Late last month, the Tories published their White Paper on Nationality. 'White Paper' is apt. The document represents yet another stage in the hate campaign launched by the government against Black people.
As Rudi Narayan, well-known Black activist, explains in his recent pamphlet 'Passport to Racism': "...it is not numbers but race and colour that is the driving force S.L. CARL Over 100 people - representing the Black and labour movement -packed a S. L. CARL meeting on September 10th to discuss the racist nature of the present immigration laws and the proposed Nationality Act.
The opening speaker, J. Plummer (JCWI) dealt with the racist bias in the current immigration laws.
An estimated 200 Blacks, for example, are at any one time languishing in jail without reason and without the right of 'habeus corpus'. Their rights, he stressed, are even less than those detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
I ne secona speaker, nuay Narayan, was more eloquent and emotive. While Plummer gave the facts of the situation, Narayan explained the oppression Blacks suffer - under the immigration laws - Irom nirst-nand experience. He laid particular stress on the 225:30..
ers to take up the defence of Black rights. ity proposals".
IMMIGRATION the present colour bar.
London-Heathrow Airport Arrivals behind the government's nationalUnder the White Paper's proposals, citizens are divided into those whose ancestors were born in this country - the overwhelming majority of whites - and those whose ancestors weren't. These latter -mainly Black - are then sub-divided into two further categories. Such a division merely mirrors that already in operation under the 19-1 Immigration Act. What while white Commonwealth immigrants will be free to come and go as they please, Blacks will be Mike Sheridan (IFL.) "swamped with an alien culture'.
RIGHTS The importance of these racist laws is not only that they discriminate against Black people at the ports of entry. It is that they help create a climate of legalised racism which permeates the lives of all those Blacks already here. Under the provisions of the 1971 Immigration Act, suspected 'illegal immigrants' can be arrested without warrent and deported without right of appeal. This denial of democratic rights sheetie the green light tu harass and intimidate the Black community.
The recent 'fishing raids' we have witnessed - carried out with gestapo-like precision - are a few examples of the police in action. Is it any wonder that areas like Southall and Brixton live in a constant terror of police raids? Len Wagstaff-(Vau xhall CLP)
DEMAGOGUES Unfortunately, the Labour leaders find it difficult to challenge the racist bias of such acts. Jim Callaghan and others were only too willing -. when in office -- to implement the 1971 Immigration Act and devise a Green Paper on Nationality which is virtually identical to the Tories present The dangers of this attitude are only too obvious. By backing down before the racist oftensive, they have helped give credence to the idea that Blacks are a 'problem' and have opened up the labour movement to racist demagogues.
Such a situation can be lethal at a time of mass unemployment and lead - unless challenged - to certain layers of workers seeing Blacks not as allies but as a threat in the years ahead.
FIGHT-BACK Opposition to the Labour leaders' weak-kneed attitude is mounting, however. The mass CARL demonstration of 20,000 last November won the support of both Black organisations and the Labour Party. That promising beginning must now be built upon.
number vt meetines hanunan! - from Brixton to Bristol - to win support against the Nationality Act. It is considering a conf. erence this Autumn and a mass rally early in the New Year. Such action will be vital if the Tory racist curbs are to be defeated. Copies available from :
PO Box No 65 London SW 16 1NN bureaucratical instance
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MALCOLMA MALCOLM