Red Weekly talks to BRIAN NICHOLSON, Executive Committee member of the Number 1 Docks Group.
What were your immediate reactions to the death of Kevin Gately in Red Lion Square?
Obviously I was taken aback and my first reaction was only human -l TOOLLIE BROSC BASTES - OUTTICT thinking about the exact circumstances 1 believe I was one of the first people to demand an independent The TUC leaders argue that we shouldn't give any publicity to the NF, that any publicity only aids and abets them. I don't know where they learnt their politics, to come out with this sort of argument. The one thing we have got to do is to expose the NF. We have got to do it in a positive manner, and in a number of ways. We ve got to expose and expose their backgrounds.
How do you suggest this is done?
First of all there's got to be a real understanding of the postive line that the TUC should take on the National Front, I believe that the trade union movement, the Labour Party and the broad left have got a great deal to answer for in this respect, because for 25 years we've Deen in a state or no tear of fasciim. We can no longer hide the fact that wE gotta Bloody torten cancer in our midst. ing necessary? Should we allow fascists to hold open meetings in colleges and factories?
Would I allow the fascists to hold public meetings? Well in my opinion, no. We've got to fight these people with the weapons that they would ultimately fight us with if they were in power. Don't ler's hide anything to anybody in the labour movement-what was Spain all about? What is Chile all about? Don't kid yourself that they re going to treat us with freedom of speech and "democratic procedures" if they get to power. The only way to stop them, and I'm sorry if 1. sound undemocratic, is in the bloody streets now and not start whining about it in five years time.
What about the proposed NF/ Orange Order marches coming up?
Well, Lappeal to my colleagues in the TUC and in the Labour Government to ban these types of marches, If the NF mount any type of demonstration after the experien ces of Red Lion Square and the left onstrate in opposition to the NF. then the next occasion will be of such magnitude that people will be forced to take notice of what it's all about.
How do you think that we should prepare for these in the likely event that the Labour Government won't ban the fascist marches and the TUC won't mobilise counter-demonstrations?
If the Government doesn't ban these marches then how do we go about it? Well, I feel that the leadership of the trade union movement generally should be the established centre of any activities. But failing that type of organising centre, which has tailed us so often in the past over the industrial Relation Act and things of this kind, then obviously it's up to people like We know that the Special Patrol Group were involved in the do you view the increasing involvement of this sort of force in indus trial disputes and demonstrations?
It's not increasing-they've always been there. Their activities have always been known to us, and I can go back some time in my own industrial career. They're at our bloody meetings, our branch meetIngs.
Who are you kidding? They're doing exactly the job that they're bloody well paid to do. The important thing is the political role that they are now playing despite what Got crument 5 in power. There are "It's always the striker that winds up in court, and not the bloke that did the actuat attadking - at least a dozen strikers at Imperial Typewriters have appeared in court on charges of assault, but not the National Front thug seen attacking one of the pickets abava the people of Portugal, we feel it is the seeds of fascism at the end of control this special section. Who are they? Who do they represent? They have been around ever since day one, ever since the Peterloo massacre.
noticeable increase in police intervention in strikes, etc?
tary intervention by the standing armed forces in industrial disputes.
land to Heathrow and back again. I myself was stopped three times the other day at Heathrow! The Heathcow episode was precisely an exercise to demonstrate their power in the event of an 'emergency.
What should the inbour move a'strong state"?
leadership that isn't there. There's movement who do not see the ugly head, if can call it that, of these forces being raised again.
sical force being used against picket lines as we've seen recently at Imperials, and at Chrysler last year"
Well this is where the labour movement is very weak. Such episodes are new in this respectinside the factories, but it's new Red Lion Square demonstration. How that the employers have got people from the outside to do such jobs for thetti.
the right to physically defend themit later, Eve always found that it's those elements that disagree with press etc. that are the first people to attack. But it's always the striker that winds up in the court and the bloke thar did the actual attacking, provoking etc. is not heard of in the autumn of this year then we in the labour movement, regardless of what group we belong to, must be prepared to go on to the streets. to demonstrate against these people, The lessons that are now being imposed upon the people of Chile must be learne in this country. Sample as that. the day planted by the people who Would you agree there has been a Alongside the reappearance of the extreme right wing there always looms the threat of regularised miliBut it also ranges wide from Irement do about this tendency towards First of all we're talking about a a smugness on the part of the leadership that exists inside the trade union What about the problem of phywe ve always had management spies I think that everybody has-got selves if attacked and then answer for disputes, that denounce them in the soon in Edinburgh.
If the fascists mount a campaign appears.
The important thing is to get the leaders of the trade union movement to see the threat now and to organise Recognising that the rise of fascist groups is taking place on a European scale, and now to be fought as such, members of the GiM, German section of the Fourth International mounted a picket outside the British Embassy in Bonn in solidarity with the anti fascist demonstration on 15 June, and against the murder of Kevin Gately, They also distributed leaflets on the issue in Aachen, Cologne and other towns in the Rhineland. Meanwhile in Edinburgh NEARLY A HUNDRED militants attended a meeting in Edinburgh on 'Who Killed Kevin Gately?" —a very high attendance considering that the police had been busy ripping down the posters advertising it.
Despite police harassment the meeting was a step forward in the growing campaign against the National Front. It decided unanimously to set up an ad-hoc anti-fascist committee whose immediate activities would include a speaking tour in the local labour movement with a speaker from Warwick University (where Kevin Gately was a student).
A mobilisation is also planned against a nearby police scation.. home fron a meeting that it is strongly rumou- home! red Martin Webster will be bolling "The blame for Kevin Gately's death,' a local Labour Councillor and International Brigade veteran, Donald Renton told the meeting "lay not with the National Front, or even with the policeman who murdered him, but with the Labour Government who have failed to carry out their duty to their class by extirpating fascism wherever it and in Leeds A SMALL SPLINTER-GROUP of the National Front, based in Leeds, misleadiogly called the National Democratic Freedom Movement, suffered its first major defeat a few days ago. Afler the Labour Council bad refused them a room to hold s meeting they attempted to hold a protest meeting on the steps of the Town Hall.
A newly-formed anti-fascist committee, set up from a meeting called by the Trades Council, made sure that the NDFM would not go unchallenged. Thay were rapidly routed and their self-styled 'leader Edmund Morrison was pursued into The police played their customar "impartial role, Some of the antifascist militants were arrested and one has been charged with grievous bodily harm, It is also reported tha he was beaten up in his cell where he was kept for two days. All thes conrades will need financial help for their defence Concribucions should be sent to LEEDS ANTI-FASCIST ANTIRACIST COMMITTEE, /o 153 Woodhouse Lane. Leeds.
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Transport and General Workers Union, Chairman of the