The black upsurge against the police and the fascists in Bradford and Birmingham reveals the poten tial for organised self-defence of the black community. In the wake of the London murders it is the task of the hour.
Defence campaigns against racist