Black Agenda looks at the cultural nationalism or anti-racist coalition In today's situation, where independent as a solution to the racism of the state sector. from Dewsbury school) delibcrately set by the new right education lobby around the Freedom be ethno-religious They mean Afro-Caribbean, Muslim, Hindu, or Sikh schools and not black of black children wrapped in ander- resourced divisive along ethinic and class lines and as ant education system by self-organised gles around which Black Sections have agreed black schools are sometimes practically posed the Black Agenda refuses to opt for this segregationist trap (the other side of the coin • in practice independen black schools would • private financed or opted-out religious • and religious schools have a narrow cur- riculum which restricts children's develop- The inegalitarian stralegy of independent black schools, which would leave the majority "sink" schools is explicitly rejected as being inadequate solution to the shortfalls of the state Instead the Black Agenda opts definitively for the much more difficult route of fighting to integrate an anti-racist and trans-cultural model caucuses of black teachers, parents and pupils: On the international front. the Agenda con- centrates on the three key anti-imperialist strug- schools would only cater for a better-off cliter two major strategic options for black people Association. It points out that: afford to see local shitts in employment govemment the only patterns have taken Thatcher's policies in live. It concentrates in the political sense: area of the economy where significant The Black Agenda therefore concentrates in large part upon the the inmer cities, where most black people on hurlding opposi- tion to the next wave notably resistance to the poll tax ta colonial tax literally brought homc), and calls for place - disassembled: Thatcherism, ment, notably girls. education system'. implications organisations:" building. into the of outlines, to map out a policy framework which deals with the central issucs of concern to our commitment like jobs, policing, immigration. Lahour Policy Review, This is sure to picaso objective behind the Black Agenda is to revive a fruitful dialogue: "It is not a comprehensive assist in promoling debate around the issue of gely healthy approach was the development of document produced by the Labour Party Black Sections, is now available, adroitly timed to coincide with the run- The Black Agenda aims, as the introduction Azania (South Africa). education and the inner It has aiready heen submitted formally to the Roy and Neil no end, No doubt the document cillous contempt one expects Trom Labour n For those with more open minds, the train ment. The key thing about the Black Agenda is lions would he for people to read it themselves. racism- policing and immigration controls as that it arises out of a practical and concrete tainted not only by their involvement with the position will he treated with the same sort of super- policy document written in stone. But we hope it will form the basis for debate among anti- movement with its own impact on the mainstream of the labour movement. It can only The hest way to review the Agender's sec- so I will just highlight a few points and pose some questions on the role he Black Agenad plays in the current internal situation in the In the early 1980s black and anti-racist ac- tivist politics tended to have their main em- phasis on the most evident aspects of state well as racist attacks and employment dis- crimination. A negative spar-olf from this lar- an over- simplitied and sometimes demagogic As a result. when Black Sections first omerged, they were regarded by some as being racist Labour party, but also by collaborating' with the chief enemy - the racist statc, notbly The real world is rather more complex than this, even for revolutionaries. Indeed a major emphasis of Thatcher's third term has been seeking to end local government's redistribu- tive role, forcing struggles to defend, extend and democratise state social provision. The par- ticularly heavy impact of such attacks on the black working class makes the ultra-left "anti- state approach largely untenable, vindicating the Black Sections: Most black pcople cannot "anti statism' amongst a significant layer of ac. Simply to have drafted it is no small achieve. racists inside and outside the Labour Party: black sell-organisation and black caucuses. up to Labour Party conference: The Black Agenda, a detailed through local govemment. ruling autocracy. Lahour Party- ; Page 12 tivists. Edgington oute
C. Guarita/Reflex DON'T LET HIM DIE SHOT THE PRISONERS S DEMANDS BOBBY• SANDS! Milet Meg 1988 DON IRELAND 1968 NOW1 MOVEMENT ROOPS DUT prisoners del Don't let trish troops out now NDON political status now!
the events of author of anti-imperialist journalist and The following is a speech given FARRELL, a leader of the civil rights movement in Ireland in 1968. at a rally organised by Socialist Outlook to commemerate that year. Farrell, a several books on Ireland is, in 1988, still a leading figure in the movement. by MICHAEL Page 13 demonstration against the invasean of cause we had spent the rest of char tuncously on mal first march when of the civil rights movement: We sion in Vietnam, as fighting against When we arrived in Coalisland; we had a fight with the stewards of the march who tried to force us to take down our red flags and the flags of the Vietnamese National Liberation Front which we were carrying - be- Summerprotesting and holding meet- ings about the war in Vietnam And to non march was just the same thing as fighting against the Amcrican aggres- Even to the bourgeois section of the cavil rights movement there was an international dimension. Quite spon- they were blocked by the police, they Sang what was to hecome the anthem shall overcome". They had picked that up trom the struggle of the black peopic in the United States, even the more conservative sections identitied us, going on the Coalisland-Dungan- the Soviet aggression in Czechos lovakia. They were all the same thing.