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From Socialist Worker, No. 109, 15 February 1969, pp. 2 & 3.
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‘When Powell gives his opinions on black people his words go into millions of homes ... we are free to speak against him, but there is no comparison between the freedom enjoyed by Powell and his opponents’ |
THE ATTEMPTS by militants to stop Enoch Powell, Patrick Wall and other prominent racialists from speaking at universities, even when they are speaking on subjects other than race and immigration, has given rise to a lot of confusion among people who have no sympathy with Powell’s policies.
‘We don’t agree with what he says, but he has the right to say it’ is the natural reaction.
When the average worker sees students using direct action to preserve and extend their own freedom against university authorities and then using the same methods to deny freedom of speech to people they dislike, it is not surprising if he draws the conclusion that all they really want is a punch up, and that they should stop wasting the taxpayers’ money.
Freedom of speech is an abstract principle which, like ‘freedom’ itself, looks fine at first glance, 99.9 per cent of people,anywhere in the world, would be in favour of ‘freedom’ in an opinion poll survey.
Until of course you start to put some flesh on the bare bones of this principle by asking ‘freedom for whom?’ or ‘freedom to do what?’
We live in a country where the land, factories, banks, newspapers, etc. are owned and controlled by a tiny minority of the population.
Thanks to this wealth,the ruling class can marshal all the resources of the state for the defence of its interests.
In the front rank of the army of capital are the mindbenders, newspapers, TV and radio, resting on years of brainwashing from the education system.
By these means the vast majority are taught to accept the rule of a parasitic ruling class as being the natural order of things, and where this psychological control breaks down the police, the legal system and the army are ready to maintain their ‘law’ and their ‘order’.
But no society can survive for long on the basis of force alone. A ruling class can only feel secure when people feel ‘free to do what they must’.
The harsh realities of power relations are therefore obscured in a fog of abstract ideals such as ‘freedom’, ‘democracy’, ‘justice’.
Behind the empty formula of freedom of speech lies the reality of the control of the mass media by a handful of men.
When Powell gives his opinions on black people, his words go into millions of homes, and therefore carry considerable influence. Every virus depends on a carrier, and the virus of Powellism is no exception.
Of course we are free to stand on the street corner and speak against him. But there is no comparison between the. freedom of speech enjoyed by Powell and the freedom available to his opponents.
The publicity Powell receives has nothing to do with the originality of his ideas, and he knows it.
On the Frost programme he defined himself as a ‘safety valve’ and as the traditional safety valve of the system – the Labour Party – is otherwise engaged,the ruling class is badly in need of an alternative to see them through their present sticky patch.
As the crisis develops, other countries throw up similar creatures – Paisley in Ulster, and George Wallace in the US for example.
All rely on the time-worn prescription of dividing the working class against itself: if the white workers can be fooled into blaming immigrants and students for the ship going off course, then they’re unlikely to notice who is actually doing the steering.
The opposition to this new wave of racialism has assumed many forms. In Oxford there was a march of 4,000 against Powell last May Day, which got tucked away in the corners of the national press.
The usual parade of worthies, left MPs, bishops and even one or two trade union leaders have also denounced him. And in the past year there has no doubt been a considerable output of resolutions, silent vigils and prayer directed against Powell’s version of race hate.
All to no avail.
The paralysis of the official organisations of the labour movement in the face of Powell’s provocative attempt to mobilise working-class support around the right wing of the Tory Party has thrown the burden of resistance largely onto the student movement.
The task is clear – to mobilise the forces of the Left to rouse the workers to the danger that Powell represents-but the resources are pitifully small.
It is not a debate taking place in which we swap arguments and discuss who gets the most press space. Powell is mobilising a mass movement and we have to mobilise against him using all the means at our disposal.
Militants in the universities are aware of their isolation from the working class, especially on the issue of racialism, but the student movement will only be significant to the extent that it can fertilise the workers’ movement.
Already it is evident that the defiant spirit of student actions over a variety of issues is starting to attract support from young workers, but this is only a beginning.
A deadly struggle for the mind of the working class is now under way. Ultimately what is at stake is socialism or barbarism, and as the struggle deepens the ruling class will have no hesitation in removing any of the traditional ‘freedoms’ of parliamentary democracy if they become obstacles in its path.
The limited freedoms enjoyed by the working class and the opponents of the system are certainly in danger. While Powell the ‘safety valve’ poses as the champion of freedom, the state apparatus of the capitalist system he supports grows more and more repressive.
The right to strike is now under attack and the legal penalties for political protest become increasingly severe.
It is an urgent task for the revolutionary movement to cut through this smokescreen of deceit and reveal the ugly reality of a decaying social system, in which Wilson and Powell are two sides of the same coin.
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