Uprisings: Liverpool, Chapeltown, Wolverhampton, Leeds

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No. 12, September 1981

LIVERPOOL

March against police

On 15 August, the youth of Liverpool – both black and white — demonstrated once again their revolutionary hatred of the police. The march, organised by the Liverpool 8 Defence Committee, showed the deep anger felt by the youth at the murderers of David Moore and Jimmy Kelly. Attempts by the police to control the demonstration proved in vain, as the number of protestors swelled from an initial 4,000 to over 10,000.

The youth were in no mood to tolerate cheek from the defenders of the ruling class. Any lip from the racist police was answered by force the march was punctuated by scuffles as policemen were firmly dealt with. At one point, a police helmet was paraded on fop of a pole for all to see. One youth ran a stick along a row of coppers, knocking all their helmets off. Many were spat on, as the marchers revelled in the power of a united people.

In the centre of town, the youth took over the whole street. This was no mealy-mouthed protest such as that organised by corrupt leaders of the working class, where people file silently as if they were ashamed along one side of the street, meekly accepting the directions given by the police. Down Dawson Street, along Whitechapel and up Lord James Street on to Pier Head, there was no holding the youth back. At one point, a Labour Party steward protested to the youth ‘Don’t spoil it, don’t spoil it’ as they spilled into the pavement, sweeping buses aside. The reply was immediate: ‘Who are you — Labour Party? You’ve never been nicked or beaten up, have you?’ To the chanting of ‘Kill the bill’, ‘War, war, war’, ‘David Moore — murdered’, ‘Jimmy Kelly murdered’, the youth swept on to Pier Head.

In sharp contrast to the youth at the front, the trade union and Labour Party contingents at the back acted as if they were on an afternoon stroll, unable to rouse themselves for more than the occasional slogan. Tony Mulhearne, Labour parliamentary candidate had said the previous day ‘This is not an anti-police demonstration — it is against Oxford’. For the labour aristocracy, the march was not against the brutal and racist defenders of the ruling class, but against one person. Never having experienced at first hand the viciousness of the police, they had no anger. Instead they had fear – fear that unless Oxford were sacked, the anger of the youth could not be controlled in the future.

At the rally at the end, there was a sharp contrast in the reception given to various speakers. Those who were proven fighters were given warm applause. A spokesman from the Bradford 12 Defence Committee affirmed the right of black people to organise their self-defence, to acclaim from black and white youth alike. They enthusiastically applauded Anwar Ditta; in her courage and her determination, in her hatred for the racist British state, they found a common bond. They also applauded a spokesman from the Brixton Defence Committee, when he said that he was not proud to share a platform with the Labour Party, since they were as responsible as the Tory Party for the conditions black people are forced to endure. And they applauded a heckler during Labour MP Doug Hoyle’s speech, who demanded ‘What about the hunger-strikers in Northern Ireland?’

The demonstration was a clear pointer to the future. The revolutionary movement that will in time destroy British imperialism has announced its existence. Now it must organise to defend itself against the massive repression that is bound to come.

PUBLIC MEETING

REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH FIGHT BACK

LIVERPOOL

Friday 25 September

Stanley House, Upper Parliament St

7.30pm

On 3 August, about 150-200 people picketed talks between Chief Constable Oxford and ‘community leaders’. The picket Was called by the Liverpool 8 Defence Committee. As Oxford was leaving, police jumped out of trees and bushes to protect him from the youth, who were chanting ‘Oxford Out’ and ‘Remember David Moore’ ‘Remember Jimmy Kelly’.

POLICE TERROR

The naked face of police terror has been shown on the streets of Liverpool 8 both during and since the first Uprising there. In Liverpool as in Ireland, the forces of the British state have the clear intention of smashing all and any resistance. To attempt this, Liverpool police have used many of the techniques of repression and intimidation long used by the British Army and RUC against the nationalist people of the Six Counties.

