John Williamson LONDON What we were told “could never happen here” has unfor- tunately occured. Vile racial- ism “made respectable” by a member of the Tory Shadow Cabinet and its Support from backward sections of trade unionists—many of them mili- tant dockers—has uncovered a most serious situation. Previous articles by this correspondent warned against this develop- ment. Home Office Under-Secretary, David Ennals, Says these demon- Strations of “irrational prejudice” were reminiscent of Yo | Leaders of the Yo and other youth, march in protest the early growth of nazism and anti-Semitism in Germany. Lab- or M.P. James Dickens says that Britain is “psychologically ripe for fascism”. The C.P. Central Committee Says, “The lessons of Hitler’s Germany and the present trage- dies of the United States should be a warning to every thinking person to do everything to de- feat racialism”, while the Com- munist “Morning Star” editor writes that, “the Attorney-Ge- neral should immediately prose- cute Mr. Enoch Powell for racial incitement” and failure to do So” will be a dereliction of duty as disgraceful as Mr. Powell’s despicable speech.” When ex-Foreign Secretary, George Brown, recently return- ed from New York, he said the American Papers were full of racialist developments in Bri- tain. Stated briefly the events have been as follows: e Tory Shadow Cabinet mem- ber Enoch Powell made a speech in Birmingham where he Said, “We must be mad” to permit an annual inflow of 50,000 immig- rant dependants and that it was like watching a nation “busily engaged in heaping up its own funeral pyre”, He talked further of “rivers of blood” flowing. e Every trick of demagogy was. resorted to, based on lies. He opposed the legislation be- fore parliament, and said to adopt it was like “throwing a match on to gunpowder.” He spoke out against immigrants being “a privileged class” and the native Briton being “denied his right to discriminate” in managing his own affairs. e Communist Party general secretary, John Gollan, called Powell’s speech “cold-blooded incitement to racial strife”, and that “this educated, racialist hooligan” had only “spelt out the essential fascist credo of the. majority of the Tory party.” @ During the next week many reactionary forces—open:. ands Page’8—-PACIFIC TRIBUNE*—MaAy 'T 75) racial . QiMst ung Communists, students, Christians peace and race organizations head the great of Powell’s speech. covered—went into higher gear to support Powell and stir up dissention. Unfortunately, some thousands of dockers joined by workers in Smithfield Market (meat distributing centre) and the fruit and vegetable Covent Garden, marched on Parliament supporting Powell, calling for a stop to all immigration and defeat of the anti-racialist legis- lation pending in Parliament. The leader of the dockers’ march was an opponent of the rank and file dockers’ Liaison Committee, headed by Commun- ist Jack Dash, while the most active among the Smithfield meat porters was a candidate of Britain’s fascist Union Party. ®@ While Tory leader,- Ted Heath, felt compelled to drop Powell from the shadow cabinet, the Tory opposition opposed the proposed new legislation in the House. The proposal to prose- cute Powell — made by many back-bench Labor M.P.’s, trade union leaders, the Co-ordinating Committee Against Racial Dis. crimination and other immigrant organizations, and the Commun- ists, caused the reactionary apo- logists to go beserk. The “Daily Telegraph” said it was a “sin- ister” idea, the “Evening News” called it “fantastic” and the “Daily Express” said it was out of the question. e Sharpening the situation Was a statement by 39 immig- ration officers who signed a peti- tion supporting Powell. This only made clear the additional obstacle and hostility every im- migrant faces on arrival. e Against Powell, the Tory Party and press and the back- ward sections of workers, many others spoke out Sharply and strongly and many organized counter actions. Among the hun- dreds of trade union branches and other labor: movement or- ganizations that condemned Powell, the following merit be- ing single out: the National Union Conferences of the En- gineers, Shop Assistants, Insur- ance men, Draughtsmen and Metal Mechanics; -;the shop stewards of Fords in Dagenham; Rolls-Royce in Glasgow; London ship repairmen and the four largest engineering plants in Sheffield; the Scottish miners; the London Printing and Kin- dred Trades Federation; the Midlands Federation of Trades Councils; and the national regio- nal leaders of the T.G.W.U. @ A youth march of 2,000- marched to Powell’s London home and then to Downing Street.< It was . organized. by. 1968 -+~ : ARCH Ma Young Communists, Young Li- berals, Young Co-operators and various student organizations, the Youth Movement for Colo- nial Freedom and the Y.C.N.D. There has also been establish- ed at emergency-called meet- ings, a co-ordinating committee of all immigrant and colored peoples’ organizations — West Indian, Pakistani, Indian and African. Never before has it been possible to establish such unity. The immediate issue that trig- gered off these last develop- ments was a new government- introduced Race Relations Bill. Instead of being “tough” its character is weakness, emphas- izing conciliation instead of strong action in the field of jobs, housing and insurance — three fields completely neglected be- fore. On its first reading the bill was carried in the House by a vote of 313 to 209 — with only 30 Tories abstaining. These latest developments re- flect the end result of the ra- cialist and immigration legisla- tion adopted by both Tory and Right-Wing Labor governments. It arises out of the double stand- ards applied to Tory-ex-Minister Duncan Sandys whose mon- Sstrous racialist statements were allowed to go without prosecu- tion while Black Muslim Mal- colm X is sent to jail. The bitterness and frustration caused by 13 years-of Tory rule and followed by four years of Right-Wing Labor government policies, that are essentially Tory in Substance, has created fertile ground for the demagogic pedlar of reactionary ideas. The T.U.C. also bears respon- sibility for its opposition to all legislation against racialism. While important individual trade unions have adopted a generally correct policy against racialism, no energetic consistent cam- Black humorist and_ social critic Dick Gregory has embark- ed on a diet of nothing but juices until the day after the November elections in an effort to “wake up young folks so they don’t get caught in a Bobby Kennedy political trick.” Gregory, who had just ended a 47 day fast to dramatize suf- fering in the world, made this announcement April 19 in Ber- keley, California. This meeting, which was at- tended primarily by white young people with a sizeable sprink- ling of blacks, was sponsored by Lane College as part of a campus tour Gregory is current- ly making. The black social critic bills himself as a write-in candidate for the presidency on the Nov- ember ballot, and, indeed, in some areas, it has moved furth- er than that. For example, in Pennsylvania, Gregory’s name will be on the ballot as the Presidential can- didate of the Peace and Free- dom ticket, with Dr. Benjamin Spock in the vice presidential slot. Gregory met with activists from California’s Peace and Freedom Movement, a number of whom would like to see him get the group’s nod at the Cali- fornia Peace and Freedom pre- Sidential nominating convention, -Slated. for. the early summers *!<'¥! Mr. Heath is searching for the soul of the Tory Party. paign has been conducted to im- plement these policies and to win white workers for under- standing and support. To divide the workers at this critical moment when maximum unity was being established in fighting the policies of monopoly capitalism, is in accord with the long experience of British im- perialism. In Britain, the roots of color prejudice lie in Britain’s empire history as an exploiter of colonial people. In the past it has been the Irish, the Welsh or the Jews. Now the most irrational argu- ments are being