tinned food, roplause and cheer...
he has no desire to cause blood-midnight: As Ine aw more people come out into treets.
concerted attack is made on Bank and the Post minutes both are on tre as youths celebrate the departure of lice. Then the looting begins in Everyone joins in.
ents in their three-piece suits are igging colour TV sets. An old ouple, both of them pensioners, walking into a supermarket trolley. A quarter of an hour they ¿is full of tinned food, biscuits, TFL 699T An old white couple, both of them pensioners, are zen walking into a supermarket. A quarter of an our later they are seen emerging with a trolley full biscuits, soft drinks and other recessities. As the couple walk across the street *zens of black youths burst into spontaneous soft drinks and other necessities. As the couple walk across the street dozens of black youths burst into spontaneous applause and cheer them all the way police back.
This continues for three hours and then the community, as if exhausted retires to bed. At midnight the police Office. re-occupy the ghetto. Like the Roman legions of old they march in with their shields raised and held facing outwards on every side. They are there to show Middle- their strength, observe people walking interference. Only fourteen people are arrested ten-hour Southall, they arrested 350 in half the time. of the relationship of forces.
euphoric. them how "Man, not to test it. They period These statistics are an indication Thursday 3 April: There is a big police presence, but there are no provocations. Black defeated blue the day before and blue bides its time. In the afternoon and the evening there is dancing on the streets. A rastafarian announces to no-one in particular: 'You can't sit around all day and smoke ganYou've got to fight sometime.' Music is heard till late in the night. The blacks have won and the moodis There is a real camaraderie between poor blacks and poor whites. People smile at each other. Laughter is heard at street corners and on the pavement outside the Black & White cafe.
I sat with a group of rastas in the sun on the Grosvenor Road and asked they felt. They talked without prompting. Here are some of the things they said:
marijuana has got to be legalised. Legalise the herb. Write that in your revolutionary paper. For the police are evil and until its legalised they'll carry on behaving like this.' "This has been going on for the last ten years. Ten, I say, but really its four hundred and sixteen years. Yeah, man! Its 416 and we've been taking it cool. There have been many secret beatings in ponce cels, too many arrestca OI suspicion. This time they pushed us too far and we fought. It was good.' feel lt' s got Margaret Thatcher got in. She's been cutting public spending about "law and order'. more confident since she's in power. She's for the rich. poor and she's not for black people.
•Police think because they wear a uniform, we should respect them. But we don't treat them any different from other people. versus white. It was us all against the police. There's too much racism in the police force. ficers.' At this stage a car passes and a flashily dressed black waves at our little group He's a bad man, Sinclair. He owns a club and a building frill, but he employs no blacks. He's I asked them how they felt after the events of Wednesday:
'We feel great. We feel confident. It was a victory and we were worthy of the victory. Yes, worthy of it. want to fight the police. We want the them in the streets.
down. troubling closed community clubs can run ourselves.
The majority of us are STCDICSCHL government.
A few He explained why:
to see my pin something from the window:
the boarded The about anything, hustlers, and pimps. heavier • since and talking The police feel She's not for the One of the beat as This fight wasn't black the neutral We want no black ofin that Johnny up this way: "They're We don't centre We'll fight back ' us like animals. They think we don't have any intelligence and they have the government to back them up and the magistrates and the judges. They're al 'You go to school, you learn and then...nothing. The colour of your skin determines everything. We can't beat them in the courts but we defeated 'We set up a little blues club in a deserted basement. The police closed it This is our ghetto. We aren't anybody. Then why they down? All the ; are useless. We can only use them when the owners let us use them. Never when we want to use them. The government is paying them for nothing. They don't do nothing for the community. Today is a holiday, but the youth club is closed and we're out on the pavement. They used to have a disco every Sunday, but they stopped that as well. We want a club which we , A community club should be run by the community' Why was the bank burnt down?
'The bank is for the moneyman.
are unemp oved. the dole The bank the Margaret Thatcher We burnt it down. We'd like to burn her down as well!' minutes after had interviewed the rastas we met three youths. Andrew Edwards is 16 and has just left school. His eye was swollen.
T was walking up Campbell Street girl-friend. coppers. One had a truncheon and a dustbin lid. The other had an Alsatian. He whacked me on the head with the truncheon. They dragged me into a police car and the one with the truncheon beat me up. One blow hit me in the eye. I was locked up with two other black kids in the cells. They released me on Thursday afternoon, but didn't charge me with anything.' Mike Neblett, 17, has to report at Trinity police station every evening at 7pm. The CID came to his house, but he got away. 'I'm sure they'll try and on us.' As we were talking an old West Indian shouted 'It was me. It was me. I started it all!' He then gave a loud laugh and disappeared inside again.
The builders are back at work. On up windows of Lloyds Bank is the sign: G. Hewitt and Son, Building Contractors Ltd., Bath.
exhilaration -felt by the community is visible on virtually every face. The way they talk about Wednesday it sounds like a carnival of the oppressed. And yet few have illúsions including socialism and the revolution. Yes, it is a rough community. Yes, it has its share of pimps and prostitutes. But that was not the reason for the rebellion as local Labour MP Arthur Palmer would have us believe. For the police maintain an active contact with hustlers No, St. Paul's erupted as a result of accumulated grievances: police; against the state; against the power structures of white society.
the major casualties has been the self-image of the police. Police propagandists portray the copper on "the aharmed, friendly constable helping the aged...the young and those in distress; the determined but scrupulous pursuer of the offender;
protector of and property using a minimum of violence and intelligent crime prevention. ' This cosy image was destroyed in Southall. It has been blown apart in Bristol. But Bristol the police were defeated. Demands for an enquiry, for a defence committee and for organised self-defence are being heard from many quarters. A black youth summed it all in a position revenge. If we're walking on our own, they're bound to beat us up and who will believe us? They'll be thirsting for revenge, but we're prepared as well. If there's a next time well go to the cit We'll burn down Bridewell.
Socialist Challenge : 1Q April 1980,
Photo: SOCIALIST CHALLENGE