ST Britain Anti-racist co n the largest and most representative assembly of its kind in years, 750 anti-racists gathered in London in March to launch the National Civil Rights Movement (N.C.R.M.).
The initiative emerges out of the widespread outrage over the police mis-) handling of the Stephen Lawrence case and heightened awareness in the white community of state racism in all its institutionaised forms.
"This is the beginning of a movement not only to link one family with another but also different
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Ripartiamo dai bisogni tioning of the party. This is particularly regrettable since the coming months will bring a number of serious challenges which we would have been better able to deal with if we were more democratic and transparent.
The membership of the PRC fluctuates around 120-130,000. The losses connected to the October 1998 split have been more than compensated
1311 EPHEN WRANCE nference groups of anti-racists and to set the anti-racist agenda for the next decade" said Suresh Grover from 'The Monitoring Group'.
In attendance were families of victims of racist killings and violence, grassroots community groups, advice workers and radical lawyers including Louise Christian, Mike Mansfield, Imran Khan and Gareth Pierce as well as individuals like Liz Davies (Labour Party NEC), Jeremy Hardy (comedian and Guardian columnist) and Hilary Wainwright (Editor, Red Pepper).
The meeting began with a minute's silence in memory of murdered Belfast lawyer Rosemary for by new membership applications. It also seems that a higher proportion of members are renewing their membership on time.
But there is still a considerable turnover of membership (up to 30% in some years.
The challenge facing PRC militants is to redouble their efforts in the social and labour movements, to reinforce our presence, and in doing so compensate for and overcome the practices and habits which still prevent the party from achieving its full potential. *
* Livio Maitan is a supporter of the Bandierra Rossa current within the PRC, and a leading member of the
Fourth International. Maitan and Bandierra Rossa comrade Franco Turigliatto were elected to the CPN and the DN
A much longer version of this report has been published in Inprecor, the French edition of International
Viewpoint. A series of background articles by Livio
Maitan and other PRC militants can be accessed at our website.
www.internationalen.se/sp/ivp.htm Nelson and later heard from Diana Hamill whose brother Robert was kicked to death by loyalist thugs in Portadown in 1997.
Testimonies by family support groups from all corners of the country followed. They gripped and moved the audience with their harrowing accounts of the doubleinjury inflicted upon them. First in losing a loved one and then in having to campaign "not for sympathy or pity but justice
There were also asylum-seekers facing deportation, miscarriage of justice cases and those subjected to racist policing.
A common theme was how racist violence and state racism interact and reinforce each other. Another was the isolation and desperation of the families pitted against the police and criminal justice system and without support and resources in their campaigns.
Many of the families are on the interim steering committee that will guide the organisation until its next conference in September in the north of England.
Meanwhile, says Grover, there is much work to be done in creating a national race and policing telephone help-line, holding local and national protests in support of family campaigns and building the National Civil Rights Movement as an inclusive and broad-based organisation. [BS] * To join the N.C.R.M. and for details on various family campaigns contact: N.C.R.M. 14 Featherstone Road Southall Middlesex UB2 5AA England Tel: 0181 574 0818/0181 843 2333 Fax: 0181 813 9734 Source: Voice, the newspaper of the Scottish Socialist Party, 73 Robertson Street, Glasgow G2 8QD. Tel: +44 (0)141 221 7714. E. Mail: [email protected] Internet: www.scotsocialistparty.org
International Viewpoint #312 June 1999 17