Brixton: for a workers' inquiry

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conducting an enquirv into wild animals.

The problem. he said on the BBC• shortly after his enquiry opened at Church House, Westminster, was not the way black and white individuals in Brixton related to each other but what happened when "the herd instinct" took over.

Scarman-appointed by Tory Home Secretary William "Whitewash" (as he increasingly known locally)-thus laid bare the nature of his investigation.

He implies that he is invest matin, the implications for of the Brixton area : racial conflict.

In reality, of curse, this is part of an attempt by the government and its allies to cover up the real nature of what happened in Brixton on April 11 and 12.

Those events had nothing to do with inter-racial conflict. They were a mass rebellion of oppressed people against a police army of occupation.

Both blacks and whites of course, came from the young black people of Brixton whose daily lives are infested with police repres sion.

The harassment reached a peak in the few weeks before' April 11 when the vastly inflated police force conducted its infamous Operation Swamp 81.

Since Aprii 12, though the police have become a bit less visible on the streets, raiding activities on mostly black homes have continued and may even have been stepped up.

On the pretext of looking for property stolen in the looting of shops on April 11, the police have raided homes at dawn and taken whole families into the police station for hours of questioning.

Two street pickets and a public meeting on Bobby Sands have been broken up by the local police.

Despite (or perhaps because of) the feeling of vast numbers of people in Brixton that they are living in a form of police state, the amount of protest action called by major political organisations remains very limited.

The proposal passed at a large meeting organised by the Labour Party Young Socialists for a labour movement and people's enquiry has still not resulted in such an enquiry taking place-in spite of verbal support from leading figures on the council and from MPs.

Meanwhile some leading labour movement figures who formerly rejected Scarman and supported an inde..

pendent enquiry now appear to be prepared to cooperate with Scarman.

This, according to press reports which we have so far been unable to confirm, applies to Ted Knight, safely re elected council leader (23 votes to 11) last week after a right wing challenge in the Labour Group.

Also the Labour council as a whole is preparing to give evidence to Scarman though the Lambeth Trades Council has voted to boycott the enquiry.

While the jockeying about the enquiry goes on the racist, sexist and generally repressive policies of the police continue.

Major step

The urgent need now is to mobilise some of the strength of the rebellion of April 11 and 12 against the continuation of repression and the attempt to whitewash it by the Tories.

A genuine independent enquiry, run by labour movement, black community organisations would be a major step towards that.

It could take the form of a strong, continuous and many-sided propaganda against the conditions of deprivation and oppression in which many peopleespecially black, Irish and gay people-live in Brixton.

But also the public airing of demands in demonstrations is needed.

There was a small picket of the first Westminster session of Scarman's Aftermath of Brixton riot enquiry. And last Saturday, People Against Police Repression, «a group of people living in Brixton who have been disturbed and angered by the recent behaviour of the police" held a successful picket of about 70 people of the police station against police repression.

These should be the prelude to bigger demonstrations supported by all the labour movement, socialist and progressive organisations.

One such demonstration should take place on June 15 when Lord Scarman will begin to receive evidence in Brixton. BUT

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Lord Scarman, it appears, believes he is

participated in this rebellion -though its basic strength,