CS Gas

During the first Uprising in Liverpool the police showed their intention to kill, maim and brutalise. For the first time in this country CS gas was used. CS gas was used in the Six Counties and its effects are dangerous and indeed potentially lethal to the very young, the very old or to those suffering bronchial diseases. But not only did Liverpool police use CS gas against the people of Liverpool 8 — they used it in a particular fashion designed purely to maim or kill. They fired CS gas cartridges directly at people. These cartridges — one inch long and with a dum-dum effect which causes them to spread on impact — are designed to be fired at walls or other such hard surfaces. The manufacturers print a warning on each pack against their use on crowds or individuals. Yet use them against individuals is precisely what the police did. The results were appalling injuries — in two cases only prompt surgery saved the lives of the victims. Southport footballer Phil Robins was hit in the back and chest leaving deep gaping wounds. Another man, Kenneth Anderson was hit in the thigh narrowly missing his genitals and required a transplant of blood vessels. Home Secretary Whitelaw stated in Parliament his full support for the use of CS gas in Liverpool and therefore his full support for attempted murder by the police.

Police vans used as murder weapons

Terror tactic No 2, frequently employed in the Six Counties, is the driving of police vehicles at high speed into crowds or at individuals. This was used to fatal effect by Liverpool police.

David Moore was murdered in this way on 28 July. At about 10.15pm a police jeep scorched over the waste ground opposite Falkner Square and crushed the 22 year old invalid against a garden fence. It reversed and then ran him over. All the time the jeep had its lights on, illuminating the whole area. He died several hours later from appalling injuries. Outrage spread through Liverpool 8 and was shown when 300 people attended his funeral.

In another incident on that day Paul Conroy was attacked by police who first of all threw bricks at him. Then suddenly a police jeep appeared, mounted the pavement and rammed him against the wall. It reversed and was about to run over him when a black youth jumped in front and dragged him aside. This brave black youth was then beaten so badly that a truncheon broke on his head. Paul Conroy was saved from David Moore’s fate only by this intervention. Nevertheless he suffered a broken back. In excruciating pain he was dragged along the road and thrown into a police van. On a Granada report of this incident, a policeman can clearly be heard shouting ‘Make way for the nig-nog’ as Paul was dragged away. The police continued to beat him and three weeks after he still had a clear boot print on his chest. In hospital there was a police guard on him for four days.

A brand new landscaping project between Upper Parliament Street and Falkner estate has been cleared of saplings and bollards have been removed from St Nathaniel Street to enable jeeps to have a clear run at anyone assembling in the area. Such methods of ‘positive policing’, as Oxford describes them, were pioneered by the apartheid South African state using identical landrovers built in South Africa.

Random Terror on the Streets

• Michael Blaney was attacked by a policeman on 29 July, after the second Uprising. Shouting ‘I’ll make sure you don’t have any more little black bastards’, the policeman slashed him across the groin almost severing his penis.
• At closing time on 7 July, Ali Ithnin and some of his friends left Scamps disco. A group of white men from Widnes tried to pick a fight with them. Not wanting trouble they started to walk home to Liverpool 8 through a side street. Suddenly the police drove up (they proved to be some of Anderton’s thugs drafted in from Manchester to deal with the Liverpool Uprising). They dragged Ali and his friends into a meat wagon and beat them using fists, boots and truncheons. Ali and his friends were then locked up and charged with threatening behaviour. The men from Widnes were not touched.
• Linda Pattison, a married woman with two children, was on a grass verge opposite her house trying to see what the commotion was. A herd of riot police charged over the nearby mound. Linda, not doing anything, stayed where she was. A riot policeman ran up to her and beat her saying ‘Take that, you black bastard’. Linda suffered two fractures of her left arm and a doctor told her that something much heavier than a truncheon had been used on her.

Brutality in the cells

Once picked up by police people suffer continuing brutality and abuse, including sexual abuse. Incidents taking place in Cheapside Police Station are reminiscent of the attacks and degradation suffered by those held by RUC thugs in the Six Counties. In Ireland the beatings in police stations are just part of the conveyor belt which takes people off the streets and ends with them serving long sentences in prisons like Long Kesh. In Cheapside Police Station Liverpool:

• A fourteen year old girl, who had been badly coshed, refused to wash before her court appearance. She wanted the court to see her wounds. A policeman twisted her arms behind her back and forced her face into a sink of water.
• A nine year old girl was held alone in a cell all night without any food. Given her age, the police holding her at all was itself illegal.
• A policeman went into another girl’s cell, locked the door and started to make gross and obscene suggestions to her. He offered her a cigarette if she would comply.
• Kevin Griffin, who is gay, was sexually assaulted by a policeman who first pushed a truncheon into his anus and then raped him.

