A wave of Tory victories in the local electons provaca a euce to wnere me anti-working class policies of this Government will lead at the next General Election.
But there were more sinister under currents. In Leicester the National Front polled 43,700 votes - 18.54 per cent of me total cast win then snaren one ward rising as high as 30.7 per cent. In made big gains with a total vote of 9,399 - nearly four times the total fascist vote last year. And in Blackburn the National Party, a recent split from the NF, actually succeeded in winmus two counch scals These candidates achieved their sucimmigrants as the cause of unemployment and cuts and caling for repatria Last week also saw a vicious cam paign in the popular press against a homeless Asian family Their "crime was to be temporarily housed by the council in the supposed luxury of an airport hotel.
If this racist revival in the press gave a boost to the fascist vote, it did its job well. But those whom we really have to thank for the fascist gains are even more familiar and a lot more dangerous.
The present Labour Government and TUC leaders, whose present policies run from import controls to "protect British against foreign goods', to immig ration controls and limited work permits to 'protect British jobs, have not only kept alive all the racist prejudices that surrace on unese occasions, but nave in creased them by calling for even tighter controls.
The fascist right has now cashed in with a vengeance. What is more, it does not intend to let any of its new-found support slip, but plans more activities, particularly in areas such as Bradford, where the large immigrant communities can be usea as targets for racist attacks But there has been another response developing to both Labour's policies and the right-wing offensive. It took shape in Bradford last month when a huge counter-demonstration of immigrant and left organisations confronted the NF's attempt to march through the immigrant communaes When the NF began to gain ground a few years ago, they suffered a severe jolt backwards as the counter-demonstra tions of the left pinned the fascist labe firmly on their backs. Despite a rapid turn towards populist rhetoric to get rid of the tag and live down the criminal fascist past of their leaders, the NF is now increasingly turning again towards provocations and physical violence to drive home the same old message.
When it parades these colours bv in vading the immigrant communities, these communities must be defended as they were last month in Bradford. They must be defended, too, against the police, who also showed their true colours in their over-zealous protection of the fascists and whose racist brutality is no stranger to the black communities At the same time the Labour and TUC leaders, whose policies are clearly reinforcing racism and feeding the support of the far right, must not be allowed off the hook. Every trade unionist and member of the labour movement has a responsibility to challenge these policies now, which have all too soon oor acmeous ane dancerous results
Red Weekly 13 May 1976