The photograph of the year:
• Duncan Chapel Now the Criminal Justice Bill is law. But the fight isn't over. Liberation! supporters are still working to take on the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
We think it's possible to make it hard to put the Act into practice, and to force the coming Labour gov emment to scrap the Act. Starting out we have to learn some things from the campaign against the Bill. First things first. Building the campalgn by 'keeping it sweet' doesn't work if it means trying to persuade the Tories that the law is unfair. But that's what some people thought we could stop the CJB. Liberation! calls that the liberal view. The Torles aren't interested in being fair. They are interested in who has the money and who have the votes. Arguments from one person or one group of people don't count for much with them. What worles the Tories Is the possi bility of alliances - of real action that links the young people who oppose the new law to mass social forces -the trades unions, the black commu nities, the unemployed and others. Imagine if those who opposed the Bill had been able to convince a cour ple of trades unlons to strike against It. The people who run this country aren't stupid. They can see the danger of students and youth linking up with working people - the majority in this country - who have real social power. In the 1970s, the threat of a general strike by the trades unions forced Edward Heath's Tory government out of office. There's another point of view that's just as wrong as the 'keep it sweet' brigade. We think It's wrong to think that calculated confrontations be tween small, well organised groups of people with the police will force the Torles to back down. Liberation! calls this the ultra left view. An ultra-left is basically a liberal who has been defeated. Liberals get frustrated when reasoned argument doesn't convince those who rule us. Ultra-lefts try to embarrass them, to try and force the police to be more repressive In order to 'expose' them. That's how an ultra-left person thinks the ruling class works. We disagree. Just like the liberals, the ultra-lefts don't act as though they think they can win a majority of people to oppose the CJA. We think the Tories Introduced the CJA as part of their fight against young people and the working class. When the Torles explain why they need CJA they bad mouth its most isolated victims - young people and those campalgning for social justice. But most victims of the CJA will be working class people up in court and trades unionists: groups of people with potentially cruclal weight in social struggles. The way for young people to defeat the CJA Is by linking up with those bigger forces and to make the fight against the CJA a part of the class struggle. By bullding opposition to the CJA Into the fight of the working class majority in this country, the CJA will become part of the relationship of forces In the big social struggle. It wlll become too risky for the Torles to push It through in the way they want. It would also be Impossible for the Blalr leadership of the Labour Party to refuse to scrap the CJA without looking like traitors to young people and trades unionists. We aren't opposed to cetain actions by small groups - of course not. But we need to tle the CJA Into the issues where people are moving against the government and create united mass mobilisations around them, in order to maximize the numbers Involved. That means we need lots of mobllisa tions that are peaceful and well organised, maybe even logal If that is the best way to make particular mobilisations big. Mobilisations like those, which involve masses of workIng class people, are what will smash the Act.
Get Active! If you want to join the resistance, contact The Freedom Network at Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London SW9. You can 'phone them on 0171 - 737 6721.
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