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rebellion to revolution a strategy for black liberation
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The Other Book h 328 Upper Street London N1 SNOD Telephone 01 226 0571 Open 10-6 Mon Tues Sat; 12-7 Wed; 11-7 Thurs Fri Mail Order Service — add 20 per cent for p&p Orders to: The Other Bookshop PO Box 50 London NI
Volcanoes & Hurricanes — A History of Race and Racism Revolution in Central America in Liverpool 1660-1950 and the Caribbean Ian Law Socialist Challenge/Revo pamphlet 60p pb 30p
How a Minority Can Change Leon Trotsky on Black Society Nationalism & Self- George Breitman determination Pathfinder 40p £1.75 pb Pathfinder
Malcolm X — The Man and His Finding a Voice — Asian Ideas Women in Britain George Breitman Amrit Wilson Pathfinder 40p £2.50 pb Virago Two Speeches by Malcolm X Being Black Pathfinder 50p Roxy Harris £1.80 pb New Beacon / A Different Hunger Southall — The Birth of a Black A Sivanandan Community £3.95 pb Pluto £1.30
Midnights Children The New Racism Salman Rushdie Martin Barker £2.95 pb Picador £4.95 pb Junction Books
Racism and Black Resistance in Freedom at Midnight Britain Larry Collins and Dominique Robert Moore LaPierre 75p pb Pluto £2.50 pb Granada
Also available from Birmingham’s Other Bookshop, 137 Digbeth, Birmingham
THIS pamphlet has been written by three activists in Revolution Youth: Ken Hercules, Anil Sen and Walid Haddad with research and editorial aid from Andy Brooking and Toni Gorton: 30 June 1982.
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"All thinking people who have been oppressed are revolutionary. Any time you find s-mebody today who's afraid of the word ‘revolution’ get them out of your way, they are living in the wrong era, they are behind the times. They haven't awakened yet. This is the era of revolution. ..'
Malcolm X. By Any Means Necessary.
From rebellionto revolution: a strategy for black liberation BRIXTON, Southall, Toxteth, Moss Side - the very names now conjure up the vision of revolution. They recall summer '81 when the black youth of more than thirty British cities erupted in fury against the cops, the system and their no-hope future.
In these battles, the black youth revolutionised British society. In these battles, black youth took the lead of all those who suffer from injustice, poverty, racism and oppression.
What now? Has white society started listening to the youth? Has the government started to build new houses, schools, clubs? Has it found jobs for everyone? Has it taken the cops off the streets and ended the day to day hassles?
No way! The Tory government has responded by putting more police on the streets, more heavily armed and better trained.
Une:nployment among the youth of Brixton has risen by 71 per cent over the last year. The 'front line’ is still gutted, boarded up and derelict.
So what's the answer? Are black youth doomed to walk the streets, without homes or jobs? Or can they lead the way against the Tory government, against the bosses society; fighting alongside revolutionary forces the world over?
Revolution Youth and the International Marxist Group say without any doubt that black people will lead the coming British revolution.
Therefore we offer the ideas in this pamphlet for the study of black youth.
We believe that a genuine Marxist analysis of this society, combined with a policy for action, will be an invaluable aid to the fight for black liberation.
Sey yor a
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Roots of racism A SUCCESSFUL fight fo: black liberation will depend on understanding the society we live in: on understanding exactly why black people are oppressed and vilified and if racism is part of human nature, and something which will always be with us.
Capitalism is the name we give to the system we live under today. It is a system where a tiny number of bosses and rulers get rich by screwing the vast majority of people.
Capitalism has operated in this way since it started around 300 years ago. It began with a brutal trade in human lives - the slave trade, Millions of black people were taken from Africa and scld for profit. Their language, history and culture were torn away from them. To their white masters they were no more than animals.
Asia, too was plundered by the capitalists. India,for example, was occupied by a British army while British bosses impoverished the peasants, destroyed the textile industry and put the people to work for next to nothing.
