(Cont'd.)
second nightmare is that there are other big powers in the world, besides China, who will not dance to his tune. And his third nightmare is that we, the poor peoples of this world, have found our answer to his dollarism and his nuclear blackmail. We have learnt to accept, in the words of Walter Lippman, suffering, hardship, and death. We have learnt to live with the lillies of the jungle when the American cannot survive without his electronic excitement: the almighty T.V. We can walk barefooted when he will be groaning in boots. We can find shelter though he has bombed our homes. We can subsist on palm oil when he starves for want of lard. We can fight with primitive weapons in a manner which can outclass the superiority of his arms. We have perfected the guerrilla to a degree where a handful of Vietnamese peasants can hold at bay the combined military mights of America, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and their satellites. We are ready to die because we have nothing to lose and we no longer talk religion because it blinds one to the laws of the guerrilla: an eye for an eye/ a tooth for a tooth/ a bullet for a bullet/ and a blow for a blow/ and no one resents that kind of law but a bully who wants you to be licking his boot when he is kicking your face; a bully who wants you to be shaking his hands when he is shaking your throat; a capitalist scorpion who intends to sting you to death without a fight from you. lLyndon's nightmare is that we no longer acquiesce to these dictates of the bully, but to the voice of our reason, the logic of the hungry man which is to TAKE and fill your tummy, no matter what! So far, we have talked about the leaders and bullies of America; What about the leaders of this country, the "socialist leaders of Britain?" Isn't it amazing that when THE MOVE (a group of lads who play pop music) draw a little joke on a postcard, the leaders of this country screech "Injustice! Injustice!" and run to the law court to rectify this unforgiveable social irregularity; but when postcards and picturecards begin to flow out of Vietnam, depicting mutilated babies, brutalised women and children, bombed villages and raped minors, the same leaders find it hard to utter the faintest whisper of "injustice". All one can say is that your leaders must have a distorted sense of justice. One is even compelled to go so far as to say they have a perverted sense of justice. Before Harold Wilson became the Prime Minister of this country, he used to make beautiful speeches right here in Trafalgar Square. He used to condemn the racist atrocities of Southern Africa. But now that he has become the Prime Minister, instead of implementing what he preached, he is talking and practicing "kith and kin", with the rebels of Rhodesia. One need not be surprised really. Harold Wilson is a lovely man, so lovely you can never tell what he will do next. If I hear he is playing centre forward for Chelsea tomorrow, I, for one, wouldn't be surprised. He introduced the Race Relations Bill in Parliament to protect the coloured minorities of this country. Today, that very law is being manipulated by his police to victimise the very Blacks it was designed to protect. Right now that I am talking to you, I owe the British Government a heavy fine for daring to verbalize in a public speech the frustrations of the coloured communities of this country. Right now that I am talking to you, Brother Edmund of Jamaica, standing behind me now, is facing a charge for daring to cherish the dream of freedom. Right now I am talking to you, Brother Jeetsun of Mauritius is languishing in Brixton Prison for daring to call upon a white police officer to lay off beating up a coloured man outside Marlborough Magistrate Court, Right now I am talking to you, four members of the U.C.P.A., one from Guyana, one from Jamaica, one from Nigeria, and one from
FORE dsvcosee
India, are appearing at the Old Bailey because they dared state at Mahatma Gandhi Hall the other day that, if the Whites of Rhodesia are the kith and kin of the Whites of Britain, the Blacks of that country are also the kith and kin of the Blacks of this country. We submit here today that it is not our Vice- President, Shankar Ghose, who should be in that dock. It is not Alton Watson who should be in that dock. It is not Roy Sawh who should be in that dock. It is not Michelle Ezekiel who should be in that dock. If the British Justice is anything to go by, the man who should be in that dock is Ian Smith of Rhodesia, If the British Government refuses to do anything about it, we shall involve all the resources of BLACK POWER to do it ourselves.