LOBBY TUC 16 JUNE RED FLAGS cover the dried pools of blood where one Sikh youth died and another lay wounded. Speakers from the Communist Party-dominated Indian Workers Association urge the angry crowds of Asian youth to go home, keep it cool, leave it to the police. They are ignored.
The boy died outside the doors of the 'Victory' pub. Inside, young blacks pour out stories of years of insults and assaults by whites, collusion by the police. One Sikh youth puts it this way:
*At school, the white kids told us that the reason we had white palms and soles and black skin was that when God was painting us we had to hold on to the branches — you know, like monkeys. We were never told about the things which made Britain rich: West Indian spices and sugar, African gold, Indian diamonds.' Another interrupted: "The police say that this crime has no motive. People who have no motive don't carry knives! They don't stab someone nine times!
•We told the police that a group of fifteen white youths standing around on that night were responsible. They ignored us! There was no fight last night! Just two boys stabbed."
The slogan on the pavement outside echoes all their sentiments: RACIST MURDERS MUST BE AVENGED - WE'LL GET YOU, RACIST SCUM.
They discount suggestions that the National Front is responsible. They stir it up but 'it comes from everyday life. The pub along the road from here, the "Red Lion', a Whitbread pub, operates a colour bar. Of course if you went to the Race Relations people, the landlord would say: "Sorry, I didn't see him when he asked." The murdered youth, GURDIP SINGH CHAGGAR *You get white youths patrolling in vans and cars. When have you ever seen Asian youths going out of their area looking for trouble? Never!
*Enoch Powell stirs the lot with a long spoon. Those guys from Malawi are stuck up by the papers. The Government doesn't do nothing. From now on we are going to defend ourselves!' The first step they took, along with hundreds of others, was to win the release of four youths arrested during clashes with police. Speakers from the Asian Socialist Forum addressed the massive picket which successfully freed all four. It's common for black youth in Southall to be kept in overnight even for the most trivial offences. But now the fight has begun. The massive sit-down which freed the four
2 Racism Red Weekly 10 June 1976