Back home in Britain the churches, professors and the government dreamed up ideas to justify their inhuman acts in Africa and Asia. They backed up their ideas with "science' and with the Bible. They came to the conclusion that black people were, and always would be, inferior to whites. That made them feel better about Slavery. So racism was established to justify economic greed. It has nothing to do with 'human nature’.
Racism in Britain RACIST ideas were developed to justify the plunder of the colonial world. And the super-profits made by the British bosses in Asia and Africa allowed them to give privileged sections of the working class in Britain a better standard of living.
Many white workers began to see themselves as superior to black workers. When they felt that their privileges were threatened , they tended to turn against black workers and not against their real e:emy - the bosses.
After the Second World War, the capitalist system grew rapidly. The bosses were making fat profits. There was hardly any unemployment. In fact things were going so well for the bosses that they couldn't find enough workers to work for them.
So British bosses turned to their c lonies in Asia and Africa. Because of the way Britain had run these countries there were millions of people out of work. So the bosses began to bring thousands of black workers to Britain. Even the Conservative government lent a hand by providing money for black people who wanted to come. 4
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As the economy bcomed, white male workers moved up into better-paid, more skilled jcbs. A massive government propaganda campaign along with the closing down of nurseries forced women to leave work and to go home to have babies.
The government ard the bosses put the black workers into the jobs most whites wouldn't touch any more. Black workers went into the textile industries, into the foundries, onto the trains and the buses and into being waiters, porters and kitchen hands.
So workers in Britain were deeply divided. White men had the best jobs and the best money. Blacks had the lowest wages and the worst jobs, And the racist ideas of the ruling class would now be used to make sure that workers stayed divided in this wey. Racist politicians set out to whip up white racism, to make white workers see blacks, not the bosses as their enemy.
Capitalism in crisis TODAY, the bosses' economy is no longer booming. Unemployment is rocketing. Millions of workers are being thrown on the dole. Capitalism no longer needs to bring in thousands of black workers. In fact it'd like to tarow blacks out of the country altogether. Rather than welcoming black workers, the bosses are putting up stricter and stricter immigration controls to stop blacks coming in at all. Police raids on black people supposedly searching for ‘illegal' immigrants are a
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regular feature of life.
The besses are also stepping up their drive to turn white workers against blacks. Blacks are made a scapegoat for the crimes of capitalism. But as the pressure pouets. more and mcre black people are starting to fight ack.
Labour Party and the unions THE vast majority of black people in this country are working class. Most either work for a living or are on the dole. In some big factories, such as the Fords plant in East London, well over half the workers are black.
There are hardly any black bosses. Very, very few factories are owned by blacks. Even the number of small scale businesses, likes shops, that are owed by black people is comparatively few.
Despite this, the organisations which are supposed to represent the working class, like the trade unions and the Labour Party, have often ignored the demands and needs of black people.
Labour Governments, for example, were responsible for some of the most racist immigration laws. Why is this? How is it that organisations which are supposed to fight for working class people do nothing, or worse than nothing , for black workers?
As the working class began to get organised into trade unions, and later when it set up the Labour Party, some of the best off and most skilled workers became the leaders of these organisations. Many worked full-time for the unions. Others became Labour Party Mrs, supposedly representing the working class in parliament.
With their feet in the working class ard their heads with the ruling class, the philosophy of these leaders was to try to reform some of the worst horrors of the capitalist system. They gave up any thoughts of abolishing capitalism altogether.
These people are not bad individuals. They represent an entire section of the working class whose jobs and pay depend on keeping up their position as leaders of the wotking class while at the same time being loyal to their ruling class masters, We cail these parasites or the working class the bureaucracy of the labour movement.
These bureaucrats backed wp their ruling class friends in two world wars. They sold cut and betrayed countless working class struggles, countless strikes where workers have been fighting for a better standard of Fiving. They kept quiet while the bosses put down revellions and revolutions in other parts of the world.
On top of this, these leaders took up all the racist ideas of the bosses. They have helped the ruling class 6
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to divide black workers fro. white workers. They have made no effort to help black workers to get involved in the unions. Qnite the opposite. On some occasions they have actually worked to prevent blacks from getting involved.
