In March, the RCG will publish a new pamphlet, Fighting racism: the state and the streets, that explains clearly that imperialism is the material basis of racism in Britain, and that racism is the form national oppression takes within the oppressor nation. The fight against racism must inevitably confront British imperialism and therefore the British state itself. It also exposes a fake anti-racist trend represented not only by Stand up to Racism, but also by black middle class ‘community leaders’. By promoting the illusion that British imperialism can be reformed, they strip anti-racism of its class character, thus ensuring it never seriously challenges the racist British state. In contrast, we make the case that imperialism is an inherently racist system that cannot be reformed – only socialism can create the conditions to end racism. This is what a revolutionary working-class movement will have to fight for on the streets.
For over 50 years the RCG has analysed the relationship between imperialism and racism and developed this understanding through our publications and practice, participating in campaigns against all aspects of state racism. We list some of them below.
1980s – fighting deportations
As the post-war boom came to an end, the British state stepped up its attack on black communities. Manchester RCG actively supported Rochdale mother Anwar Ditta, whose children were being denied entry to Britain by the racist authorities. From that successful campaign against Britain’s vicious immigration laws, FRFI and other activists took on the work of supporting other families threatened with deportation and separation. As communists we constantly highlighted the relationship between imperialism and racism.
On 23 March 1985, 2,000 people marched through Manchester behind the banner ‘Fight Deportations! Unite Families! Fight Racism!’ One of those leading this march was our comrade Viraj Mendis. Viraj had come to England as a student from Sri Lanka and joined the RCG in 1980. In 1984, the Home Office began trying to deport him as an ‘overstayer’. The Viraj Mendis Defence Campaign (VMDC) was launched in 1984 and became the most high-profile anti-deportation campaign of the decade. In July 1986 VMDC organised a march from Manchester to London, stopping at different locations along the way for public rallies. In December 1986 Viraj took sanctuary in the Church of the Ascension, where the progressive vicar and congregation worked alongside communists to battle state repression. Ultimately, this was a challenge the state could not tolerate, and in 1989 police raided the church and deported Viraj to Sri Lanka. The effectiveness of the campaign meant, however, that he was eventually able to seek safety in Germany.
1990s – fighting the racist criminal justice system
The imprisonment in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s of prisoners of war from the Irish struggle politicised the entire prison population. FRFI’s solidarity work with prisoners led us to become involved in many different campaigns, both against oppressive prison conditions and in solidarity with those who rose up against them, and in support of those wrongfully convicted – such as the Tottenham Three, sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing of PC Blakelock in the Broadwater Farm Uprising of 1985, or the M25 Three, wrongfully convicted of a string of violent robberies and murder.
Satpal Ram was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1986 for the self-defence killing of a racist who attacked him in a Birmingham restaurant. FRFI comrades visited Satpal in prison, and supported prison pickets, court protests and city centre marches throughout the 1990s. He was released in 2002 but was recalled to prison in 2006 and only finally released in 2012. In 2025, when a documentary film about Satpal’s struggle was launched, he made a point of acknowledging the RCG as a group that had stood with him since the beginning.
2000s – fight racist immigration laws
In 2006 Newcastle and Manchester FRFI were centrally involved in setting up Tyneside Community Action for Refugees (TCAR) and North West Asylum Seeker Defence Group (NWASDG) respectively, which succeeded in preventing dozens of deportations. Asylum seekers played a leading role. They had faced first-hand the brutality of British imperialism in their home countries and the racism of the British state when they got here.
TCAR organised marches and conferences of hundreds of people, bringing together campaign groups from across the country, demanding an end to detention and deportations, the right to work, free English lessons and equal access to housing and services. NWASDG organised regular protests in city centres around the northwest and at Dallas Court reporting centre in Salford where several asylum seekers had disappeared.
2010s – deaths in custody
On 4 August 2011 the Metropolitan Police shot dead Mark Duggan in north London. His death sparked a wave of uprisings against poverty, oppression and police violence across England. The state exacted vengeance on the ‘rioters’, with hundreds herded into fast-track night courts and sentenced to summary punishment.
Duggan’s execution was one in a long line of racist police killings, stretching back decades and continuing until now. FRFI comrades participated in campaigns to expose the police and demand ‘justice’ for bereaved families.In 2015 Glasgow RCG supported the campaign for justice for Sheku Bayo, who died in the custody of Police Scotland, joining protests across Scotland to demand a full inquiry into the death and challenging the Scottish National Party to act. Although in 2019 the Scottish government did agree to hold an inquiry, seven years on it is mired in confusion and has yet to conclude.
2020s – Black Lives Matter
In the summer of 2020, following the police murder of George Floyd in the US, spontaneous protests erupted across the world under the banner of Black Lives Matter (BLM). In Britain thousands of predominantly young black and Asian people protested on the streets under the slogan ‘the UK is not innocent’. There was a clear understanding of the need to fight the murderous racism of the British police. FRFI joined protests up and down the country, rooting the racism of the British state in its imperialist character.
By the second week of protests, the police worked hand-in-hand with racist thugs to head off the explosive potential that existed. In Newcastle, racists were allowed by the police to rally next to the BLM protest and shower anti-racists with glass beer bottles. Young black and Asian men who defended themselves were arrested, convicted and imprisoned for up to two years. Police used the violence of the racists to ban BLM events throughout much of the city centre and arrested FRFI supporters for gathering in the West End of the city. Self-appointed black and Asian student leaders also played their part in trying to contain the anger – going as far as thanking the police and claiming the protests were not aimed at them!
Today Minneapolis shows the power of the working class in the fight against state racism and confirms the standpoint we have expressed over decades – that the working class is the only force that can challenge imperialism and therefore state racism.
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