ON 6 OCTOBER 1985, police invaded the home of Cynthia Jarrett on the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham, London. She collapsed and died as a result. Within hours the entire estate had erupted. The black community was not prepared to take any more police harrassment and intimidation lying down. Only two weeks before, police had invaded the Brixton home of Cherry Groce. They shot her, leaving her paralysed.
A year on, nothing has changed. Just last month 600 police saturated the predominantly black community in St Paul's, Bristol. Over 100 people have now been arrested for protesting at the police action. Meanwhile the Broadwater Farm trials at the Old Bailey continue. Over 60 people will pass through London's central criminal court charged with affray, riotous assembly and murder. On Monday 13 October Hassan Muller walked free from the court after a unanimous verdict cleared him of charges of throwing a petrol bomb, causing an affray and burglary. Aged 18, Hassan had spent 11 months in custody awaiting trial!
LARRY HERMAN spoke to MILLARD SCOTT of the Broadwater Farm Youth Association and the Defence Campaign.
THE Broadwater Farm riot is something that just had to happen in the country. What made things so bad here was the hurt and the anger towards the British police.
Governments and all police forces in the country have to understand and heed what happened on Broadwater Farm. Not dismiss it as a freak, or as criminal activity; not dismiss us as hooligans, muggers, or drug pushers.
Learn
They must learn that if you alienate a section of your community, then you're in for a fight.
On 6 October, on Broadwater Farm, we couldn't loose. We were so right. It's sickening to see the strain we are under now.
The police are using their 'justice' on us now because we defeneded ourselves against them. They have to show they are in full control and that they are the law. It is as simple as that.
I don't like it when I hear a policeman saying 'what about PC Blakelock's death?'. Blakelock got his wages the week before. The guys he was fighting weren't fighting because they were told to fight, they were fighting because they had to fight.
Choice
The police surrounded the estate and left us no choice whatsoever. Mrs Jarrett didn't have any choice in the manner the police entered her house.
This is a 'civilised' country. In a civilised country a woman gets killed by police and the community gets 60 people up on charges, going to jail for 70 years.
A lot of people think Broadwater Farm is just a run-of-the-mill thing. But when it comes down to it, the whole idea is to smash us.
Defeat
There was a government conspiracy to defeat the miners. Not only economically, by taking away their funds and making sure they couldn't survive the strike, but also by using the police in a 100 per cent aggressive manner to beat down the pickets.
How many millions did it cost the government to keep the police patrolling those people? It was planned, the government orchestrated it. That is how Broadwater Farm is feeling now.
The Broadwater Farm defence Campaign (BWFDC) was set up on 8 October, two days after the fighting, to combat the problems we knew we would have to face. It gives support to families on legal and police matters, and we have funding to keep our staff going.
When the Campaign goes out and talks, people listen to what it has to say. It took a riot to give us so much credibility.
Strength
The real strength lies in the Youth Association. We decided that black people's voice must be heard and understood.
This estate is like a little country with its own population. It reflects society itself. To say our crime rate is abnormal is ridiculous.
The crime rate has been dropping for the last three years, since the Youth Association was established. Our record is better than the police's. The only time we come into conflict is with the police.
We don't have problems with drugs anymore. Everybody is getting down to protecting each other. We supply services that we know are essential for people to feel like human beings and that they live somewhere decent.
That means we supply meals for old-age pensioners every single day of the year. We don't worry about holidays. We are open all the time. Once somebody needs our help, we're there to help them.
Influence
The BWFDC has a great opportunity because of the black influence that drives it. I don't think there is another campaign that could frighten any government as much as we can — because we are right. We are a small voice with so much force it's unbelievable.
And it is a campaign that, now, cannot be intimidated by the police.
For instance, people were worried about picketing the Old Bailey because Irish people got picked up and nicked down there. But we did go down to the Old Bailey to picket. They see our banners there, they know we are there and they know what we stand for.
A lot of people class us as radicals. They label us as militants. But you don't need education to sit down and watch what's happening around you — It's common sense.
Better
If they came down here and said run the country, I know we'd make a better job of it. The country cannot improve with three million people unemployed. Industry is up the creek. What's halfway decent they want to give back to the private sector. They take money out of our wage packets to build up industries only to sell them off just at a time when they can make a contribution to the country.
The defence campaign has contact with various NUM branches, NALGO in different parts of the country, SOGAT and the NGA in the Wapping strike. But we don't talk to union bosses.
I'd rather talk to people on the ground floor. But eventually we will sit down and talk to them. The country would be in better shape if the trade unions were more positive in their attitude.
And the Labour Party, at the moment, is creating its own problems: changing its image to try and get elected. But we need a lot more imput than the Labour Party is providing for getting this country back on its feet.
Refuting Black Sections is very negative. Black people deserve to be able to create our own status in this country. We have to learn for ourselves and not be taught.
Broadwater Farm is a perfect example. If the Youth Association never existed, the estate wouldn't be in the condition it's in today. It would still be a dump. We have brought some order and purpose to Broadwater Farm.
Recently we've made some very positive contact with groups in South Africa. Until South Africa is truly a free nation and black and white people are equal in that country black people will always be second class citizens anywhere in the world.
Scheme
We've held discussions on exchange scheme to get some South African kids to come over here.
If I were in South Africa I would be a member of the ANC. I'd be ready to fight and die for my liberty, and I'd choose the ANC.
Me, I'm stuck in Broadwater Farm. But I'm worried for the whole world.
Jamaica is my parents homeland, right across from Cuba. Jamaica is a little country, but what America has done to it economically is pure outright oppression, to make sure the government does things America's way.
The United States is refusing to let countries govern theselves either by supplying arms and money to fuel fighting or by undermining their economies — claiming to liberate those countries, to 'save them from communism'. But people in South America, Central America and the West Indies want their independence.
Countries
They want to create their own countries as they see fit. Nobody should be able to tell them how to rule their own countries.
The Americans, and the British too, keep pumping money into arms while people are suffering on the streets — while places like Broadwater Farm are being built, while kids and old age pensioners are not getting proper meals.
How many men and women are cracking up because of stress like this, which is unnecessary in the first place? That's where money should go: into making sure that people have a chance of making a decent living with self-respect.
[Photo caption:] Earlier this month Anthony Lemard of Notting Hill died in police custody. Last Sunday, hundreds of people joined a demonstration which marched on Notting Hill police station, chanting 'police are murderers' and demanding the circumstances of Lemard's death be investigated. He died in police custody after being arrested on the eleventh floor of a block of flats. He is said to have choked on his own vomit. An inquest was adjourned when a post mortem found no signs of violence as being a cause of Lemard's death. But the black community is not satisfied. Further pickets of Notting Hill police station are planned.