NEIL KINNOCK is attempting to outlaw any expression of the view that racism affects the Labour Party. He is using empty demagogy against the statements of Sharon Atkin, Linda Bellos and others to prevent discussion of the real, and very serious issues involved.
On Friday 1 May, following the NEC's decision to deselect Sharon Atkin and refer her expulsion from the party to the National Constitutional Committee, Kinnock was interviewed on Radio 4 News. Asked what he had to say in reply to Sharon Atkin and Linda Bellos, he Neil Kinnock claimed: "There is the 99 per cent majority of the Labour Party that says there is nothing more important on our agenda than securing victory in order to stop the government of unemployment, of health cuts, of pension cuts, of under-investment in educaLOS. And the Labour Party, though it is, becomes immensely resentful of people who mistake their own individual enthusiasms for movements and people who could by their actions impede the possibility of victory.
"They are not willing to put up with inat - and rightly so. We are in the serious business of trying to represent the that we cannot be impeded by people represeall hardly divulc Imense ves "The overwhelming majority of the Labour Party says to people like that: make up your mind which is your greater loyalty - to your own self-indulgence and to your own narrow enthusiasm, or to securing the advance of all the people of Britain by securing a Labour government? And if people in this period find difficulty in making up their minds then the party has the power on some subsequent occasion to assist them in making up their mind.' In a nutshell, Kinnock is attempting to demand that party members choose between supporting fighting racism - and that any discussion of racism and the Labour Party be ruled out of order. But jibes and threats are no answer to the issues that have been raised.
The views expressed by Linda Bellos and Sharon Atkin are those of the black communities of this country. Avtar Joul, general secretary of the Indian Workers Association (GB) addressed a recent executive committee meeting of the Labour Party Black Section and pledged his solidarity. He said that the IWA deplored the suspension of Sharon Atkin and described it as 'a racist act by the NEC' Damn verma, chal or the Aslan socie ty of Wales, has also gone on record with similar comments. Any black newspaper, and any serious black pontician. point out examples of racism. It is vital that these issues are seriously discussed.
Kinnock infers that those who believe for the party's political opponents. is absolute nonsense. No one of all any supporter of the Labour Party Black Section - is making the case that whilst Labour is racist, the Tories and the Alliance are not! Any black person who thought that would hardly join the Labour Party. Anv damage done to Labour will be caused by the fact within the party, and not the claims of it.
As Linda Bellos rightly explains in an excellent article in the 1 May edition of the Independent, the fact is that racism permeates the whole of British society. That means every single one of its institutions. including the structures of the Labour Party. That is even more true of the Tory Party.
The fight taking place within the Labour Party today, led by the Black Section, is a fight to overcome the institutional racism which exists in British we all mass but will This - and least society. That is why the Black Section is fighting for the constitutional right to Ulcallisc autonomously Labour Party and for the representation of black members at all levels of the of Fighting racism is not an optional extra. Not something to be cast aside for the purpose of an election. Neither is it a matter, as Neil Kinnock dismissively puts it, of 'individual enthusiasms'.
The truth is. recognising the existence of racism is a prerequisite for combatting it. Turning Labour's anti-racist words into action means recognising two things rirst that institutiona racism exists within the party, that the Labour Party is not immune to the influences which pervade the whole of the rest of society and within the best placed to dIc The attack Bellos explains, coming it.
base racism. mechanism every political party in Britain. Second, black members, who directly experience the oppressive consequences of racism lead the struggle against it. Indeed, only they can lead it. All white people in Britain, to a greater or lesser degree, are affected by racism.
on the Labour Party Black Section by the party leadership is a refusal to recognise institutional racism plains, and to begin to devise the means of overdividual This truth, which affects all white societies, is particularly crucial in Britain. British society was built on imperialism - and imperialism, par excellence, is the Racism was whereby British capital justified the exploitation of the peoples of India, Africa and elsewhere, to serve their drive for private profit.
Those who are so blind as not to see the racism within the British society, including within the organisations of the labour movement. therebv reveal nothing more or less than their own racism. This is not a matter of subjective understanding, or of conscious racism of the National Front variety. As Linda Bellos expointing out that the Party is racist does not mean 'that inwhite people within the Labour Party hate and fear black people and act upon these feelings'.
Racism within the Labour Party is a matter of fact. How else do we explain that there are no black Labour members of parliament and never have been? How else do we explain that there has only ever been one black member of Labour's naTHE MARCH meeting o the Labour Party Black S up the cudgels — with the suspended from the Birm and Sharon Atkin deselec candidate for Notts Basta Kinnock has made clear ti follow. Not surprisingly, tl Britain's TV screens and n Inevitably the media have THE SUSPENSION of Atkin as parliamentary ci for Nottingham East marks ping up of the purge aga Labour Party activists. D though it is to defend the mn under attack we must nott of the fundamental questio by the NE€ action. Is it wor someone or something racks be racist? And what do w stand by racism? I want to these questions in order to ju statement which I repeat, Labour Party is racist.
1 do not mean by this that in • white people within the Labo hate and fear black people and a these feelings. The arguments a the ways in which institutions, actions and assumptions, conse unconsciously exclude or dise against black people. The Labo is only one of these institutions council is another.
Leader, Lambeth Council s Treasurer, Labour Party B Section We on the council acknowles racism occurs in our practices. G recognising this have we been a make changes in our structures, and procedures. • We have not era racism by first acknowledging tha ists. Some of us within the Labo elsewhere.
What is surprising about the fiasco is that the NEC seems so ut of the debates and discussions of over the last 20 years. Sharon A myself have been cast as strange, nike characiels ultering obserue l We may not always be moderate tone, but what we are saying han said throughout the black commi Britain for centuries Let me give some examples c ways in which the Labour Party cut tional executive committee in the par entire history? How else do we exp that until 12 months ago there wat black leader COT Labour-contri council, few black Lat councillors?
It is no coincidence that movem for black self-organisation within structures of the labour movement h generation of black British people t emerged in the 1980s, when the reached working age. Since the there has been a dramatic change in composition population. The increase in the pi tion of black people in the workfe most dramatic in areas like London the West Midlands, where the Black tion movement is also strongest, And it is no coincidence tha
Socialist Action 8 May 1987