Can a minority change things? BLACK people are up against the bitter hostility of the bosses, the ruling class and their state. They are up against the so called leaders of the working class, people who often share the bosses' racist ideas. Black people make up less than 4 per cent of the total population. Is it possible for such a small minority to transform society?
First it's worth pointing out that right now a minority owns this society lock, stock and barrel. This minority is the capitalist class and it is backed up by the police, the army, the courts and their friends who lead the working class. They hold down tens of millions of workers. This is living proof of what a minority can do.
But are black people really a minority? In Britain the answer is yes. But if you look at the situation worldwide, black people are the majority. Black people in this country are part of a global majority which is well along the way to shaking off the domination of the white bosses and rulers.
In countries such as Grenada, Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam and China the domination of imperialist countries like Britain has been thrown off. World wide,the struggle of the mass of the non-white people in oppressed countries is continuing to push ahead.
In Britain itself the majority of the population is working class. Whatever racist ideas many white workers have, it remains the case that their real enemy is the seme as that faced by black people - the bosses and their state. So even in Britain black people make up a part of the majority of the population, the working class.
Well that's nice to know, you're probably thinking. But what's it got to da with me? The white neighbours hate me, and the cops are thundering about with batons, plastic bullets ond tear gas. What can I do?
The first thing is to rid yourself of any ideas that someone else is going to do it for you. Malcolm X put it this way, ‘I read once about a man named Shakespeare - I only read about him passingly, but I remember one thing he wrote that kind of moved me. He put it in the mcuth of Hamlet, I think it was, who said, "To be or not to be"he was in doubt about something - "whether it was nobler 7
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in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" - moderation - ot to teke up arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them." And I go for that. If you take up arms, vou'll end it. But if you sit around and wait for the one who's in power to make up his mind that he should end it, you'll be waiting a long time.'
So if black people begin to take action - not waiting for anyone to do it for them - then they begin to stop being just an isolated minority. First off they can link up with the fight of other black people around the world. That makes them part of the majority of the world, the majority which is fighting to free itself from the chains of the white bosses.
And by fighting they can begin to force white workers in Britain to take action themselves - action which will bring them into conflict with their own leaders and which can force them to look at their own attitudes towards black people.
So now the question is how the black minority should go about fighting to bring these changes. Race relations industry MANY of the traditional leaders of the black community have been waiting for the British government to improve things for them. They have believed that by rational argument,by begging, by being responsible citizens that one day the government would see the light - that it would one day give blacks better housing and schooling, stop colour bars ard defend communities from racist attacks.
Far from it. The capitalist state is the sarce of racism. Different governments only tinker with the state. You can't change its basic racist character without changing the character of the whole of society, which means putting an end to all forms of capitalism.
So laws like the Race Relations Act may make explicit yacial discrimination illegal, by outlawing colour bars in housing for example. But they can't touch colour bars which we all know still go on. Like discrimination in schools, and in going for jobs.
Moreover these reforms pale into insignificance beside openly racist laws like the Tory's new Nationality Act.
These reforms are worth having and are worth fighting for but they cannot deal with the problems black people face. Yet a whole industry has grown up to claim exactly the opposite.
The Council for Racial Equality exists to promote these ideas, It has a say on local councils through the Community Relations Councils. And it can get government money for community centres and other projects.
Through being in these councils, many black activists have been sucked up into the whole network of 8
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government hand-outs. The whole purpose of these networks is to defuse black militancy.
The race relations industry, and many ‘moderate’ black leaders say that racism exists only in peoples heads.
They don't see it as being deeply rooted in the very nature of capitalism. They try to make out that gradually we will stop being racist by saying what great people blacks really are, how unoffensive they are and isn't curry tasty.
The youth rebellions of summer '81 challenged all this.
They showed that black youth were fed up with waiting around for people to be nice to them. The youth abandoned 'moderation' and took matters into their own hands.
But the summer of '81 was only the most dramatic expression of something that's been building up for many years. A history of militant black struggle already exists in Britain.
