RACIALISM AT THE POLLS by Robert Q, Gray
During what the New Statesman has aptly dubbed ' a summer of unreason', nasty rumours of reactionary electoral exploitation of racialism. are beginning to take on conerete shapes A group cf right wing Tory MPs in Birmingham has - according to the Observer (9/8/64) = come out into the open, with a statement which, after praising the infamous Immigration Act as an enlightened measure, goes on to talk of: ‘the frictions to be avoided when different cultures live side by side' - or, for the unsophisticiated electors: 'if you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour,'
Transport House is reported to be worried, especially lest Gordon Walker should lose his sext in Smethwick. 'Some officials' are. demanding ‘ae new directive, to candidates and canvassers, making it “crystal clear" that Labour is as opposed as the Conservatives to unrestricted immigration. ' In the face of this peculiarly vicious opportunisn, we must campaign throughout the labour movement, in favour of the point of view embodied in an excellent Guerdian editorial (11/8/62) which argued that Labour must ‘appeal straightforwardly to the moral sense of the British people,' and ‘confront racial prejudice head-on...laying bear (its) fundamental inhumanity.' It is hardly necessary, here, to stress the importance of bringing pressure to bear, with a view to making Labour play a more positive anti-racialist role, both abroad and - what is more difficult - in the more sordid corners of our own back-yard. For a start, we must get the opportunistic equivocation of voluntary restriction by consultation! abandoned.
'The test of a civilised country is how it behaves to all citizens of different race, religon and colour. By that test this Bill fails, and that is fundamentally why we deplore it.' Thus, the late Hugh Gaitskell; it is not often that the left has occasion to quote him with whole-hearted approval. But unless some people in high places ponder upon his words, certain Transport House officials may wake up and wonder what has happened to all those advocates of equality and human brotherhood who used to be candidates and canvassers for the Labour Party.