Press Gang
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-02-04Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 3 →
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L EXPRES PARVEEN AKHTAR is a working class Asian woman who came to Britain on 28 August 1981 to marry her ON THE WAY to the Bloody sunday demonstration, a minibus from Coventry was assaulted by fascists as police stood just over the way discussing with fascist leader Martin Webster.
Two coaches were diverted by police telling them there were fascists ahead. But the minibus travellers were not told.
At the Stonebridge roundabout, they were boxed in by a coach and minibus. 50 or 60 fascists piled out, threw bricks and smoke bombs at the coach, tried to grab people from it, and attempted to push the vehicle over.
Eventually the minibus got away, but several of the people in it needed stitches and other medical treatment.
OUR Llanwern Action Group LAST fiance Ali Musa Khan. who is settled here. She has been allowed leave to remain in this country only until 7 February 1982 on the grounds that. her husband cannot "support or accommodate her without recourse to public funds"!
This is a flagrant violation of the democratic human rights of black women. The state is saying that black women cannot live in this country unless their husbands can support them "without recourse to public funds.
The Parveen Akhtar Defence Committee has been formed to wage a mass struggle to force the Home Office to allow Parveen to stay here free from any harassment or intimidation, and has called a demonstration in her support from Small Heath Park, Birmingham, on Saturday 6 February, 1982, starting at 2pm.
The committee is also calling a picket of the Immigration Offices at Birmingham Airport, on Friday 5 The Defence Commmittee can be contacted c/o 477 Coventry Road, Small Heath, Birmingham 10. his vocation. He wasted his time with an inquiry to weed out Reds from the media and entertainment.
If he had really had his heart in stamping out unAmerican activity, he would have made the programmes himself, saving a lot of time and expense on undesirables.
President Reagan has not made the same mistake. He knows what the public wants and he knows where to turn when the chips are down.
Urson welles, Frank Sinatra, Margaret Thatcher ... these are the names that made Hollywood great. If this all star line-up has a message about Po-land. then the world will flock to listen and watch.
lamm THE Republic of Ireland, not widely noted for its progressive social legislation, has just outlawed corporal punishment in schools. This leaves Britain as the last bastion of legitimate child abuse in Europe.
To add weight to the mounting pressure to end this disgrace comes an appalling tale from Cornwall.
THE government are offering grants to anti-abortion groups such as Life, provided they tell women about the availability of abortion and of the existence of abortion referral agencies.
But Life was specifically set up, ander the wing of anti-abortion" groups like SPUC to counsel pregnant women against having abortions. If Life do decide to in the so-called home which turned a million TV viewers into Sherry winos.
Who better to underline our beliefs in basic freedoms than Frank Sinatra. the man who represents all that is best in American showbusiness.
What must Frank have thought as he woke up to hear that the military had taken over in Poland and how General Jaruelski had made Solidarnose an offer it couldn't refuse.
How he wept! How his whole family wept! Frank said to himself, "There's got to be some way to something for these poor people"
And so a great show was Wayne. The old soldier would have been sorry to mise this nne He imazined a scene with the whole Polish people riding into the sunset singing "Set my people, free"
On second thoughts he turned the idea down. The President did not want anything that might smack of a gimmick.
In any event, the Iron Lady could stand in for the steel duke. There are said to be 3 million Poles whose jobs are at risk in the threatened collapse of the Polish economy. Who better to express her concern and horror at such a fate than Thatcher?
From France President loyalty to NATO. After all, Western statesmanship crosses those trivial barriers of party division. What's "socialism" when one has the chance to share the screen with the leaders of the Free World?
There is however a sad side to this. Poland could not watch. The Russians jammed it. And Britain. Poor old Britain could not watch. Some , ancient befuddled clauses in their TV regulations. Or was it? More likely those pinkoes who riddle the British media.
The US knew how to get invented such, anti-democratie rules in any case?
Of course it couldn't happen here! It's brash for British tastes. Admirable in its way, of course, but we don't have that ... how snail I put it... direct relationship between the media and the politicians.
It could be, after all, that the brash Reagan propaganda is less effective than its British equivalent. It is true that the British press does not have Frank Sinatra. But it does do it its way. :41..-
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