Black nationalism WHILE British governments have attacked the right of black people in Britain, a new generation of black youth has been growing up. A generation which sees its life and its struggle right here in Britain.
Among the youth the previous political, national and cultural differences are breaking down in the face of a common enemy - the British state.
During the 60's new political ideas rose from blacks in the USA - the ideas of black nationalism. Their leading syokesperson was Malcolm X, Malcolm X's importance as a revolutionary leader can be judged from the fact that the ruling class has spent millions of dollars distorting his message. They paint him viene ica as a fanatic, a black racist who got his just reward when he was himself gunned down.
Born poor, Malcolm Little spent his teens in New York hustling, pimping and dealing. He was sent down for seven years for burglary.
It was in jail that Malcolm X was born. He joined the Black Muslims, a religious sect which stood for total opposition to white society and for the creation of an independant black state. When he joined he dropped the name Little - the name of the slave-owner who had bought his African ancestor. He took the name 'X' to symbolise his lost African name.
Malcolm X became one of the Black Muslims most successful speakers. But in 1964, disagreeing with their refusal to join in many of the struggles of black people, he left the Muslims, who had acquired a reputation for ‘talking tough but doing nothing'.
Many black youth hed already rejected the liberal ideas
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of Martin Luther King. Malcolm X became their spokesperson, In the year before his murder, Malcolm set about building a militant black nationalist movement in the states. He rejected the idea that black people had to tone down their demands so as to win support from white liberals. He stressed the importance of black pride, black history and culture.
He also began to reject one of the most fundamental ideas of the Black Muslims - the idea that the black struggle has nothing to do with the struggle of other oppressed people, aad such as the white workers.
But he pointed out: ‘There can be no black-white unity ws before there is black unity'. He worked towards an alliance between the American black movement and all those fighting oppression world-wide.
Given all the politics Malcolm X was fighting for, it's not surprising that the American ruling class shed no tears when he was murdered in 1965. Malcolm's death was a stunning blow. But his ideas remain essential to working out a strategy for black liberation today. Black unity IN BRITAIN today there is the same burning need for united black political action. The issues that black people will unite around, and take action over, have already been established by black people themselves.
A short summary would include: *Opposition tc immigration controls, an end to persecution of ‘'illegal' immigrants and deportations. *Control of the police, disband the Special Patrol Group, an end to'stop and search’ powers. *For an end to discrimination in schooling, jobs and housing. *Stop police and racist harassment of black ccmmunities. Self defence is no offence! *Solidarity with the struggles of black people around the world! wats look at some of these points more closely.
The response of the black community to the firebombings in New Cross, where 13 young blacks died shows how we can fight back against racist attacks.
The New Cross Massacre Action Committee mobilised the ' rage of all black people when it browght out 10,000 people on the Black Peoples Day of Action - a massive march of > protest through London.
The Committee also exposed the racist nature of the courts and the legal system. Protests at the inquest into the firebombing stopped the cover-up which was going on, and showed that the coroner was in the pocket of the police. The truth of the massacre may never be known, but neither will anyone believe that the fire was started by the youth themselves.
This massacre, the Bradford 12 case and other attacks 10
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and murders show something which is becoming increasingly obvious: black people cannot rely on the police to defend them against racist attacks.
Black people have the right to defend themselves BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY.
Some methods of self-defence are more effective than others. Self-defence should be based or. the mass action of the community such as when the youth drove the fascists out of Southall in July 1981. It needs tv be based on and accountable to the black community and a drive has to be made to force the labour movement to side with the black community.
Such an approach increases the self-confidence of the black community and can win support from white people.
It is very different to the approach of some groups, such as Workers Against Racism, who substitute defence by individuals for a defence by the entire community. While these people work extremely hard, their approach is doomed to failure in th long-run as individuals c4n easily be isslated and picked off by the police. Immigration AS well as harassing the black community through saturation police operations like Swamp ‘81 in Brixton, as well as standing aside while racist thugs attack and kill blacks, the ruling class is also stepping up its assault on all democratic rights.