The courts continue the repression

In Liverpool, as elsewhere, many of those arrested during the Uprisings have been repeatedly denied bail. The Liverpool 8 Defence Committee has protested at the heavy penalties being imposed by the courts and also at the very serious nature of some of the charges which carry long prison sentences. One woman Anne Harris was forced to take the serious step of going on hunger strike to protest at the fact that she was being continually denied bail and held in Risley Remand Centre.

OXFORD OUT

Kenneth Oxford has become the symbol of the hated Liverpool police. The arrogance and racism of this Chief Constable of Murder is too widely known to need comment. Indeed a Chief Constable who takes every opportunity to openly parade his racist, ignorant and brutish nature has become embarrassing even to sections of the Establishment. They fear that he will expose too clearly the real nature of the police.

The Movement to get ‘Oxford Out’ therefore unites many different elements: (Though notably it still excludes the cowardly Labour Council in Liverpool which pays half of Oxford’s Wages.) On the one hand there are the people of Liverpool 8 for whom Oxford sums up the brutality, racism and murderous malice of Liverpool police. For them, the call for ‘Oxford Out’ means not only the removal of this vile man from office but also ridding the streets of the thugs in blue. On the other hand are those, loyal to the established order of things who wish to see Oxford sacked merely as a cosmetic reform. They hope to hold back the people’s movement against the police from taking ever more threatening forms. They will try to debase the call for ‘Oxford Out’ and limit the movement to that one aim.

But when the youth of Liverpool 8 march for the removal of Oxford it means ‘End Police Harassment’, ‘No More Police Beatings’ and ‘Racist Police out of Liverpool 8.’ The unity, strength and class consciousness of the people in Liverpool 8 has been shown. They can not only get Oxford Out but can provide a shining example of a revolutionary movement against the police and the system of profit and privilege that they protect.

CHAPELTOWN

After the uprisings in Brixton and later in Liverpool the youth of Chapeltown took to the streets to do battle with the racist police. They gave a clear answer to the Leeds Labour Party Young Socialists, who for two days before the uprising began had been distributing leaflets all over Chapeltown saying ‘rioting and looting was not the answer to the problems of Chapeltown’. On the two nights of 11 and 12 July large numbers of Chapeltown youth and others from surrounding areas armed themselves and fought a bloody battle with the police.

The youth: of Chapeltown tore bricks and stones from the crumbling walls of the ghetto and hurled them at the police along with petrol bombs. With the police lines shattered the oppressed youth dealt with one policeman by completely stripping him of his uniform. The police fled from the Chapeltown area leaving many shields and a police van which the youth upturned and burnt.

It was only later; as the youth dispersed that the police were able to make arrests by using snatch-squads. They tried to get their revenge by beating people; raiding houses and arresting people, as they continue to do, and by framing people with the assistance of the racist courts.

The Courts

Two special courts were set up. One of these was presided over by Alderman Colonel Lawrence Turnbull. As the owner of business premises in the area where the uprising took place he would no doubt deal harshly with those who did not respect his property and who fought back against the protectors of property — the police. The other court held by the Stipendiary magistrates was in the smallest possible courtroom. Over a hundred friends and relatives who had come to support the defendants tried to gain access to this courtroom and police reinforcements had to be called when scuffles broke out outside the court. As one black woman remarked, ‘The only thing “special” about this court is that it needs a whole heap of police to protect it’

Harsh sentences

An unemployed black youth pleading guilty to ‘stealing’ 30p worth of sweets which he picked up from the pavement outside a shop was sent to detention centre for 3 months. All of those pleading not guilty were remanded in custody. At later hearings the Magistrates were forced to grant bail to many of the defendants. Most of those granted bail had stringent curfews and other conditions imposed upon them.’ A 38 year old white woman charged with waving a stick, shouting obscenities and throwing a bottle was sent to prison for 56 days. A black youth who the police have harassed for years was gaoled for 3 months for allegedly throwing bricks and stones. The police claim to have recognised him because of his locks but in fact he was wearing a hat which hid his hair up until he was arrested.

