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ment, harassed by the police, forced to live in the decaying inner cities without hope for the boiled over in anger. The riots in and Southall have reached the proportions of virtual insurrection against authority - insurrections of whole communities.
These uprisings have been predictably led by the most oppressed and exploited the youth. In Southall, intimidation of the community by National Front thugs resulted in the organised defence of the community by the youth.
Elsewhere, youth and the community have boiled over against the police. The first thing that every socialist and labour movement activist should be saying is that, faced with the misery of Tory Britain, the youth are right to rebel. Every per. son arrested in the riots should be released, every charge dropped. The labour should defend those arrested. Defence committees should be established in every locality.
To be sure, socialists, riots and violent attacks on the police are not the most effective methods of struggle. Nonetheless the recent riots, like the uprisings in the black ghettoes in the United States in the 1960s, are a genuine expression of the misery and rage of the exploited and oppressed.
When they struggle against their tormentors, when they hit back at the police who harass them, and when they take the consumer goods which they are unable to afford, then we stand with them irrespective of our opinion of the tactical advisability of such actions. Nothing has been more sickening than the ritual condemnation of the rioters by Labour Party spokespeople.
TORIES - THE REAL CRIMINALS The real criminals in this situation are the Tories. have doubled hastening the decline of British industry, have smashed up the social services and driven down dards especially These criminals say that the riots are 'nothing to unemployment, talk 'outside agitators' and make plans to toughen the troduce a new Riot Act, police new weaponry and equipment. Nobody in the labour should be taken in nonsense. Our first task is to put the blame for the tragic situation in the cities where it belongs - not on the If you would like to be put in touch with Socialist Challenge supporters more information fill in the form belon Name..
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Send to: Socialist Challenge, PO Box 50, London N1 Socialist Challenge 16 July 1981 Page 2 Side, London black and Asian the frustration of the should be movement for revolutionary It's their policies which unemployment in catastrophic which living stanthose of the do darkly about Public Order Act, ingive the movement this Tory portunity Labour Party youth, but on the Tories and their vicious anti-working class policies.
The recent events give urgency to the task of mobilising to kick out the Tories, to use every opfight against policies and prepare the way for a government socialist policies.
DEFEND THE COMMUNITIES -POLICE OUT The first task of the TUC and Labour IS to provide the battle against this government. The miners fight against pit closure, the Civil Servants' strike and the huge demonstrations against unemployment have shown that the power and fighting spirit exists to Kjck out the Tories.
The TUC must now act against this government of wreckers. We cannot
Tories
added their first useful step.
committed to against can act to channel A massive works, focus for reactionary into dole Challenge has afford to stand by and watch the dismantle our economy and society. We must prepare a general strike to remove the Tories. A one day general strike against the Tories is a The 19 September demonstration unemployment in ingham will be a massive explosion of anger against the government - and the frustration of youth against the Tories.
programme of public not Murray's pathetic posal of f500m, must be presented by the unions and the Labour Party to rebuild the inner cities.
The insanity of a system which proposes to spend £6 billion missile system, while the cities slide decay and millions rot on must be challenged meaning of the fight which Socialsit waged for Jobs not Bombs is now completely clear in all its implications. The Labour Party and the communities.
ORGANISE movement should organise police and the Tories have There is no revenge.
perspective to the militants.
of police.
past years, assemblies of debated out the fascism and state racism.
political answers.
ly organisations credibility to do the job. wounded animal, brutally clear to lose.
BirmRIOTS pro- the labour press lies.
tion Youth organising meetings the mind. In The else will. COMMUNITY AND YOUTH MUST In the next period, in addition to organising legal defence, the labour and the communities for struggle. The • declared war on the communities and youth.
possibility that the authorities will allow these events to go by without trying to take their The communities and the youth should organise assemblies to work out the political tasks ahead. What is needed now is the giving of a political This means taking up the methods mobilisation and mass organisation against the racists and The precise form of organisation of the community and the youth will vary from area to area. In Southall, in there have already been youth which have struggle against The most political sections of the communities and youth will look for They have to be organised by the Labour Party and the Labour Party Young Socialists, the onthe mass The struggle in Ireland, the situation in the Labour Party, the actions of thousands in the unions and now the youth rebellion have put the Tories on 'the run. This is the beginning of the end for the government. But like a its savagery will grow as its death comes closer. It is that the way to win socialișt policies is to remove this government. There is not a moment GET THE TRUTH OUT ON THE In the next few weeks, socialists have to do a tremendous job of explanation and beyond, to get out the truth on what happened - and combat the flood of All Socialist Challenge and Revolusupporters should be this aim particular Socialist Challenge should be used, to sell on council estates and in the localities to hammer home the truth about what happened. If we don't do it, no one
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