The new Employment Act, for example, aims to take away the rights of working class people to defend their living 11
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standards by trade union action. The right to demonstrate is being outlawed as the police get away with banning political marches.
In particular the ruling class is attacking the right of black people to live in this country. Now the bosses no longer need a never-ending supply of cheap labour, they are attempting to drive black people out altogether. Under the immigration laws constant attempts are made to deport black people. Families are split up. Every black person is a suspected ‘illegal' immigrant.
The new Nationality Act denies black people fxee health care, social security ard other citizenship rights. This is done to split black and white workers: to get white workers to blame black people for unemployment, bad housing. Whether you are an'illegal' immigrant or not, these laws are a threat to ail black people and to white workers who need black support in their struggles.
The last few years have seen black people organising to defend their right to be in Britain. Many of these campaigns, like the one to bring Anwar Ditta's children to Britain; like the fights to stop the deportation of Nasira Begum, Jaswinder Kaur and Shirley Graham have been successful. Through these victories black people have weakened the ability of the ruling class to pick us off. Their victories have strengthened the fight of all black people in Britain.
All these campaigns relied on mobilising large numbers of people. They made sure that Labour Party and trade union bodies supported them. Instead of pleading with the ruling class, they talked to our masters in the only language they understand - the language of action.
Positive action for jobs AS unemployment rockets, black people and women are hit hardest, because of anti-black and anti-women hiring practices. The Race Relations Act has no answer to this type of discrimination. Even if an individual case is proved , it is easy for a boss to carry on discriminating.
A programme of positive action is needed to overcome these problems.
This programme should include special measures to ensure adequate training in schools, colleges and training centres, and legally force employers to hire a certain number of black people and women. Once at work, the bosses must be forced to stop the practise of paying blacks and women less money than white male workers, while working in worse conditions.
In Britain the fight for positive action is only just | beginning. It'll mean taking on not only the bosses, but also the prejudices of the bureaucrats who run the unions. 12
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It'll mean arguing against those who say that positive action 'divides the working class' - without seeing that the working class is already divided ard that positive action can begin to overcome those divisions. Fighting for positive action within the unions will mean forming black caucuses.
{HOMMLY # COCNISED
Women’s liberation WOMEN'S fighting spirit is all around us. Black women have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with men in Zimbabwe, Angola, Cuba, Grenada - everywhere there is a struggle to build a new society. In Britain black women like Anwar Ditta have been right at the fort of the struggle. And there are millions of black women who are nameless but who struggle every day for their children and their people.
Women's oppression beyan when society first became divided into classes. It is rooted in th very nature of the family group.
Only a society which takes responsibility for all those aspects of life which are now a woman's lot will be able to free women. Only when the rearing of children becomes society task instead of that of an individual woman will women be able to take an equal part in life.
Black women are oppressed three times over - as women, as blacks and as workers.They are portrayed as being passive and ignorant. But that lie cracks fast when black women take action.
The abuse of Asian brides by the Heathrow immigration 13
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officers who subjected them to virginity tests was stopped when one woman brought the csse to international attention. Mrs. Desai, leader of the Grunwick strike for union recognition became ar: internationally known woman fighting for her class and her people.
Many of the most obvious cases of discrimination against black women revolve around their role as mothers. Asian women have been injected with depo-provera, a contraceptive drug, without their knowledge by a racist health service which thinks that it can take decisions on behalf of black women in order to stop them ‘breeding'. in some cases, hlack women seeking abortions are orly given them on condition that they are sterilised at the same time. Tn desperation they agree - although it isn't what they want and it's very risky to have the two operations at the same time.
Immigration laws treat black women as mere appendages of their husbands. In cases such as those of Nasira Begum, Jaswinder Kaur and Najat Chafee women are threatened with deportation because they no longer live with their husbands.
Black women are being hardest hit by the economic crisis. Entire industries, like textiles, are being destroyed. And there's no question of these wouen working for'pin-money'. Their wages are a vital part of the family income.
United action by black people means taking up the demands of black women and recognising their leading role within the black movement.
International solidarity AS we've explained above, the British ruling class bailt up its wealth by -lundering other countries and enslaving their black population. So today the fight against these same British bosses isn't just what goes on here, it's going on right around the world.