The capitalist state thinks that by taking the youth from the community and imprisoning them and by holding the community to ransom that it will destroy the movement of the people for freedom. But the people are strong and united and have seen more clearly now what a capitalist state means and what it does to people, and what its law and justice really is. They understand that they come under attack from the police and the laws which defend the capitalist system and so – they stand against the system.

Garvey Harrison

WOLVERHAMPTON

Court protest

The revolutionary Uprisings which spread across more than 24 towns in July also hit that old haunt of the ‘Prophet Enoch’, Wolverhampton.

On Friday 11 July, the overused rumour that ‘racists are coming town’ resulted in boarded-up shops, and shoppers and shop workers being sent home. Everywhere youths were harassed, some simply being beaten up but not arrested. Law brad Order continued in this way until evening when at the ‘Little Swan’, the last pub left in town where black youths can meet, the police attacked the youth. Very quickly the hated Dunstall Road Police station became the target of a counter-attack by black and white youths.

The following day the fight continued with Birmingham Road police station being attacked. Farndale Estate was sealed off by the youth who lobbed petrol bombs and stones at the police.

On Monday 14 July, the courts had 30 people to deal with. The authorities; beaten on the streets; sought revenge in the courts. In a vain attempt to smash the unity between black and white which had been bonded in struggle on the streets, the Court bailed most of the white youths but held most of the black youths in custody. Two black youths who had offers of sureties were casually remanded in custody. At this the people in the Court rose and moved to the dock to free their brothers. Police rushed in from outside and attacked them with truncheons. The people outside the court were also attacked. Four people were arrested.

The people of Wolverhampton showed that they will not tolerate racist oppression on the streets and neither will they stand idly by while some racist casually denies bail to their comrades. The state, aware of the leading revolutionary role being played by black youth, wants to crush them. It is our duty not only to fight back when we are attacked but to make sure that we organise so that everyone who comes before British ‘justice’ is supported and does not stand alone.

K Ace Kelly

LEEDS

Racist firebombs

The Black community in Leeds are under increasing attack from racists. The homes of two Asian families were attacked by racist firebombers in one single week. In both cases the police failed to either investigate, or as in the New Cross Massacre, take any action.

On Saturday 18 July Mr Poran Singh and Mrs Charan Kaur were asleep in their home in Leeds 7, when either a petrol bomb or a similar incendiary device was thrown through the window. Mr Singh attempted to pull his wife, who is disabled, out of the house but was beaten back by the flames. A group of local black and white youth tried to break down the door and rescue Mr Singh and his wife, but were forced back such was the intensity of the fire. At this point the police arrived, not because of the fire but because of their terror of seeing the youth gathering on the street. A van load of them drove up in full riot gear! Mr Singh’s wife was burnt to death.

On 22 July the home of Liquat Ali in Leeds 7, was attacked. Mr Ali awoke to find his home on fire. He quickly alerted his family, including his pregnant wife and their young children, who were forced to jump to safety from a first floor window.

The evidence of both these racist attacks clearly points to arson. Mr Singh himself has stated that a petrol bomb or something similar started the fire. As he told a local paper, ‘Something came through the window and smashed on the opposite wall. It was burning and it dropped on the settee in the dining room’. Reg Dixon, a neighbour, also saw something being thrown at the house. Despite these statements, the police have refused to treat this fire as an arson attack, and have claimed that there are no suspicious circumstances!

After the murder of Mrs Kaur did we see the police’ making inquiries and arresting suspects? No! They held Mr Singh for over 12 hours, intensively interrogated him and refused to believe what he told them. So terrified were the police of the truth being known, that the police interpreter told Mr Singh to agree with the police if he wanted to be released. Furthermore, while Mr. Singh was being held, relatives and a solicitor were refused access to him. Such is the inhumanity and racism of the notorious Leeds police towards black people.

In the case of Mr Ali the police have said that the fire was caused by an electrical fault. Yet a qualified electrician has ruled this out as a cause as none of the wires had been burnt beyond their sockets. All the evidence shows that petrol was poured or squirted through the letter box. A local builder saying, ‘It’s definitely a flash job’.

