as her starting point an article by American Worker, oucs (Matthew Ward).
got to it before me.
south.
E.
of the unions.
Denby question of discrimination in reverse.' Caucuses black caucuses.
sions.
tancy by appointing in Indignant Heart, Testimony of a Black by Charles Denby Published by Pluto Press 1979. 295 pages. Price £2.95. INDIGNANT Heart is a very readable book. I took it to Rover to read in the teabreaks, but kept finding that Patrick or Julian, two Afro-Caribbean workers, had The book is in two parts. The first was written in 1951, at the height of the McCarthyite period, under the name of Matthew Ward, and describes Denby's life. His grandmother was a slave and he was brought up on a farm in the represents generation migrated to the factories of the north.
He vividly describes the racism blacks met in the Detroit car plants and the struggles they launched against it. Some of the practices, such as all-white departments and low-paid jobs and no promotion for the blacks, are not unfamiliar in Britain today. The same goes for the attitude was a member of the Union of Automobile Workers, which at that time was under the control of Walter Reuther. His view was that 'negroes shouldn't raise any problems about negroes as negroes in the unions'. This was backed up by officials saying 'if you raise negroes as an issue, it is The book describes the response of black workers and their limited success. By using and because of their large numbers, (the population of Detroit was over 50 per cent black, and in some plants blacks were over 80 per cent of the workforce) they won a series of minor but important concesHowever, the UAW bought off this mili'Uncle Tom' blacks to The second part of the book is mainly a commentary on all the major events concerning race in the US in the '50s and '60s.
Denby was personally involved in the civil namona horanon rights movement, and his account of such incidents as the Montgomery bus boycott is impressive to read. But he dismisses the black power movement as unrealistic, and so fails to understand the rise of Malcolm X and the Black Panthers.
riots of 1967, acting as an individual. But his main concern was always fighting racism at the point of production. His weakness is that he has no overall strategy for organising blacks even at the point of production. Denby was involved in the massive Detroit This is despite the fact that for several years Black March on He moved on to the Socialist Workers IS among white . from the Socialist NAALI and ten His experience is not unique in that quite a Although the situation in Britain today is , at the workplace — do refleci ment, who presumably, on the criteria applied in Cde Milner's must also be 'helping British im. WITH the growth of racist violence on the streets once more, Paul Lawson's advice to the let in Britain ( lime for the lett to 31 July) is to 'revitalise KAR' in a patronising, lllinformed article which ignores the growth of black resistance to racism, and prefers to dabble in comments on youth culture and the crisis in the National Front.
According to Lawson the crisis analysis starts from. But surely we should look at the wider economic and political situation, and with two million unemployed surely the CrIsIs Is in capitalism not the NF?
The NF were quick to respond called on 17 August in West Brom under the Slogan BritisA IODs Tor BRuS!
, and the Tories' rightwing policies have given credence Paul's article is wholly concerned with the white left's response. with no criticism of RAR's impact as a mainly white movement that did not, and still oves soi uraw black youll In Birmingham we have some, it limited. experience of thi growth of racist attacks on the Our response was to side immediatelv with the black voutt willing to organise against these attacks, to defend their com munities and, when necessary, to run the racist gangs out of Small One of the best ways to fight Tascisms to organise sen-detence and at this time that essentially means black self defence and an autonomous black liberation movement. Lawson doesn't even The artice goes nint at tne fact that youth are important in the fight against the rise of racism and tass une only answer he gives is to start RAR up again We should defend RAR gigs from
READING
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION FROM LENIN TO STALIN 19171929, by E.H. Carr (200pp).
The research for the author's classic 14-volume History of soviet Mussiu Is nere distlicc into an introduction to the period aimed at the general reader. Papermac. £2.95 MARXISM AFTER MARX Out for the first time in paper back. this is a second editior of McLellan's explanation of the history of Marxist ideas.
is suppicmcuica oy a ruli curet to further reading. . Papermac £3.25. (Also available in paperback by David McLellan secona eations or th Thought of Karl Marx and Marx Before Marxism, bott £2.50.)
READER, I MARRIED HIM by Patricia Beer (213pp) Taking its title from Jane Lyic classic Ilullal remark, this book examines the work of four women novelist • Jane Austen Gaskell, and George Eliot in order to show how they ceoic women ano their sua tion in society. Papermac, £2.95 THE CONVERT ov ruzabel Koons cueDoi First published in 1907, this novel brings the struggle for women's suffrage to life as few works of non-fiction could do. The Women's Press. £2.95.
LUVANDA
by Jose Luandino Vieira Originally published in 1964 while the author was in prison for agitating against the Por tuguese regime in Angola, this newly translated collection of short stories depicts the daily joys and sorrows, victories and defeats of the people who liv.
ed in and endured Luanda's slums auring colonial umes Heinemann (African Writers All available from The Othes 328 Upper S London N1 Tel 01-226-0571. DUURSIN Add 15% for p&p if ordering by mail fascist attacks of course. but an re-involvement in RAR would need to include a hard, political Dallie to alively Involve liest layers in defence of the black communities against racist atlack.
Our perspectives among white youth do not start from the at ulude war larde numbers or unes thugs cannot be won by the propaganda of anti-racists and the lett. we start rom la knowledge that youth are always the most open to › revolutionary to work, to leisure, to sexuality, and, by organising among the unemployed and young workers to fighting against the Tories through local Revolution Youth oranches all Hallullal callDalen.
The last point is, perhaps, the most complex: what is our attitude to 'skinheads'? It's not just a simple equation: skinhead = racist = violent = BM . How do you exian women and orac skinheads in that context? How much is culture and fashion and now muck is organisea rascism.
The only attitude we can clearly have is that, from the point of view of black communities, a gang of skinheads coming into their area poses a threat in the 'uniform of fascism' , However we snould always de carerul to prenx skinhead by "racist', "fascist', or wilaleyei is accurale Birmingham Revolution Youth will be building a youth con tingent for the counter demo it Handsworin against te Nr on li August. Now it's time for the left to act. Join us there!
BIRMINGHAM REVOLUTION YOUTH Sociálist Challenge 14 August 1980 Page 11
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Freedom fighters, not dissidents
Ill-informed attitude to skinheads
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