A violent party inviting violence

Press, 2 September 1977, Page 13

A violent party inviting violence

“When hatred has been stored up, unfortunately history shows only too clearly that violence and disorder are probably not far away,” said the British M.P., Mr David Ennals, luring a debate on the <ace Relations Act in 965.

What he said more than 0 years ago has, as he predicted, become a reality in the streets of England, the latest were the riots at Lewisham, Birmingham and Notting Hill. The fighting occurred mainly between Left-wing radicals and the police, but closely involved was the racist, Fascist politicial party, rhe National Front.

The incidents have particular relevance to New Zealand because we, for better or for worse, have our origins deeply rooted in British traditions. Like Britain, we are a multi-racial society. Like Britain, we place importance on the principle of the Rule of Law, embodying such sacred rights as free speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of political belief. Britain and New Zealand are also the last two Western countries in the

world to retain a police force which is substantially unarmed. It may not be generally realised' here that in many countries a fully-armed police force counter violence with violence during demonstrations, or that laws are much stricter in these countries against demonstrations.

The violence that occurred at Lewisham and Birmingham last month is closely related to the violence that occurred in central London in June, 1974. 1 witnessed those events. And on each occasion it was the police who were upholding the Rule of Law: it was defending the National Front’s right to assemble in peace and make political statements free from molestation.

The British police did the same thing in the 1930 s when Sir Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts tried to march through the same streets of London. On October 4, 1936, Mosley organised an antiSemite rally, for which the police provided a guard of 6000 constables and the whole of the mounted division. But up to 50,000 work-

Ing people massed and formed human barricades to try to prevent the Fascist Blackshirts from passing. More than a 100 policemen were injured in the course of their duty. The march was called off. And just as Mosley’s marches were violently opposed, so, too, are the marches of the presentday National Front.

The Front was formed in 1966 by the merger of the League of Empire Loyalists, the Racial Preservation Society, and the British Nationalist Party; joined later by the Greater British Movement led by John Tyndall, who is chairman of the National Front todav.

It did not take long before the ultra-Right wing movement was singled out as the enemy of the Left. The revolutionary newspaper “Red Mole” reported in September, 1972, that the only way to deal with the Front was to smash its activities.

In that month there was a bitter clash at Blackbum. Other violent clashes followed at Huddersfield, Bradford, Preston, and Basingstoke. The Marxist-Leninist

Party of England, In a "Workers’ Daily” supplement of September. 1974. repeated the cry of “Red Mole" when it urged supporters physically to break up National Front marches.

The Communist Party is one of a clutch of minority Left-wing groups which sink their ideological differences during combined rallies against the common enemy. The other parties are the Internationa] Marxist Group (Marxist), the International Socialists (Trotskyist). the Association of Communist Workers < Maoist i, and others such as the Anarchists.

Their numerical strength at the ballot box is even less than that of the National Front, but both have been active in the trade unions through direct involvement as shop stewards and officials, and through their publications, written in the vernacular of the worker.

The Left-wing radical groups appeal mainly to the young, the workers, and the students. The National Front has attracted a broad cross section of white Englishmen and women. It has practically no appeal in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland.