106 81 Athens, Greece. *
From Los Angeles to Toronto ANGER at the acquittal of Rodney King's assailants, combined with the police murder on May 2 of a 22 year-old black youth, Raymond Constantine Lawrence, spread to Toronto, Canada following the upsurges in the ghettoes of the United States. On May 4 more than 1500 angry demonstrators turned out at a rally and march to protest the killing and to draw the links between police racism and violence north and south of the border. Socialist Challenge/Gauche Socialiste, section of the Fourth International in the Canadian state, issued the following statement on the events:
"It would be a tragedy of immense proportions if we are not able to harness the collective anger of the recent period and forge an effective, organized antiracist force in this city.
"The Black Action Defence Committee (BADC) has done a commendable job of organizing protests and mobilizing opinion against the racist attacks... But to escalate the struggle and to be prepared for future attacks we need something more than BADC, a fact the BADC itself would certainly admit.
We need a city-wide coalition that brings together BADC and other anti-racist groups and individuals around a set of concrete anti-racist demands. We need a coalition that can reach into the communities, into the schools and the workplaces, into the trade union movement, and into the churches, temples, synagogues and mosques.
"Such a democratic, mass-oriented coalition could mobilize public opinion and bring out people onto the streets like never before. It could provide a ready framework for rapid response in times of crisis, and could go "on the offensive" with concrete demands to genuinely tackle the roots of the racial attacks.
"We will not stem the rising tide of racism by retreating into our own corners. The anti-racist coalition we need has to be multi-racial, and it has to recognize the leading role of non-whites in the struggle against racism and for Black Liberation.
"Recent events provide both opportunity and danger. We need unity in the 23 struggle, we need a program and we need organization". ".* May 25, 1992 • # 229 International Viewpoint