ON RALPH SCHOENMAN May I heartily endorse all that Tariq Ali had to say about Ralph Schoenman? Tariq and I were at the Helsinki Peace Congress in 1965 when Ralph's characteristic forthrightness and courage completely transformed what would otherwise have been a smug, Russian-manipulated talking-shop, devoted to self-congratulation and sedation, passing flaccid resolutions in favour of virtue and gainst vice (so worded that almost anybody could sign without qualms). Ralph insisted on drawing the attention of the delegates to America's war of genocide in Vietnam, even to the point of physically seizing the microphone while some delegate was reading out an hour-long "fraternal greeting" (identical in wording to the last half-dozen) to a half-empty chamber of sleeping delegates. He proposed the setting up of a War Crimes Tribunal to try the American murderers-to the horror of the Russians and the pro-Russian delegations Was he not right? Was he not 100% vindicated by the success of the Tribunal? How many of his sly critics have done as much for the Vietnamese people, for the revolution againsı imperialism, for the exposure of the nature of American monopoly capitalism? Let not those come sneaking forward now pointing the finger of criticism at Ralph unless they are absolutely confident that their record stands comparison with his.
Fraternally, Malcolm Caldwell, Journal of Contemporary Asia, London.
Dear Red Mole, We have been asked by a comrade in Hong Kong to pass on to British comrades some details of recent repressive measures taken by the Government of Hong Kong.
Five foreign students and teachers (a Swede, three Americans and a German) have been refused extensions of their visas and are forced to leave Hong Kong in the middle of their studies or teaching contracts. The Immigration Department gave no reason tor its decision, but all five have been involved in recent demonstrations against American aggression in Vietnam, and three of them were arrested after fifteen people handed in a coffin into the office of Pan Am airways in protest against its complicity in the war. One American, Mitchell Meisner, organised four peaceful demonstrations against the Vietnam war. The German, Klaus Schleusener, was told by the acting German Consul General that the Colonial Secretary said he must leave because of his part in the March demonstration. This ferocious over-reaction on the part of the colonial government coincides with an increase in American economic interest in Hong Kong and the arrival of a Nixon appointee as U.S.
Consul General.
These protests, small in themselves, are indicative of growing militancy in Hong Kong, particularly among students: Klaus Schleusner was probably considered dangerous because of his solidarity with the radical students in the Chinese University where he taught. A big campaign is beginning to make Chinese the official language and attack British cultural domination.
In the last few months there have been protests against demolition of squatter huts; protests by hawkers who are persecuted by the police and a whole series of strikes and labour disputes. It becomes increasingly difficult for the Hong Kong Government to present these protests as a communist-inspired conspiracy, and in self defence it has clamped down on one vulnerable section of the students.
In April the students of the Chinese University organised a protest boycott of classes-the Government ordered Hong Kong radio not to broadcast any news about the boycott. A teacher, Paul Williams, expressed his sympathies with the students, lost his job at the Chinese University in June of this year and has been unable to get another job there, although he was the best qualified candidate-he was told unofficially that his political views are unacceptable. In August anther teacher, an American, was convicted and fined on a drug offence. Before his trial he was asked to identify people in photographs of anti-Vietnam war demonstrations-he refused. After his trial he was depor deported at 15 minutes' notice, although he was scheduled to_ return to the States two weeks later in any case.
Much of the repression in Hong Kong is secret although well-known and of long standing. Extensive police files are kept, telephones. are tapped, the Special Branch has agents in schools and universities, plain clothes policemen take photographs at demonstrations-a police state in the typical "unobtrusive" British style, but with less need for silence since most of Hong Kong's citizens are (only) Chinese. SOLIDARITY WITH THÈ STRUGGLES OF THE PEOPLE OF HONG KONG!
AGAINST BRITISH COLONIALISM! Yours fraternally, Caroline Freeman, Norman Freeman.
Small ad. rates: 6d per per word; min. 8 issues, 4d per word. word, minimum 4 issues. 5c Displayed (boxed): 8-point: 1/6 per word.
10-point: 2/- per word.
Full page: £100 a-page: E23 ½-page: £50 B page: £12 10 Write RED MOLE Ads, 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1. or phone 01-837 9987.
Red Mole, T82 Pentonville Road, L-poso Ne from The Che Guevara' Rank-and-File: militant teachers journal. A vailabl op 1 /Sd., 11/4 for tenton Road, London N.16. Singl Rouge, French Revolutionary Weekly of the Ligue Communiste. London N.1, enclosing 2/- for an individual copy. walle to The Red Mole, 182 Pentonville WrC KouLe BP201, , Paris 19e, France Road INTERNATIONAL: bi-monthly theoretical journal of the .M.G. (British section of the Fourth Internatio nal). Second issue in new format includes: Workers Control; Mandel replies to Harman on state capitalism;
Trotsky on the Fourth International; British Steel mousty. Dook reviews ete Write International, c/o Red Books, 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1.
A SOCIALIST WOMAN GROUP has been set up in LonGon details of next meeting, ring Leonora Lloyd, 574 7407.
Socialist Woman-now out in new printed format-l produced by a group of socialist women of the Not tingham Socialist Women's Committee. A subscription costs only issues (bi-monthly). Send to 16 Ella Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham.
TARGET-The Busman's Newsletter. A monthly maga zine produced by a group of rank-and-file busmen to help organise the struggle for better pay and conditions and against any productivity deals, to fight the deterio ration in public transport as a service, and struggle for workers' control. A. o. arb inte lestedntr oad, London SV.16 write to SURKH SAVERA (RED DAWN): New Urdu journal of the Pakistani Group which prosents the ¡deas ot the rourin interanonal eas regum coverage of Pakistani politics. Price 1/6. Available from Red Books, 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1. LENIN Centenary, issue of Red Mole. Copies available Boer cop(olk oreer). o suge coov. wiles ni Red Mole, 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1 Call to feminist-women working in the media-painting, sculpture ulin onororaonv. boetv. meate. music etc.-to come together for an exhibition-event in con nection with large women liberation - demos & confer ence planned Road, London N.W.6, phone 01-328 7404 (studio) oi valene onar ton chippennam nousc 01-267 1988 (home) or Monica Sjoo, 47 Princess Vic toria Street, Bristol 8.
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION
DISRUPTS MIDLANDS COP SHOP From Our Legal Correspondent two months. The defence have hired six barristerś in an attempt to defend over ting immigrants on drug charges.
It has been commonplace for young whites and black people to complain before the magistrates that in addition to having been beaten in police cells, they have also been planted and framed on cannabis charges. Usually they have been told to shut up and accused of malevolence and then worthy turds. But the truth is now out.
It is now struggling to free itself from an array of serious charges by hiring, at vast public expense, an army of legal minds.
The Assizes are held in the same building as the Police Station where many of the offences are said to have been committed. This shows the clear distinction in British law between the executive and the judiciary. In court are high-ranking police officers showing solidarity with the accused policemen. At the doors to the Public Gallery, observers are submitted to the indignity of a search and a close identity check. The Gallery, however, has been filled with West Indians who have come to see the bacon sizzling. A Ewo Year Period The charges gainst the police cover a period of nearly two years, though many find it difficult to believe this is the entire span, as the infamy policemen concerned have been on twelve months' holiday with two-thirds pay. This is a a rare example of a police enquiry actually resulting in the police being prosecuted. In this ERNEST MANDEL: WHAT IS TROTSK YISM? Text t speech from Mandel-Johnstone debate, now put ished as a pamphlet by Coventry branch of Spartacu LaLUC. 3d cach, bundles post free Write Spartacus League, 27 Paynes Lane, Coventry, CV1 4BH.
SPECIAL NOTE TO SOCIALIST SOCIETIES:
INDOCHINA (formerly Vietnam), monthly magazine Proposals Really The Tories & Malaysia: If the of the VSC Second Mean! Madame I printed ISsue. War Expands. Binh's Proposals- What Do Nixon's Price only 1/- Special one-third discount for Socialist Socie Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham 14. BRISTOL: Dave Prior, 7 Ravenswood Road, CARDIFF: Susan Lukes, 92 Llandaff Road, COVENTRY: John Presland, 27 Paynes Lane, DERBY: Bruce ebbington, 41 Leopold Street, EDINBURGH: Brian Gilmore, 17 Hillside St., GLASGOW: lan Stevenson, 3 Doune Gardens, Kelvinbridge, Glasgow.
HERTFORD: Malcolm Harding, 8 Parker Ave, Bengeo, Hertford.
HULL: Malcolm Ball, Students Union, Hull KINGSTON-UPON-THAMES: Robin Bonner, c/o The Red Mole.
LEICESTER: Alan Lenton, 18 West Street, Leicester.
LINCOLN: Dave Thompson, 65 Tower Cres., Lincoln, Lincs LONDON CENTRAL: Frank Hansen, City Polytechnic, Students Union, Moorgate, E.C.1 NORTH: John Weal, 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1.
SOUTH: Jim Clough, 2 Almeric Road, S.W.11 SOUTH: Tony Jones, Furzedown College of Education, Welham Road, S.W.17.
EALING: Tom Mole, 23 Brackley Road, W.4 HAMMERSMITH: Eddy Arnavoudian, 20 Thorny Hedge Road, Gunnersbury, W.4 LOUGHBOROUGH: Ann Black, 4 Russell St., Loughborough.
MANCHESTER: Steve Cohen, 43 Brantingham Road, Whaley Range, Manchester 16. NORWICH: Paul Franklin, c/o The Red Mole.
case the stench had become so great that the only course open to the police was to go to court and try for an acquittal.
During the next two months, many Nottingham West Indians will appear in court to give evidence for the prosecution. There is a lengthy indictment, so long indeed that the charges are presented in an omnibus fashion and the actual details only appear in the evidence. Among the accusations are the following types of offences claimed by the prosecuting QC: * Making unlawful "gifts" of cannabis to divers persons. * Bullying and using coercive methods to force people to become informers. * Threatening arrest on framed charges if people refused to inform. * Permitting informers to manage shebeens in exchange for information on other black people and shebeen customers * Threatening to close shebeens if owners did not cooperate with the police * Permitting the whores of black ponces to trade freely in exchange for information. * Framing false charges against cannabis users. * Blackmailing people to give false testimony in the witness box in order to secure convictions;
Forcing people to plant cannabis on their friends prior to a pre-arranged police raid. * Supplying cannabis to informers as payment and in order to keep them sweet. * Claiming to organise light sentences from the Magistrates for those who agreed to cooperate later.
Before You Could Even Say "Robinson..." A trap was laid for the police when a West Indian called Robinson submitted himself to an independent search before entering the City Police Headquarters one day by appointment. One ot the police on trial said he wanted help in getting a man called Spence on a charge of sel ling "illegal" liguor. He asked Robinson to plant shit on Spence and gave him some there and then. Moments later outside the police station Kobinson was again searched and was able to produce the cannabis The police had carlier got Robinson into their employ by threatening to organise a three-year sentence for him if he did not help. In the NOTTINGHAM: Nick Beeton, 25 Henry Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham.
OXFORD: Bernard Reaney, 27 Southmoor Road, Oxford.
POTTERIES: Jason Hill, Students Union, University of Keele, Keele, Staffs.
READING: Nigel Brown, Sibly Hall, Redhatch Drive, Earley, Reading, Berks. RG6 2QW.
STAFFORD: Graham Jones, 184a Silkmore Road, Stafford.
