HARINGEY council leader Bernie Grant has come under enormous pressure for his trenchant defence of Tottenham's black youth, including from sections of the labour movement.
VARENDRA MAKANJI explained to Socialist Action what's going on in Tottenham after the uprising and why the labour movement must support black youth whom the Haringey council is fighting for.
THE exact SCCUC LC of on Broadwater On impullaul Saturday voung black man, Floyd Jarrett, was stopped by the tunice.
They said, inere was something wrong with his car, and he was taken into the Tottenham police station. He is a very. wellmember of the AlUWIl association, and like many other active members of the association has had a continuous running battle with the local police.
Later that alternoon, a key from his possessions was taken and despite the fact that he didn't live The following selection of books on South Africa is available by post from Other Books:
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Fellow councillor Narendra also makes the point that it is all with his mother and the oi nis tamily police got into their house and ransacked it, using the key. During the process of whilst they scalcil. were looking for stolen goods, Mrs Jarrett collapsed and died.
That incident sent shock waves right through the conitullt y Tottenham, particularly . on the estate. Mrs Jarrett was also well-known and had been active on tne estate, and was very popular. The police didn'i any stolen property.
Everything has been far as that is clearedas concerned. But in the process Mrs Jarrett had died Other Books Jack and Ray Simons, Intenational Defence and Macshane, Plaut and Ward, Spokesman, 195 pp.
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. =::3 That was just a week after the shooting of Mrs Groce in Brixton. We knew that things could get out of hand very quickly. So an urgent meeting was set the chief executive of Haringey with councillors, CRC representatives, and the Jarrett family at noon on the Sunday with the police, to see wiat Ley WeC Cuz toul about this.
We got a blank wall: it would be a police complaints enquiry nothing else.
There was a demonSTaLOR by Jarrett family in the afternoon, outside Tottenham police station, which passed off peacefully. were there for about an hour. I there myself and saw was that.
During this time there were varous meelngs going on to try and work out how we defuse the situa tion because, as you can imagine, there W a. considerable anger. The leader of the council had already pledged a council public enquiry should the government not hold one, in an effort to try and calm the situation down.
it did not help when, at anoll 6.30 LIC evening, the young people the who had colalc decided to have another 'demonstration outside the police station, were blockabout 6-700 police. I refuse to accepl those police assembled five minutes because of the decision to hold a demonstration. That's when the fighting began.
Since then that estate 1730 peen occupled by about 600 police who have been conducting door-todoor enquiries Young people 12, 13, 14 year olds — e ec ccc They have been taken in and kept for 50 or 60 hours without access by parents, Be= rEraEICHE any time. It's really as serious as that.
Bernie Grant, as the first black leader of council, refused to put a difference between himself COUHELC Sh e was seeking to represent. Seeming v. this was unacceptable to the gutter press who then branded him as all sorts of evil things and tried to destroy his credibility, enforcing this distance between him and the community he represents.
Anybody who knows Bernie Grant, and knows his record over the last several years, knows part that he's played in actually representing reflecting local people anc their opinions.
The labour movement as a whole needs to understand the deen allenation that exists between large sections of our community and the rest of the community including the labour movement. They do not see any solutions emerging from within the labour movement. That is Thav ee have to adresion very. serious We have to ensure that we start reflecting those opinions, that we do start attacking the Tory policie: in a way that builds hope Lre 1. one thing aat who al C alienated. we must not do is put any further distance hetweer the Labour Party and labour movement the fringes of society.
What tace is serious thạt mere ritual condenmauon lut cullz to get us anywhere We understand the reasons for that violence, whether it originates from police insensitivity or public disorder. Condem nine in e css Isil going to make it go away.
The council now has a three-fold objective. In the very short term we want Tottenham and the Broadwater Farm estate return That normal policing ¡licals and normal services being available In the medium term we want to establish the truth about the death of Mrs Jarrett of PC Blakelock. . There are many THOUTS aouu we need an public enquiry. Anything less that that will not be trusted by many people in tne longer telll we shall be seeking to put HOTC ICSUUI COS for housing and employment in that area we shall be campaigning for that the european INLOUCI through Community, through the GLC through anywhere else we can get those resources But of course, until we get rid of the an present government its policies we're going to be swimming against the tide.
A CLASSICAL piece of 'doabte think' has come to dominate the columns of journali tile and New consists in applauding Veil Kinnock's efforts to unite the Labour Party by attacking the people who have led or are presently leading struggles against the such as the NUM leadership, Liverpool city council or black people. Yet anyone who tries to organise support for these people and the bitter struggles they are engaged in - like Campaign group of MPs — is denounced as "authoritarian', and divisive.
We print below extracts from a speech by ERIC HEFFER, a member of the Campaign group since the This Thatcher can be mar'The Labour Party... must not accept the myth that the class struggle is dead' view, that eventually the party will S.cstr left, argument, The party must not turn in ou itself. It must not look for scapegoats because of image-building. It must not turn against : councillors whose only crime is to fight Tory policy, as George Lansbury and his colleagues did in the 1920s.
The Labour Party certainly must take note of the new developments in the class structure of Britain. , but in doing so, it must not accept the myth that the class struggle is dead.
• The party continues to have a number of groups and tendencies within it. In parliament there is the Campaign group (the so-called hard so named by the press), the Tribune group (a mixture of some left