THE TUC demonstration on March 19 will be a huge show of strength for opponents of racism, race violence and the fascist scum of the BNP.
Socialists will welcome the fact that at least on this one occasion all of the principal campaigning organisations fighting racism and fascism - the Anti Racist Alliance, the Anti Nazi League and Youth Against Racism in Europe — will be participating in a single event, alongside much wider support from the trade union and labour movement.
This very fact will increase the aspirations among many for more initiatives that unite rather than dividing the various active anti-racist forces, at local level as well as one-off national demonstrations.
Others, particularly Labour Party activists, may feel inspired to demand a much more aggressive Labour profile against racism. It is conspicuous that it has been TGWU leader Bill Morris rather than Labour's Tony Blair, who has supported the struggle to close down the Campsfield detention centre.
Local campaigns
The demonstration will underline the importance of building local campaigns against BNP candidates wherever they run on their nazi ticket in May's council elections or in June's European elections.
But the scale and strength of the turnout from the length and breadth of the country on March 19 should also make us take stock of the much more fundamental political problems within the labour movement which have fuelled the rise of racism and hampered the fight against race violence.
As the 1930s showed, the breeding grounds of racist prejudice and fascist currents are recession, depression, frustration and despair. Fifteen years of brutal Tory rule has certainly created these conditions, especially in the crumbling inner cities and economic backwaters of a collapsing economy.
Dumped
Millions of youth and adult workers have been dumped onto the scrapheap, with no future, no hope, and no sign that anyone cares.
Instead of tapping this vast pool of anger and alienated energy, the TUC and Labour leaders have turned away, dropping any hint of radical policies, and sucking up to the middle class.
The most demoralising factor for sections of the working class has been the abject failure of the labour movement to learn the lessons of the 1930s. Like their igno minious predecessors, they have refused to lead any concerted opposition to the Tory offensive, even as jobs and crucial public services have been destroyed.
Labour councils ten years ago ran up the white flag, surrendering to Tury cutbacks under the ludicrous 'dented shield' policy of implementing 'caring cuts': the result has been a huge crisis in housing, social services and eduCannon.
Queues The queue for jobs and housing, the brutal squeeze on benefits and the austerity regime in schools create the material conditions for racial tensions. Victims of the system search round for someone to blame for their suffering, and too often simplistic racist prejudices fill the vacuum left by a prostrate Labour leadership.
Black workers in public services suffer a double squeeze. Thousands face attacks on their jobs and conditions, while others, such as front line nurses and NHS staff, are obliged to suffer the wrath of racist white patients or relatives fuming at the failings of an under-funded service.
For over ten years, TUC unions have embraced the defeatist politics of 'new realism', abandoning any concept of collective mass action to defend jobs or wages. A symptom of this political collapse was the scandalous March 3 invitation to Treasury minister Stephen Dorrell to lecture a TUC conference on the need for a long-term wage freeze.
The same TUC which today correctly calls on workers to rally together against MANOSWOSTII the workforce to just 38%. It's not enough just to oppose racism: millions of alienated and downtrodden working class people must be offered something positive to fight for.
to exploit this situation. against the common enemy.
HANDSWORTH ACTURERS TENT BREN DOING CON TRADE UNION IVE LIBERTIE racism has in practice left one section of workers after another - steelworkers, printworkers, rail workers, dockers, min-. ers — isolated in the teeth of the Tory offensive. The repeated defeats and betrayals have reduced Britain to the low- fare state. est-ever level of strikes, with the NHS and welfare state under renewed attack, and union strength reduced from 51% of With an opposition unwilling to oppose, and union leaders too scared to fight, workforces have been decimated and working class communities torn apart by the brutal forces of Tory market economics. The fascists have been eager But there is an alternative. Racial barriers can be broken down in class struggle Mounting anger among public sector workers over the Tory pay freeze must be turned into synchronised action: opposition to massive NHS cuts in London, Birmingham and other big cities must be JESCILS. met hv determined union resistance that will link up with a groundswell of public support. Campaigns and mass action must oppose privatisation in British Rail and the civil service, and defend the welFight on Delegations returning from the March 19 demonstration must also carry forward the fight against racism - building support for the campaign to close Campsfield, building local campaigns and initiatives which aim to link the various anti-racist organisations, building support and solidarity for black communities defending themselves against racist attack, and campaigning to expose the nazi politics of BNP candidates.
But it's not enough just to build opposition: millions of alienated and downtrodden working class people need to be offered something positive to fight for.
The struggle must be stepped up in the Labour Party and the unions for radical socialist policies that can unite opposition to the Tories and the fascists, and offer a means to mobilise the widest sections of the working class to get rid of this vicious government and the system it rep-