Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! no.7 November/December 1980
The campaign to defend the Wilkie brothers (see FRFI 6) organised by Liverpool Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! has scored significant successes. On 18 September, a 50 strong picket was held outside the Dale Street Magistrates Court when the brothers appeared for a committal hearing. This was adjourned till 2 October, when an even larger picket, 80 strong, was held giving noisy and enthusiastic support for the brothers, and for the fight against police racism. Already the police are jittery. They have threatened one youth that they will ‘do’ all those who supported the pickets; to another, that they would have ignored some drugs they had found on him on a street search, had it not been for a leaflet on the case they had also found on him.
But the police are getting the worst of it in more ways than one. Recently, they left a meat wagon unguarded for a few minutes in the Falkner Estate; by the time they returned, all its windows had been smashed. A few days later, their routine evening invasion of the same estate was met with a hail of stones. It is quite evident that the police are beginning to lose control in Liverpool 8, as active resistance develops. The campaign to defend the Wilkie brothers is part of this resistance, and as such has received widespread support from the community.
The next step in the campaign is a march, on 20 November, which will end in a picket of a meeting that Merseyside Chief Constable Oxford is having with the CRC. Oxford may be remembered as the man in charge of the police force responsible for the murder of Jimmy Kelly. His arrogance is unlimited – for him, ‘police-community relations’ are ‘excellent’, trouble is only created by a few ‘outside agitators’. 20 November will reveal the true extent of the hatred for the racist Liverpool police.
