nationally-known leftwing Labour councillor in Nottingham - was recently expelled from the Labour Party. Socialist Outlook spoke to him. SO: You came to England in the late 1970s. What had been your political experience in Pakistan? I started out as General Secretary of the militant Punjab Workers Federation. After an IMF and World Bank intervention the government started a crackdown.
I can't remember a time between 1971 and 1978 when there wasn't quite a few of our comrades in prison. I spent just over three years in prison at different times.
I was never tried, never convicted - it was always detention, detention. The real crackdown came when General Zia came to power in 1977.
He brought in new draconian anti-labour laws. Mass protests took place and I was arrested. When I left Pakistan in 1978 I had nine charges against me. I went to a World Trades Union Congress in Geneva and never went back because I'd have been arrested. SO: What were your hopes when you joined the Labour Party in Britain? I joined the Labour Party in the early 1980s - very interesting times with the left organising around Tony Benn. Although I didn't know much about British politics, I saw the Party as a vehicle to fight against injustice and racism and to support the right kind of people to bring about GHTING RACISM change.
It was actually after talking to Alan Simpson, a local left activist and County Councillor, that I decided to join. SO: You were instrumental in setting up the black sections in Nottingham. How successful do you think the black sections initiative was in encouraging black people to become active in the party and in shifting the views of the leadership on their involvement? I was the national vice chair of the black sections for two years. I think the black sections were very successful in putting the black agenda at the forefront of British politics for the first time.
It forced the media and the leaderships of both Labour and the Tories to take the issue of racism seriously - black people were not prepared to accept the status quo, they wanted things to change.
The Labour Party had always received the support of all black people, afro-caribbean and asian because it was perceived to be a Party that fought against injustice, a Party of the poor and the oppressed.
And then we saw radical London Boroughs like Lambeth being led by a black woman Linda Bellos, and the setting up of Equal Opportunity and Race units, and the scrutiny of employment practices and service delivery.
All because of the black sections.
First black people took to the streets and then the black sections gave the movement a voice. SO: You have been a City Councillor in Nottingham. What is your assessment of your time on the Council? As Chair of Personnel I was inProtesting at racism in Nottingham: don't forget the fight against racism in the Labour Party! Too radical for Labour's bureaucrats: Hassan Ahmed volved in consultation with the trades unions. This was an interesting time because the Council was implementing CCT.
I made sure that not a single redundancy took place in the City Council. Even when people were transferred from one section to the other.
I developed the new training policy - it was the first time the City Council introduced a job sharing policy, the first time ever the introduction of the child care allowance and a work place nursery.
The Equal Opportunities Department which was resurrected followed by an Equal Opportunities post in every department of the City Council with a budget of £200,000.
We gave a very high profile to membership of the Party for three years and then expelled almost as soon as that time was up. Why has there been such a reaction against your involvement in the Party? In the old Labour Group we had something like six Asian councillors and ten black councillors overall in the City Council. In the County we had seven or eight.
If you look at the record of those black members and you look at my record as a councillor then I think the white establishment and the power brokers will know that I am a dangerous person to live with.
They know that if I was allowed to get back into the Council this time after my three years suspension, they knew the kind of issues and alliances that could potentially be created with the left wing and the black communities.
I think that both MPs in Nottingham, John Heppell especially, felt threatened. I think it was a challenge to their power. The whole establishment joined hands including City, Council, MPs, and Party officials.
It's a myth that the Labour Party had somehow got over its racism and that it accepts black people as equal.
It only wants black people when they're not capable, when they're not articulate, when they don't pose a challenge, and when they haven't got their own agendas.
The moment they start talking their own language, start claiming able at all. And I think that's the main reason I've been punished and expelled from the Party.
I mean, the extent of the witchhunt, this hate campaign against me - even I'm shocked. I just didn't know that I was that dangerous! Where do you think the struggle goes from here? There is a much wider witch-hunt going on against black people in general and people from Pakistani, Muslim backgrounds in particular.
They are the people who are facing the bleakest prospects today.
People in our communities are desperate to stand up and raise issues, get representation, get into the corridors of power and do something about it.
The social and cultural issues are very important.
These communities are very close knit, therefore their reliance on self-organisation is great. And thạt has shown itself in cities like Manchester, Birmingham, Bradford and Nottingham.
There are over two million people from Pakistani and Muslim backgrounds. And you don't have a single person in Parliament from those communities. From Asian backgrounds you have over three million.
Councillors and MPs who are currently sitting in their wards feel threatened. They've done is they've joined hands with the establishment to make sure that people like Gerald Kaufman and Roy Hattersley, Roger Godsiff and John Heppell remain as MPs.
The Labour Party has now formed this new membership abuse sub-committee at the NEC just to suppress this movement and ensure that Asian candidates don't get elected.
Communities need to stand together and fight. They cannot continue carrying on accepting this treatment and being treated as second class people. SO: There has been some talk among black activists nationally about a National Black Party that stands in elections against the other major parties? What are your views on this? If you're talking about a Black pressure Group which takes up and fights for the demands and issues relevant to the black communities locally or nationally then that's fine. It's all a part of black people's right to self-organisation.
But to form a political Party to contest elections - I'm certainly not in favour of that. I understand where its coming from, it's their frustration and their complete lack of confidence and trust in the system, but I don't think under the current political system that a separate black party would bring much progress for black people generally.
But if there was a system of proportional representation in Britain then I think there may be some justification for that.