Colin Roach FOR A WORKERS'

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Labour Against the Witch-hunt is organising an advertisement in Tribune on March 4, with a istatement to be signed by Constituency Labour Parties and supported by trade union and 'We are committed to a Labour victory at the next General Election on the basis of the policies agreed by Annual Conference. Any witchhunt would endanger the Party Unity required to achieve such a victory. We therefore call on the right-wing majority of the National Executive Committee to halt all disciplinary measures against Party members, groups of members or Constituency Labour Parties.

Should the NEC persist with disciplinary measures or disaffiliations, we give notice that we will not recognise any such actions. We will not expel, nor recognise the expulsion of any Labour Party memeber or group of members arising from political disagreement with the Get your CLP, union or Labour Party branch to support this, and write to iAW, 11 Wilderton Road, LONDON N16, by 25 February, •-Published by the Sociatist Organiser Alliance, 28 Middle Lane, London N8. Printed'by East End Offset [TU]. Registered as a newspaper at the GPO. Signed articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the SOA. THE march demanding an independent public inquiry into the death of Colin Roach went ahead last Saturday, 12th, in spite of police harassment and proyocation along the route.

Marchers were picked on, pushed and shoved by the police, but resisted the provocations and marched peacefully, as had been the intention, from Hackney Town Hall to Stoke Newington Police Station and back to the Town Hall again.

Shouting 'We want justice now' and 'Hackney police - racist police' , the 500 marchers were joined along the route by local black youth and shoppers. People hung out of windows, shouting their support.

Several people were arrested, however, and there were fears for their safety as witnesses reported to the rally at the end that they had seen the police beating them up in the cop vans.

The police had followed one marcher, Gabriel Noor, who they were obviously picking on till they got him.

In the end the police came off worst - as when they harassed the march van-driver for the umpteenth time the . crowd decided enough was enough. The cops were surrounded, told to get out in no uncertain terms, and Labour Party branches: NEC.' enclosing £3.

Jo Thwaites reports SOCIALIST Organiser supports the call for an independent inquiry.

But experience has shown that such inquiries take a long time to achieve and are often turned by the state into a white-washing exercise.

The Hackney labour movement can and must act now to combat these dangers, establishing all the available evidence on the Colin Roach case, and publicising its findings, while pressing the demand for official action.

forced to retreat through the crowd.

James Roach, Colin's father, held by the police for three hours under interrogation before the police told him that his son was dead, told the marchers: "My son was happy -he did not commit suicide. He left the house that night in a happy mood, he did not kill himself.

James Roach was clearly shattered by his son's death, and the crowd paid tribute to his and the Roach family's courage for standing up and fighting the police cover-up.

Many local people think the police murdered Colin. The record of Hackney police is one of harassment and racism towards black people in the borough.

As the support committee emphasises, the only way to find out is to have an independent public inquiry, not a whitewash operation by the police themselves.

This call has been supported by Hackney Trades Counci, by Hackney Council and by Tower Hamlets councillors, though, shamefully, not yet by the Tower Hamlets Council itself.

The GLC supports the campaign and has pledged to provide a grant of £1,500 for the campaign to have a worker. The Tories on the GLC are trying to block this. Banners on the march last Saturday included Hackney Central and Tower Hamlets CLPs, but there was nothing like enough labour movement support for it.

The campaign had made several steps forward in gaining support for an independent inquiry. Keith Scully, the friend who drove Colin to Stoke Newington the right he was found dead in the police station, has written to the Standard to say that he was horrified and disturbed to see headlines in their paper saying that Colin had killed himself.

Keith had eventually agreed to speak to the reporter after continual pestering, against the advice of the Roach family's solicitor, Gareth Pearce (who was involved in the Bradford 12 victory).

Virtually everything he said was distorted and twisDEATH OF I SLiN ROACH OISENCE Paus