11-922 OPINION Black youth and the LPY

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White activists in the labour movement have a THE law says that only over don N1.

DAVE AYRTON fro LPYS contributes thi I AM writing this article chiefly to argue that it is essential to organise black youth into the YS.

For some people reading Class Fighter this may go without saying, however, to many leaders of the Asian youth in particular and black youth in general this is undesirable for progressive reasons.

A couple of weeks ago I attended a march and rally in Sheffield against the arrest of Asian restaurant owner Ahmed Khan, who had been victimised by the South Yorkshire police for daring to defend himself Revolutionaries The speakers from the Asian community in the main already understood the need to defend themselves, against both organised racists and fascists as well as the State. They realise they have to link with the white workers in Britain if their defence is to be effective. In short they realised the need for a revolutionary movement in the working class against capitalism. But the majority of these comrades think that the Labour Party is something that crevolutionaries shouldn't be part of.

First of all, I think the attitude of these comrades is both progressive and based on their real experience of • racist and pro-capitalist labour governments of Wilson and Callaghan. Nevertheless, I think that their attitude is mistaken.

The rank and file white militants in the Labour movement have a tremendous amount to learn from these revolutionary comrades' experience and attitude, which they have developed in struggle against state discrimination and violence.

In my view the role of a paper like Class Fighter is to persuade these comrades to fight with us in the LPYS to expose the from the struggles of black youth m Rotherham s month's Opinion.

a peaceful road to socia ism. The militant ter dency have actuall convinced a handfull ( black youth in the Y that all workers opf ression is the same Revolutionaries in the Y will be able to show tha this argument is merel the semi-reformism c the militant tendency who don't combat whit, workers racism by fight ing for a realisation of thi special oppression black youth.

Orientate

If Class Fighter fails tr fight to make the Labour Movement orientate itself towards black anc Asian youth, it is failing ir its responsibilities. At first some comrades will think we are reformist because we are part of the Labour Party, but | believe that with consistent and real solidarity the comrades in the black and Asian Youth movements will realise this not to be the case and will respect us for arguing our point of view.

Insult

However, if we take the attitude that these comrades are incapable of understanding the history of the British Labour Movement and its relatiorship with the working class, in my view, this is an insult to them, and may even have an element of racism in it. We have much to learn from the black militants in this country, but I believe we also have something to offer them: chiefly a rounded-out Trotskyist revolutionary strategy uniting all the oppressed groups under capitalism. We must take responsibility and fight to recruit black militants to the YS and to the Labour Party.

And when they come in we will learn a hell of a lot from them along with other white militants.

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• BENGL ShOV ACAINST B