Tories fuel race violence

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PRIOR to the last General Election, Margaret Thatcher declared in an interview that British people were understandably concerned about being 'swamped' by people of a 'different culture' . The capitalist press dutifully responded-the Daily Mail, for example, with an article on immigration entitled They've taken over my home town' The racist pledge to arrest and reverse black immigration was undoubtedly part of the Conservative's election platform.

Racist laws

Since coming to government, the Tories have pursued their policy in many ways, one being the more rigorous application of the existing racist immigration laws. The activities of Immigration Officers in preventing the entry of black people are infamous for their callous inhumanity. Coupled with this has been concerted series of attempts at deportation.

The racism of the immigration laws has to be placed in a context of institutional racism. Black people frequently have to show their passports at hospitals and the DHSS. Black people suffer a higher level of unemployn ent, and what work they o get is generally located in the lowest paid areas.

Police harassment is widespread and met its response in the nots this summer. Speaking about the police operation 'Swamp 81' in Brixton which led directly to the riots, a local member of the CID said:

"More than 1,000 people were stopped. • and there were just over 100 arrests It was a resounding success.

(New Standard, 13.4.81)

A Bradford policeman, Detective Superintendant Holland said recently • that 'prejudice is a state of mind brought about by experience. " He then identified 'athletic West Indians in jeans and t-shirts as likely muggers.

Spurious charges

Twelve Bradford Asian youths are currently awaiting trial on spurious charges conspiracy to cause damage to property and life. All of them were interrogated for days without being given access to a lawyer. For many weeks they were denied bail. In contrast, two white youths who attacked a local Asian shop with petrol bombs were immediately given bail.

The consequence of this is to set a climate in which the level of attacks on black peopie, their homes, clubs and places of worship has increased. The government and police have responded to this problem with insouciance if not complicity. Countless examples could be given, but three serve to make the point.

In January 1981, 13 black people died in a fire in New Cross. The inquest returned an open verdict despite evidence that a missile was thrown through a window shortly before the fire started. The evidence of thrown, was preferred. Demonstrators marching down Fleet Street made clear their resentment at the bare coverage given by the press. This was in stark contrast to the coverage given a previous fire in an Eire disco.

Likewise, the capitalist press has failed to draw the parallel with a similar incident that occured in Leeds. In July of this year a disabled Sikh woman was burnt to death in a fire at her home. Her husband says that he saw something burning projected through the window and smash on the opposite wall.

A neighbour confirmed that he saw 'something fly through the air with a flash light' and he heard a window break. However, the police say that 'there are no suspicious circumstances' '. Mr Poran Singh stated that when he was being ques tioned, police insisted he was lying.

On 2 July 1981, Mrs Purveen Khan and her three children were murdered when petrol was poured through the letter box of their Walthamstow home and set alight. For 36 hours after the murders, Scotland Yard similarly refused to accept that there were any "suspicious circumstances'.

Guilty

The police will not defend black people against racist attacks: indeed they are often guilty of racist harassment themselves.

The responsibility for anti-racist defence falls to the labour movement - by giving our support to self-defence groups formed by the black community, by creating united labour movement defence patrols, and by linking the fight against racism to the struggle to overthrow capitalism:

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an anonymous white 'passer- by' ", that no missile was