STIRLING: Donald MacDonald, 6 Tarduff Place, Stoneywood, Denny, Stirlingshire.
YORK: Mike Lomax, 25 Nunthorpe Avenue, York IRISH RED CIRCLE: Robin Mor, c/o 182 Pentonville Road, London N.1.
LANCASTER: Brian Heron, 29 Clarendon St., Lancaster.
WE RECOGNISE OUR OLD FRIEND, OUR OLD MOLE, WHO KNOWS SO WELL HOW TO WORK UNDERGROUN SUDDENLY TO APPEAR:
THE REVOLUTION.-MARX Please send me THE RED MOLE for the next 6/12 months. I enclose cheque/P.O./cash for £1/E2.
Name.
Address .
THE RED MOLE, 182 Pentonville Road London N.1. 01-837 6954, 01-278 2616.
Foreign subs: Asia/Africa/Australia/N&S America: E5 per year (airmail); £3 per year (ordinary).
W. Europe: E3 per year.
EDITORIAL BOARD: Tariq Ali, Robin Blackburn Chenhamo Chimutengwende, Peter Gowan, Teresa Hayter, Dave Kendall, Marie-Therese Ligougne, Branka Magas, Neil Middleton, John Weal.
DESIGN: Peter Till DISTRIBUTION: Tom Mole enolaneda ne rocreseo ne reaamore 182 Pentonville Road, London N.i 01-837 6954, 01-278 261 182 Pentonville Road, Loneon N.I. 01-837 998 untee oy cne truk Do cress cr event he had been fined t50 after having been planted. After this case the police had asked him ho andanted oro a the tronen pin how he was going to ceeds of the sale of the cannabis they had already planted. They later forced Robinson to act as a planter and to give false evidence. In one case a man named McLean got a 12-month sentence as a result of the neck-hold that the pigs had got on Robinson. They had threatened to plant Robinson again if he did not do this.
All this is, of course, just the tip of the iceberg The police are particularly anxious to do the near impossible and gain an acquittal as other wise the courts will be swamped for the nex year with people seeking to have their convic. tions quashed and demanding compensation for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. Needless to despite the reinforcement of the local bench with Uncle Toms, the stock of police and courts in Nottingham is now at an all-time low. So far, only the West Indian community has managed to expose the police. After this there may be many others who will seek to beat the system. But we do not know whether these practices have yet ceased. For months the Drug Squad was inactive but recently it regrouped and started again to use the repressive drugs legisla Many Black people will know that there is nothing unusual about the Nottingham situation except that the cesspit has overflowed. The political repression of black groups is reinforced by the general harassment of the community. Indeed this works in two specific ways: by inhibiting Black people from engaging in politica activity for fear the police will frame them, and by creating a state of affairs where the pigs fing it easy to use people who are in their control to infiltrate and inform on Black groups It is perhaps stretching any residual belief i British "justice" too far to expect these officer to go on a "Trip" at the end of the trial. But perhaps in other areas heart can be taken and a strategy evolved of cleaning out one's own pig Footnote: Shebeen-an Irish word for an illegal
----- pull-quotes -----
A marathon trial is commencing in Nottingham and is expected to last nearly
half of the City's Drug Squad which has finally been rumbled after years of arres-
There is consternation in the pig sty, brought about by its own gross excesses.
of the Nottingham police has long been a by- word. After the shit hit the fan last August, the
ties. Write Indo-China, 182 Pentonville Road, Lodnon Rai. From ed Boks, 13 Fe nond iele , 16 poa, RED CIRCLES/RED MOLE CONTACTS BELFAST: Alan Morris, c/o 44 Glenroy Cres., Rathcoole, Newtonabbey, Co. Antrim, BIRMINGHAM: Val Graham, 72 Cambridge
COLCHESTER: Ken Brown, Flat 7, Room 10, Bertrand Russell Tower, University of Essex.