Although the British rulers have now withdrawn their armies from most of their old colonies, and although they have given these countries ‘independence’ from Britain, they still dominate and c..trol their economies. Black people are fighting against this domination. The British colony of Rhodesia is now black Zimbabwe, In the ex-colony of Grenada black workers and farmers are now moving to set up the first English-speaking socialist state in the world. What an example! The first svcialist revolution in an English-speaking country is led and run by black people. The example of the Grenadian revolution is now inspiring the black population of the whole Caribbean. In the three years since the revolution Grenada has achieved a free health service, free education, the establishment of new industries and a big drop in unemployment. It has set up a system of government where 14
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the workers have rea} control over what goes or. in society.
The rulers of America and Britain see this revolution as a threat - a threat to their profits. They fear it might spread not only to the rest of the Caribbean but to America and Britain as well. So they're out to crush free Grenada. They're out to frighten her with massive naval manouvers off her shores.
It's up to the black and revolutionary mcvements in Britain to show that the ruling class is right to be worried, that the examples of the victories of black workers in places like Grenada will spread. These events st:ow that our ideas aren't just an idle dream. They show that workers black workers - can take the running of society into their own hands.
Revolutions like that in Grenada are our revolutions. So as well as spreading their message, we also have a Cuty to defend them from attack. In Britain that means participsting in campaigns like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament campaigns which set out to put a stop to the war-plans of the bosses.
err AF WEALTH ns Ae | Wakeen se NG ip
Photo: Pat Kane. Grenadan heaithworkers celebrate the third anniversary of their revolution which overthrew the dictator Gairy. Giant steps are being taken in Grenada to overcome problems that are common in the Caribbean and throughout the third world: literacy, health, education and nutrition.
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Towards a black movement ALL that's been said points to ov:.e thing. Black people in Britain are organising to defend themselves from the bosses' attacks - organising in a militant way. A way which says that no one else can do it for them, Many different black organisations already exist - from Asian Youth Movements, to black wonen's groups, to black organisations in the trade unions. As the struggle gets hotter these organisations will more and more come to link up to fight for all black people. They will link up with revolutionary black movements around the world - from Grenada to South Africa to the USA, Through this process a new black liberation movement c-mes into being - a movement that takes up many different issues, many aspects of oppression. This movement makes a massive contribution not only to the struggles of black people, but to the fight of the whole working class.
Revolution Youth and the International Marxist Group fully support these developments. We would put forward further ideas or. some of the major issues facing this movement.
White allies? MALCOLM X thought the black movement cszld win allies in the white working class. He put it this way: '< live in America where there are only 22 million blacks against probably 160 million whites. One of the reasens why I'm in. no way reluctant or hesitant te do whatever is necessary to see that blacks do something to protect themselves is because I honestly believe that the day they do, many whites will have more respect for them, and there will be more whites on their side then there are now on their side with these little wishy-washy love-thy-ez.emy approaches that they've bien using up to now. And if I'm wrong then you are racialists,' Oxford Union Society debate. 3 December 1964, The Grunwick strike of 1977 showed this approach. The Asian women workers were so bold, so unmoving that virtually the entire labour movement came out on their side. This heroic struggle was eventually lost. But it was lost because the bureaucratic leaders of the union sold it out, not because of ordinary white workers - many of whom had been on the picket lines with the Asian women.
A new leadership WHEN workers take action in defence of their living standards and rights, they run up against the pro-ruling class ideas of the bureaucrats who are supposed to represent them. But this bureaucracy is by no means united, As the economic crisis gets worse, and as more workers take action to defend themselves, so a section of the 16
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leadership of the unions and the Labour Party has begun to break from old ideas. Leaders like Tony Benn understand that the .id politics can't deal with the problems.
While the actions of these left-wing leaders in no way makes them revolutionaries, their stand nevertheless is of great importance. At grass roots level a new leadership of the working class is starting to take shape. Slowly but surely a leadership which stands on the principles of class struggle is fighting to replace the old leaders and their ties to the ruling class.
