First Published: Class Struggle, Vol. 2, No. 16, December 28, 1978
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Sam Richards and Paul Saba
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Throughout 1978, Class Struggle has consistently published articles on the position and struggles of national minorities against racist oppression and super-exploitation. From the March issue when we first reported the strike of mainly immigrant catering workers of the Garners Steak House chain, in London’s West End, to the previous issue which reported the police charging the victims of racist violence, Class Struggle has worked to educate workers on the importance of fighting racism. Opposing racism is not only a matter of humanitarian justice. It is a class question which is crucial to uniting the working class against the British monopoly capitalist class and achieving socialist revolution in Britain.
1978 has seen a notable rise in the growth of hatred for and opposition to the National Front fascists. Recognising this growing movement of exposure of the NF, the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) leaders jumped on the bandwagon and sought to turn it into proLabour Party election channels. In their eyes the question of racism and fascism is purely a question of the NF’s provocative racism. They seek to cover up the more pernicious racism of the Labour Party and hide the fact that racism is a product of imperialism. It is an ideology which developed to justify monopoly capitalism’s plunder of colonies and the Third World. As such the state (police, army, courts, etc.) which props up their rule instigates and uses racism to keep down national minorities and the whole working class. It is not for nothing that the police so zealously protect National Front meetings and demonstrations.
For over ten years, the National Front as sought to cultivate a “respectable image” as if it were possible for this organisation of thugs and gangsters to do so. But their increased exposure has made the NF turn more to violent attacks. At Newcastle Crown Court, an NF member charged for possessing bomb-making equipment said “I’m more than ever convinced that the best answer to communism is bullets or molotovs” and that the “Newcastle branch is heavily into fire-bombings and bashing”, As the quotes on this page show, this is well known by the police. But the police and the state protects the National Front and uses it as a shock brigade against black people’s communities to intimidate and terrorize. But as Mao Tsetung said, they are “lifting a rock only to drop it on their own feet”. The British imperialist state is becoming increasingly exposed as the instigator of the special oppression of national minorities, as indeed it is the main enemy of the whole working class.
A campaign has been launched by the Steering Committee of Asian organisations Against Racialism to free the four Asian brothers, Joginder, Mohinder, Bolvinder and Sukhvinder Virk who were sentenced to 7 years, 3 years, 2 years and 3 months imprisonment respectively by the British imperialist state for defending themselves against a racist attack. They were repairing a car outside their home in east London when they were attacked by five white youths shouting racist abuse. Using whatever weapons that came to hand the brothers put up a strong resistance and defeated the attackers. They called the police to deal with the youths and arrange for the treatment of two who were injured. The police let the attackers go free, arrested the brothers and charged them with grievous bodily harm. This is yet another example of the racist police giving protection to fascist thugs. National minorities cannot rely on the imperialist state to protect them from fascist attacks – the state itself is the biggest enemy.