Re:reply to Phil

[Philip Ferguson <plf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Me:
>> Oh, and since we're on Militant and their awful positions on the Malvinas
>> and Ireland, something else I recall about them from when I was living in
>> Britain in the early 80s is the way they attacked the black community in
>> Brixton over the rebellion of 1981.  Militant joined in government and
>> police attacks on "looters".  This was at a time when the Tories were
>> trying to criminalise the black population of Brixton and other similar
>>areas.


Andy:
>Now that's just not true. Militant in general and Clare Doyle in particular
>were actually being blamed at the time for helping incite the riots.



I'm afraid it is Andy.  Indeed, militant were quite proud of themselves for
this position at the time.  of course, back then they could dismiss any
criticisms as being made by petty-bourgeois, ultraleft sectarians who were
irrelevant.

These days, the remnants of Militant in Britain are minor sect-size
themselves, so what they can get away with is more limited.

But I was *in Brixton* at the time.  I lived in Streatham, the suburb next
to Brixton, on its south side, and a lot of my time was spent in Brixton,
including during the nights when the riots were on and buildings were
smouldering.

That was one of the first events - it happened not long after my arrival in
London - that made me despise Militant's politics and opportunism.

Of course, later, after they got booted out of their beloved Labour Party,
they suddenly discovered black liberation (twenty years after the Black
Power movement in Britain) and in the late 80s set up a front group called
'Panther' and even tricked Bobby Seale into doing a British speaking tour
for them.  How cynical can Taafe and co. get!?

Panther, a rather bizarre exercise in black separatism on the part of
people who had spent the previous decades trying to avoid the whole
question of racism in Britain, seems to have been another of Militant's
failures, however.

As for Liverpool, where Militant councillors ended up laying off thousands
of workers, well, we won't even go there. . .

Philip Ferguson








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