Moss Side youth "like caged animals"
Socialist Organiser1981 1981-08-13Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 2 →
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"WE ARE like caged animals. But as you know, you can keep kicking caged animals, and one day they are going to fight back.
'We must support our brothers in Liverpool, and say they should keep on fighting to the end. Thatcher must U-turn. If not, then the place must burn"
A Moss Side youth was speaking at a 200-strong meeting, called by the local Community Action Group, which took steps to set up a defence committee.
Members of the Liverpool 8 Defence Committee were there, too, and emphasised the need for cooperation and liaison. They called for support for the 15th August demonstration in Liverpool, and ended by saying, "You help us get rid of our chief pig, and we'll help you get rid of yours' During the riots, the Moss Side Community Action Group provided first aid, places to sleep for youth too scared to attempt to walk home, lifts to hospitals outside the area, and legal help.
150 arrests were report 150 arrests were reported, but the central detention centre was overflowing. There were two or three people to a cell, and three wings with some hundred cells per wing.
Many arrested youth were faced with pre-typed charge sheets. A Community Action Group speaker said that the solicitors and the courts cannot be trusted. The central demand of the campaign must be: drop the charges.
Socialist Organiser supporter Pete Keenlyside called for community self-defence groups to replace the police, and asked for support for the picket called by Socialist Organiser of the Greater Manchester Police Committee on Friday 7th August.
About 50 people attended the picket, but the police committee agreed not to discuss Moss Side until the official inquiry was finished.
There is a need for an inquiry - but an inquiry by the community, used to counter press distortion and to show why the police must be kicked out of Moss Side US riot police in action years police chiefs have adopted a strategy described as "fire brigade policing" in which heavy forces are held in reserve to be rushed at short notice to deal with incidents.
The growth of unemployment and poverty in inner city areas has meant that working class and immigrant communities are openly regarded as areas to be contained and repressed rather than "protected"
'Bobbies" on the beat have been replaced by patrol cars equipped with