Police ban on London marches

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fight Tories William: Whitelaw's decision to ban all marches in the London area until the end of March is a heavy blow at the labour movément and the black community.

The ban-notionally introduced in order to prevent the fascists of the National Front staging a provocative demonstration outside the house in New Cross where 13 black youth died in a racist attackfollowed hard on the heels of a huge, angry demonstration by over 10,000 black people through the streets of London..

Whitelaw knew full well that these and other anti-fascist forces would have turned out to drive the NF scum. off the streets of New Cross.

Whitelaw More strikes are still brewing in Poland as we go to press, as local branches of Solidarity threaten to take action to defend victimised militants.

The stoppages, called in Lodz, are scheduled to begin on Tuesday, with the aim of forcing the reinstatement of five sacked union members.

This is additionally significant in the light of the renewed warnings dished' out by the Soviet bureaucracy to Polish leader Stanislaw Kania in the aftermath of the CPSU Congress in Moscow.

Kania was told to put his house in order. And immediately afterwards police arrested left Wing dissident Jacek Kuron, a prominent advisor to the Solidarity leadership. He was charged with defaming the government.

But the uneasy balance of forces between thé battered Polish police state apparatus and the powerful trade union movement that has emergèd from last summer's strike wave was underlined by another development.

Amid rumours that Kuron's close associate Adam Michnik might also be arrested, Solidarity placed Michnik under the protection of a erkers' guard.

This frontal challenge to the authority of the political police The explosion of pent-up anger among the black youthbitter at years of police harassment, job discrimination and racist abuse-on last Monday's march made it clear that the police would find it virtually impossible to provide the usual protection for the fascists.

And Whitelaw is. eager to defuse the mass movement that has erupted in the wake of the New Cross massacre.

It is for this reason that he banned not only the NF march, but 'all marches in the Metropolitian police area for the whole of this month.

This_ means that Martin Webster gang of thugs effectively blocking over a dozen demonstrations by trade unionists, feminists, peace campaigners and anti-cuts groups.

Leading liberals and Communist Paity members have of course baulked at this blanket use of the law by the Tories.

But they continue to mislead black and white workers by diore see thieve porce bans king more proscriptions as the means. to prevent fascist demonstrations.

Instead we must fight to mobilise the power of the labour movement to drive the fascists off the streets.

And that same power must be developed to bring down the Tory racists and carry through socialist policies that can eliminate the poverty and unemployment which provide the grist to the racist mill.!.

BULG ANCH and the state bureaucracy points the way forward for Polish workers in the next period.

They must seek the ways and means to defend themselves against the attacks of the Stalinist regime in Warsaw or a military offensive ordered by the Kremlin leaders.

But it appears that the Solidarity leadership is stil attempting to minimise conflict with the government.

14-hour meeting supported the L'odz call for reinstatement; but remained silent on the strike action, and sought renewed talks with the \GHI Angry students joined in the struggle against the Tory offensive last week.

• In Birmingham students at Bournville College are staging a sit-in in protest against plans to axe either 500 students or • 200 O' level and 90 'A' level courses. NATHE members have refused to cooperate with the cuts.

• In. Scotland over 5,000 OLEN Stucen's students joined local demonstrations in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh in protest against lory plans to replace grants with loans.

And in London students at University College, Queen Mary College and the London School of Economics continue sit-in action protesting against the discriminatory fees increases for overseas students.