Fascists are back in Brick Lane

Scan page 8

FOR the past few months the National Front have had a bookstall in Brick Lane Market (East London). The licence for the stall was granted to a Mr. Young without the council officers checking into the type of literature to be sold. Since the stall has been set up, various groups within Tower Hamlets have called on the right wing Labour controlled Council to revoke the licence. But the council have dragged their heals, refusing to revoke the licence for fear (they say) of setting a legal precedent if the NF. take the issue to court and win. It is hard to understand why the council think the NF could win; the literature on sale is in clear breach of the Race Relations Act, being an obvious incitement to racial hatred. Individuals have complained to the police, but they have been ignored: the police say they are unlikely to prosecute. Leaflets and papers from the stall have been sent to the DPP but as yet no prosecution seems to be forthcoming.

Base

The stall is important to the NF not only because it gives them a permanent pitch from which to promote their poisonous ideology, but because it gives them a base within a large Bengali and Jewish community from which to organise. The form their organisation takes has been felt throughout the local area. They use the stall as a meeting place and from there their thugs go out to terrorise the local community. Sometimes children at play are attacked, but more usually the BM and NF both attack at night under the cover of darkness. In these attacks, local people are kicked and battered until nearly dead (and in some cases until death), houses are petrol bombed and shops attacked. The local area of Spittalfields is more or less under seige, people are even too frightened to go out and do their shopping. The police are, as usual, no use in protecting the community, they spend more time harassing the Bengalis and issuing parking tickets than investigating the obviously racially motivated attacks.

It is due to the lack of the local authority and the police in taking any initiative to stem these attacks or remove the stall that THARJ (along with the support of the Labour Party, ELWAR, and the Bengali Youth Movement and many others) called a march on August 29 in order to show the Council and to state the feelings of the local community to the presence of the NF in East London. The march itself is no answer, the community must be defended. It is obvious the police are not going to do anything about it, so the only option left is the setting up of self-defence groups. These groups must be under the control of the local community, not outside groups who may chose to vanish at any time. However, there must be a commitment from the left to maintain a *FBYO.

Brick Lane.

Nic presence in the area every day, not just on Sundays, as at present. The area is not exempt from attack from Monday to Saturday. The left must help defend the community until the local residents organise their own defence.

JOHN HARRIS CLASS Blackpool Preston • Bolton/ YOUTH

----- pull-quotes -----

NAZISTALL OUT OF BRICK LANE 305573