Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No. 2, January/February 1980
On 25 November a demonstration took place which received little publicity from the ruling class press. On that day 20,000 people marched against the British state’s racist immigration laws and against the Conservative Government’s proposals to introduce new rules and a Nationality Act.
The demonstration was called by the recently formed Campaign Against Racist Laws. The great majority of those on the march were black people mobilised by the Indian Workers Associations and other Asian organisations. The major organisations of the British petit bourgeois left, despite the fact that they are on the steering committee of CARL, had made little effort to mobilise for the demonstration. The SWP, for example, had declared before the demonstration that it would not make a national SWP mobilisation. Its priority went to the 28 November cuts demonstration. As a result, its contingent on 25 November numbered around 500. The ANL which has mobilised tens of thousands for its Carnivals against the NF could only muster about 500 people for this demonstration against the British state’s racist attacks. The British trade union movement representation on the march was also pathetically small with only a handful of Trades Council and trade union branch banners on the march.
The Revolutionary Communist Group mobilised nationally for the march, bringing its members and supporters from Scotland as well as from its branches in England. They marched behind the banner of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! Over 300 copies of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! were sold on the march.
The march showed the clear determination of black people to fight back against the racist attacks they are facing. And at the rally in Trafalgar Square not only did this determination show through but so too did the contempt many black people, particularly the youth, have for the Labour Party.
Speeches
After speeches by the IWA, Pakistani and Kashmiri organisations and the ANL, Tony Benn, Cabinet Minister in the last Labour Government, spoke. His verbal opposition to the 1971 Immigration Act and support for a ‘non-racist’ nationality law was greeted with jeers and heckles by sections of the crowd, particularly the black youth. They remembered only too well what they had suffered at the hands of the Labour Government.
A speaker from the Bradford Asian Youth Movement put those feelings into words. His speech was a powerful revolutionary exposure of the role of British imperialism, its looting of oppressed nations and its attacks on black people in Britain. He stated that the BAYM would be organising a march from Bradford to London in 1980. Having firmly stated that all immigration controls are racist, the BAYM speaker went on to denounce the record of Labour Governments in implementing the 1971 Immigration Act. He delivered a clear warning about the Labour Party by saying, ‘Beware false friends’. This was greeted with great support from sections of the crowd.
Such a frank denunciation thoroughly embarrassed the Labour Party representatives on the platform and their embarrassment grew acute when a speaker from Southall, Suresh Grover, having outlined the massive attack suffered by Southall first on the streets and now in the courts, went on to ask where was Tony Benn’s and the Labour Party’s statements on Southall? Where was their support for Southall? There had been none. He, like the BAYM speaker, referred to the Labour Government’s operation of the 1971 Act. Once again much support was given by the audience.
The embarrassment of the Labour Party representatives and their friends in the petit bourgeois left turned to anger as they realised how thoroughly they had been exposed. Chairman of the rally, CP member Maurice Styles took the unprecedented step of answering the BAYM speech by saying that Tony Benn had made clear the policy of the Labour Party! CP speaker, Gordon McLellan, steered clear of trouble and tried to placate all present by making the astounding announcement that he had just sent a cheque to the Southall Defence Fund, bringing the CP’s total contribution to £930.30 (that is, less than 5p per CP member!).
So it was left to Labour Party NEC member, Joan Lestor, to respond to the attacks made on the Labour Party. Cut to the quick by them, she bad-temperedly rounded on the critics of the Labour Party saying that if they had been fighting racism as long as Tony Benn then they would not criticise him. Hell hath no fury like a social democrat exposed!
Censorship
For the revolutionaries and anti-imperialists attending the demonstration, it was this superb exposure of the Labour Party, coupled with the militant determination of the black people on the march to fight back against racism, which made this an occasion to remember.
Not so for the British petit bourgeois left! They all called for a vote for Labour in the last election. So the attack on Labour also had the effect of exposing them. As a result, in their newspapers they adopted various stratagems for hiding what occurred at the rally.
Socialist Worker adopted the ‘least said soonest mended’ policy and published a photo and a 97 word report. Rather astonishing brevity for an organisation on the steering committee of CARL and with a speaker at the rally! Their ‘report’ did not include a word about the attacks made on the Labour Party.
Socialist Challenge adopted two techniques — censorship and diversion. They reported speeches by many speakers. But they failed even to mention, let alone report, the speech by BAYM. They reported Suresh Grover’s speech but toned it down so that he was reported as simply asking of the Labour Party: ‘Where was their record of action? What had they done to defend the Southall 342?’. After censorship came diversion. They ended their report by saying that the absence of many West Indian people on the march revealed a gulf between Asians and West Indians which must be bridged. What about the gulf between black people and the pro-imperialist Labour Party which was so openly revealed? Not a word.
The Morning Star reported most of the speeches at the rally. Like the others it excluded any mention of the BAYM or their speech. Suresh Grover’s speech was reported as having ‘outlined the position of those on trial in Southall’.
Pro-imperialist alliance
All three organisations, the CP, SWP and Socialist Challenge, had speakers at the rally. All three organisations saw and heard what happened at the rally. The revolutionary message delivered by black speakers and applauded by black youth represented an enormous threat to the petit bourgeois left. If they had reported criticisms of the Labour Party made at the rally then their alliance with the pro-imperialist Labour Party would have been threatened. Once again the petit bourgeois left made it choice — with the Tony Benns and imperialism against the revolutionary voice of the oppressed.
But censorship has its problems. After all, 20,000 people heard what happened at the rally. Many of these supported the attacks made on the Labour Party and will have read these reports in the petit bourgeois left’s newspapers. And as they read them four words will have come into their minds —Beware of False Friends. They will!
Maxine Williams
