Workers Against Racism

Workers Against Racism is associated with the Revolutionary Communist Tendency/Revolutionary Communist Party, the forerunner of the libertarian anti-environmental LM network. It was led for a period by Keith Teare. Active in the 1980s, it is now defunct.

Workers Against Racism pamphlet published after what they describe as 'riots' in Handsworth, Brixton and Tottenham in October 1985.

Workers Against Racism pamphlet, Junius Publications, December 1981.

East London Workers Against Racism, 'Stop these racist murders', Leaflet 29 March 1980. 'Organised by the Revolutionary Communist Tendency'.

Activities

• 8 September 1990 - 'Hundreds of people today marched past the United States Embassy in London in protest against western military intervention in the Gulf. Demonstrators chanted "Britain, US, UN, out out out" as they filed past Westminster and on to a rally in Hyde Park. The protest, which police said passed off peacefully, was at-tended by about 800 people. The Ad-Hoc Hands Off the Middle East Committee, which organised the event, claimed the support of a dozen groups including the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Irish Freedom Movement, the Student Committee to Defend Arab Rights and Holy Places, and Workers Against Racism. Organisers' spokesman Keith Tompson said: "It went quite well considering it was organised so quickly. I think we will be viewed as a cranky minority at the moment but it's the price we pay for being the first to say we disagree."
• 29 September 1993 - 'TWO anti-racist organisations accused Scotland Yard yesterday of failing to uphold the right of the British National Party to demonstrate after its members were arrested in east London at the weekend before they could gather. Police arrested 57 BNP members as they made their way towards Brick Lane, but no attempt was made to arrest any of the more than 1,000 Anti-Nazi League members who gathered in the area to protest against them... Liberty, the civil rights organisation that has been a leading campaigner against racial discrimination, said the police had failed in their duty to protect the right of the BNP to make a protest. John Wadham, legal officer for Liberty, said the organisation condemned the racist views of the BNP which wants all non-whites repatriated to their countries of origin but upheld BNP supporters' right to express them-selves. In a democratic society, that right is one of the most fundamental for citizens, Mr Wadham said. It is incredibly dangerous for the police to tinker with it. His criticisms were echoed by Workers Against Racism, one of several groups that took part in the week-end demonstration against the BNP. Sharmini Singh, its spokeswoman, said that the police had committed what amounted to a dangerous infringement of civil rights. It is much better if we deal with this problem ourselves, Ms Singh said. Accepting the police's right to tell people where they can and cannot stand, what they can and cannot say, is a recipe for disaster. Police yesterday defended what they described at the time as their bold and unusual action. They said their actions had prevented violence between BNP members and the Anti-Nazi League for the third weekend in a row in Brick Lane.
• 5 October 1993 - 'A hundred police were on duty tonight as newly-elected British National Party councillor Derek Beackon at-tended his first council meeting. Between 40 and 50 protesters shouted and waved placards outside before the meeting in the heart of London's docklands... The protest passed off peacefully and there were no arrests. Superintendent David McDonald said 100 police officers were used and he put protesters' numbers at 48. ... Organisers of the protest, East London Workers Against Racism, said they were protesting against the council's housing policies over many years, first under Labour, then under the Liberal Democrats, rather than against Mr Beackon.
• 19 March 1994 - 'An extra doctor has been drafted into a detention centre to help monitor nearly 100 asylum seekers who have refused food for 13 days in a protest. At one stage up to 150 detaineees from Asia, Africa and South America were said to be on hunger strike at the Campsfield House immigration detention centre, at Kidling-ton, near Oxford. ... Meanwhile, a demonstration in support of the hunger strikers was being held in east London today. Sharmini Brookes, spokeswoman for the East London Workers Against Racism, said: "In this country asylum-seekers are treated like criminals. They are interned without trial."
• 24 April 1994 'Protesters plan to march to a police station tomorrow to demonstrate against racist attacks after a vicious assault on an Asian student. Shuhel Miah, 17, was slashed with a Stanley knife from his mouth to his neck and across the back of his head in a gang attack in east London last Wednesday. He needed 32 stitches and was "stable" in the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel today. Workers Against Racism, which is organ-ising the march to Limehouse police station, hoped he would be released in time to take part.... The protest is being led by Mukith Miah, no relation of Shuhel, who is standing for Workers Against Racism in St Dunstans ward in the local elections.'
• 25 April 1994 - 1700 LONDON Poplar Park, Poplar High Street. March to Limehouse police station.
• 27 April 1994 - 'PROTESTERS occupied a police station for two hours last night after a woman fell to her death from a twelfth-floor balcony when police and a court bailiff called at her flat. It is believed that Kwande Slizba, 27, may have mistaken them for immigration officials. She is said to have been trying to climb down to the balcony below while other people in the flat were questioned. Witnesses said that Ms Slizba, thought to have been a Nigerian, had wrapped washing line around her waist before lowering herself, a procedure she had used before. The line broke and she fell more than 120ft. Later about 60 protesters, mainly from the left-wing group Workers Against Racism, waved placards and shouted: Racist police! Murderers! at Stoke Newington police station, north London. The group said in a statement that Ms Slizba was an illegal immigrant and claimed she had lived in fear of immigration police.'

People

• Mark Butler, London organiser circa 1992;National organiser circa 1993

Publications

1981

• Our Flag Stays Red. East London Workers Against Racism. Revolutionary Communist Pamphlets, No.9. Junius Publications, London 1981, 1st edition., April 1981. Pamphlet. 15 pages. illustrated.
• Roberts, Pat & Drury, Christina. Police out of Brixton! South London Workers Against Racism. Revolutionary Communist Pamphlets No.10. Junius Publications, London, 1981., April 1981. Booklet. 17 pages, photo illus. Original photo illus.card covers.
• Landa, Inez & Simons, Helen. Ghost Town. Coventry Workers Against Racism. Revolutionary Communist Pamphlets, No.11. Junius Publications, October London, 1981. Pamphlet. 13 pages, illustrated.
• Workers Against Racism Cleansing our ranks: A platform for anti-racist trade unionists, London: Junius Publications, December 1981, 11pages.
• Workers Against Racism, The Roots of Racism, London: Junius Publications, January 1985. ISBN 0-950 8404-8-3

1993

• Letter: Labouring under an illusion BYLINE: From MR MARK BUTLER The Independent (London) October 11, 1993, Monday SECTION: COMMENT PAGE; Page 17

Workers Against Racism an RCT/RCP front group, published Ghost Town October 1981 some four months after the song of the same name was released by the coventry based group the Specials.