Many of these new people take their political ideas from people like Tony Benn. They support the left wing leaders against the right. But when it comes to action they're already prepared to be far more radical than Benn and people like him, We think that the development of this class struggle leadership is of great importance. Revolutionaries want to make themselves part of this process. We, too, support left wing leaders against the right. But at the same time push on beyond them. We want to create, out of this process, the sort of revolutionary organisation necessary to destroy the power of the ruling class and to create a socialist society which will free all workers, black and white.
So what is this new leadership? This pamphlet has already described one of its most important parts - namely the development of a black liberation movement.
We can look at the advance of new leaders, including black workers, in industrial plants like Fords. Industrial workers are one of the most important parts of the working class. They have the power, through their collective strength and unity, to shake the bosses' system to its foundations. Over the past few years we have seen industrial workers fighting to save jobs through taking militant action such as occupying their places of work. Increasingly black workers are fighting back where their oppression as blacks meets their oppression as workers - in the workplace.
Often these new leaders will be young people. It is clear that the youth are the most dynamic section of the community. How are youth to be organised? Some black youth are already in organisations, such as the Asian Youth Movements.
But also they can organise, along with white youth through the Labour Party Young Socialists. Because of its links with the Labour Party, the only party which receives mass working class support and which is based on the trade unions, the ~PYS has the possibility of becoming a really huge organisation, launching campaigns on all the major issues sonfronting the working class. In this way it can link young reople, black and white, into the big political battles now raging in the unions and the Labour Party. We support the creation of a LPYS along these lines. 17
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Revolutionary organisation THE STRUGGLE to build a new leadership for the working class isn't a small job. It won't happen spontaneously or automatically. If black and white workers are to overthrow capitalism, we need a leadership which is equipped and prepared to fight.
The British ruling class is one of the most experienced, most ruthless in the world. It is a veteran of many imperial wars against the people of Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. In order to overthrow this ruling class, the working class must be united around a programme which includes the demands of all the oppressed. A programme which can lead the workers against the bosses and the bureaucrats. A programme which links up with revolutionary struggles around the world. A programme which fights for black people and women.
Such a programme has to be developed and tested in the living struggles of the working class and the oppressed today. It needs to fuse the experience gained from the historical battles of the working class with this new experience.
To do this, we need to create a revolutionary youth organisation and a revolutionary party. Organisations which unite the struggles of all parts of the working class - and which can lay the foundations of the organisation necessary to destroy capitalism.
Revolution Youth and the International Marxist Group are such organisations. We are not in competition with independant black organisations, substituting for them or parasitic on them. We give our full support to black organisations and to the building of a black movement. We believe that the building of ar autonomous black liberation movement is vital for black liberation.
But at the same time we encourage black people to join our organisations, to take up the fight for the liberation of the whole of the working class.
We do not condemn the youths seeking revenge on the streets On the contrary, we seek to stir up that revenge again, to deepen it and to direct it against the real causes of racism, of oppression.
If we are to settle accounts with brutal and oppressive conditions, we cannot settle it simply with a group of police officers. No, The account we have to settle is greater than that. We have to settle it with the entire capitalist system and its defenders, the capitalist class.
To do this, the building of revolutionary organisations is of immediate importance. Come and join us?
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If you want to be put in touch with supporters in other parts of the country please write to PO Box 50, London N1 ZXP_ or phone 01-359 8371.
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From rebellion to revolution a strategy for black liberation
This easy to read pamphlet, written by three young black socialists, tackles some of the big questions faced by black youth in Britain. Out of their own experience of growing up ina white racist society, looking for answers and joining a revolutionary organisation they deal with the following issues ... @ black history @ the roots of racism in Britain @® unemployment and racism @ black workers, the Labour Party and the unions @ cana minority change society? @ black nationalism ® united political action @® a programme for liberation @ white allies
@ women’s liberation
® international solidarity
Published by Cardinal Enterprises for Socialist Challenge, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP. 90 Printed by Lithoprint (TU), 329 Upper St., London NI. p