BLACK PEOPLE in Britain face violence on two fronts today:
VIOLENCE FROM THE RACISTS: Vermin like Kingsley Read who declared after the murder of an Asian youth in Southall, 'One down - one million to go'. And from the little Hitlers of the National Front, who are running their election campaign in Balckburn around the slogan 'Get the Blacks out of Blackburn'.
VIOLENCE FROM THE POLICE: The truncheons and dustbin-lids of Notting Hill speak volumes of the police chiefs' sugar-coated phrases about "racial harmony'. If you're young and black, you're hassled and you're harassed —every night. If you argue back the intimidation is continued in the press, where the police denounce such resistance as the acts of 'criminals' not to be confused with 'decent black people'.
At the same time when attacks are made on blacks the police are nowhere to be found - despite their boast that they will control the streets'. The only security blacks have is that they provide for themselves; black self-defence against racist attacks, and against police brutality.
Callaghan backs up the police provocation in Notting Hill. It's more convenient to blame the black youth than to admit that his Government's policies have created the mass unemployment and crumbling services on which the racists breed.
The Labour Party, worried about the electoral success of the fascists, launches a campaign allegedly against racism which accepts immigration controls. The TUC makes pious noises while banging the nationalist drum of import controls.
message of all the Labour leaders is 'we don't want confrontation'. They're running away from the racists. But the fascists are gunning for them as well. Last week Blackburn MP Barbara Castle got a bullet through the post. Whether she and the rest of the Labour left will wake up before such messages are delivered by something more deadly is doubtful. They have forgotten the lessons of the thirties. They have not learned the history of Italy and Germany. Only mass working class action can drive the fascists off the streets.
The demonstration in Blackburn this week is a turning point for the anti-racist campaign. We are going to confront the fascists in their stronghold, fight to explain that socialist policies can solve the present crisis while racist ones can only produce scapegoats. And show that black and white must unite, not in words, but in mass action on the streets against racism and for socialism.
----- pull-quotes -----
END ALL IMMIGRATION LAWS! NO PLATFORM FOR FASCISTS! MUST SUPPORT BLACK SELF-DEFENCE!