It is wishful thinking to assume that the police will investigate the causes and perpetrators of these vile attacks. The police will continue to cover up such racist attacks on the black community and will continue their harassment of black people, as they did with Mr Singh. The police stand exposed for what they are — the paid servants of the racist British state and the accomplices of racist attacks.

CM

PUBLIC MEETING REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH FIGHT BACK

LEEDS

Thursday 1 October

Leeds Trades Hall Saville Mount, Leeds 7

7.30pm

BRADFORD

Arson attack on textile hail

A particularly vicious and devastating racist attack has shocked and angered the Bradford black community. In the early hours of Sunday 23 August the top floor of Bradford’s Textile Hall, which housed the premises of Bradford West Indian Association Social Club, was completely gutted in a racist arson attack. £100,000 worth of damage was caused, and two of West Yorkshire’s leading sound systems, Kamanda Sound and Scorcher International, had all their equipment completely destroyed.

The Social Club was the first and only West Indian Centre in Bradford, and was used by hundreds of black youth every day. With racist fire bombings and attacks increasing every week in Yorkshire, it is clear that the burning down of the Textile Hall was no ‘accident’. The black community have demanded that the truth be known that the cause was arson — Bradford police and politicians prefer to cover this up. Indeed only six weeks before the attack, the leader of the Labour Party on the local Council, Derek Smith received threats over the phone that the Textile Hall would be burned down!

When members of the West Indian Association inspected the hall after the fire, it was immediately apparent to them that the fire had spread with great speed and intensity, and that a tremendous amount of heat had been generated in specific parts of the building. In two areas the damage was so extensive that something akin to explosions must have taken place. Some firemen and the landlady of an adjoining pub reported hearing sounds like explosions. It is no wonder then that members of the Club Management Committee had reported that this attack was carried out by organised racists, using sophisticated incendiary devices.

As with the New Cross Massacre and the recent fire bombing of Asian homes in Leeds, the police cover-up machinery has quickly moved into operation. The police were told of the fire at 4am. Yet the fire brigade was not summoned until 4.55! Detective Chief Superintendent Lapish made a statement which ruled out arson before any forensic examinations, including that by the police, were completed! The local Labour controlled council has also revealed its indifference to the attack. In response to the West Indian Associations demands for compensation and new premises, they have contemptuously offered a pitifully small and inadequate building. And what of the local Trades Council and trade unions who own the Textile Hall: Not one of their representatives has come forward to express their sympathy — this when the West Indian Association pays them on average £5000 per year in rent.

But the black community in Bradford is fast responding to this latest situation. Coming so soon after the arrests of 12 Asian youth on conspiracy charges, meetings have been organised and 150 militant and angry black youth marched through the City centre chanting ‘Accident — No Way! Arson — is what we say!’ and ‘Textile Hall burn! Babylon burn!’.

BB

HOLLOWAY

Soviet Publicity

The Sunday Telegraph is quicker than ever to scream Reds Under the Bed as the Cold War hots up. It lost no time in July when its banner headlines declared ‘Russia prints London pupils’ protest letter.’

To the horror of the bourgeois nationals, as well as local North London newspapers the Soviet youth paper Komsomolskaya Pravda printed the letter signed by over 200 school students in February of this year about the police attack in the playground of Archway School in Holloway when two black pupils were arrested and charged. Most frightful of all, the letter was printed in the USSR above an article about the recent uprisings in British cities with a picture of police arresting two youths. ‘Who knows whether one of these people might be a signatory to the letter’ says the caption.

Yes indeed. The whole concern of the Soviet paper is to explain the background to the uprisings in Britain, to show that the cause is a long history of oppression and racist harassment by the British state. The Soviet paper by printing the letter of the school students also highlights the lack of real democracy in this country. Although there was great outrage from the educational and police authorities that the young people had dared to organise and publicise their protest against police harassment in school, no British paper other than this one has actually printed the letter in full. Nevertheless, the young people involved in organising the protest have learnt the power of standing together for self-defence.

PUBLIC MEETING REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH FIGHT BACK

NORTH LONDON

Friday 25 September

North Library, Manor Gardens off Holloway Road

Admission 30p. Nearest Tube: Archway

7.30pm