BACKGROUND The Metro Club is situated in the heart of Notting Hill, a ghetto harbouring the oppressed -hippies, the unemployed, unmarried mothers, the Irish, those who have fallen foul of bourgeois in 1968. From the beginning it was more "Law and Order", and, of course, black people. It is a self-aware community; its members have become radicalised through their experience; they know they are under the attack of the capitalist system, although they do not analyse the nature of their oppression. Their opposition has taken the form of organising in the Notting Hill People's Association, which sets up playgroups, participates in the Claimants' Union, and solidarises with members of the community involved in direct confrontation with the forces of capitalist oppression, in particular the police. There is a strong feeling of commitment to collective action.
Social workers, probation officers, all those paid by capitalist society to channel the anger of the oppressed into self-negating acts of cooperation with the oppressors, are despised in Notting Hill. Bourgeois morality has no place here, and the police are the enemy, as they themselves are well aware.
Not surprisingly, the wielders of capitalist authority have been alarmed for some time at the potentially explosive situation in Notting Hill. Various attempts have been made to divert the militancy in the area into outlets provided by the system. For example, George Clarkclerk to the Council-tried to impose the forms of bourgeois democracy onto the People's Association by engineering a local election to form a Council-to be manipulated by himself, of course-to run the Association's affairs. This attempt failed. Then, two years ago, the Neighbourhood Law Centre was set up; with the backing of the Law Society. The function of the Law Centre was to socialise those who fell foul of the system, to win their confidence by admitting that the system was corrupt, then to persuade them that the way to work, however, was not to challenge its foundations but to work became alarmed at the potentialities of the within it, getting round it by finding loopholes in its technicalities. This liberal plot, too, has been seen through. the youth and especially the black youth. The Metro Youth Club was set up after the Notting Hill race riots about 9 years ago. It was opened unorthodox in its decor and functioning than the traditional type of youth club, and its less alienating atmosphere attracted large numbers of young people, both from the locality and from farther afield. Tensions swiftly arose. The club was too successful, local "respectable citizens" quickly became apprehensive, older black leaders thought the club dissipated the energies and money of the black youth, paro parochial attitudes developed, leading to resentment of teenagers from outside the area. Consequently the club was closed, ostensibly for airconditioning, three weeks after it opened.
Conflicts developed between the youth leader, Laurie Little, and lan King, who was recruited to the staff, having been involved in the Metro from the beginning. King saw the club as a base for a multi-purpose community centre and wanted activities to include Black Cultural Studies. He supported Black Power, and left leaflets and literature lying about the club. But opposed King, who was dismissed in January 1969, and refused access to the club.
By this time the "respectable" residents of the area had become dissatisfied with the club, claiming that nothing constructive was being done. The feeling in the "Grove" (Notting Hill Gate) was that Little and the management committee were intruders as they were not from the area; resentment built up and Little was removed. The club became predominantly black (95%). Because of its tremendous popularity, it was frequently overcrowded, with resultant noise, some uneasiness inside and skylarking outside it.
Initially the project had been approved enthusiastically by social workers, police, the local so-called "crime prevention officer" and so on, but very soon the pillars of capitalism club. The fuzz began looking for trouble in and around the club. Several incidents of harassment and repression occurred. Six black youths were imprisoned after being accused of rape in fuzz involved on this occasion was also prominent in the events of May 24th this year. A drugs raid and the killing of a black man by a police car in the area, then the arrest of two more youths outside the club in October 1970 further increased the tensions. The police kept continual watch; Chief Superintendant Paterson of Harrow Road admits that cops patrol the area daily. He has now claimed that the club is a "haven of retreat" for black youths involved in robberies, and has taken it on himself to criticise the holding of two political meetings recently in the club. It seems likely that the pigs will attempt to have it closed down, as they plainly fear that the concentration of radicalising black youth will become too hot for them to handle.
POLICE BRUTALITY The incidents of May 24th again highlight the racism of the police and their brutality towards black people. The sequence of events is widely known, but it should be explained that the first arrest was made completely arbitrarily; the pigs were out to get someone, it didn't matter who. Little, not wanting to lose his personal authority, It was this that inflamed the other youths and gave rise to the battle during which 70 reinforcements from all over London arrived. (The numbers give some indication of the desire of the police to provoke a major confrontation, and of their respect for the collective force of the local population.) Those arrested, including the white people, were all roughly handled, abused and humiliated in the vans and on arrival at the station. One cop taking part was heard to shout, "Let's get those black bastards!"
another was known to an onlooker as an "agent provocateur". Of course it was the black youths who got the worst treatment. One was taken to the van unconscious, and three or four pigs sat with their feet on him all the way to the station.
On arrival he was propped against the wall and left there, in clear contradiction of the regulations instructing police to obtain immediate medical attention for unconscious prisoners.
When he came to, he was taken to a detention cell, and systematically punched in the ribs, in the presence of the police surgeon. Subsequently of the scene. Others who were arrested wei kicked and punched in the van. All were kept in custody without appearing before a magistrate for longer than the period stipulated by the law (24 hours), but this is a common occurrence. Bail was phenomenally high and prisoner were made to sleep on bare boards with inadequate coverings, in filthy cells.
THE METRO AFFAIR IN THE CONTEXT OF NOTTING HILL In assessing the Metro affair it is important to stress that similar instances of police harassmen of black people, and indeed of other oppressed people, occur continually. It is only when large numbers are involved or a death occurs that newspaper reports appear at all. Those who live in the ghettoes are becoming radicalised throug being involved, perhaps just as onlookers, in situations such as the Metro incidents. The people of Notting Hill are already organised; their mood is becoming more militant as the contradictions in society become sharper. Their experience has led them to an awareness of hov society is structured and some will no doubt be led to a deeper analysis. Most of those who organise in the community are impatient of political organisations; they see these as indulging in abstract discussion and analysis, as bulldozing their way into the area at opportune moments for selfish gains. They see these orgar sations as lacking in the understanding of the existing reality and out of touch with the day-to-day oppression of the people in a ghetto. In particular, organisations sending speakers from outside the area to explain aspects of repressio: experienced by those living within are resented But support and solidarity from "militants on the periphery", as one resident has put it, are welcome, provided such support is based on understanding and correct factual knowledge of what goes on.
Mohd. Akhtar
A full-time school a obugatons will not be a hindrance Ghandi did it. He mingled his own children among the others at the price of seeing them grow different from himself. .. The other solution is celibacy.... The day celibacy be comes a selfless choice, teachers might grow passionately fond of the school, might love the children and be loved by them. Above all, they would have the joy of running a school that succeeds (p. 72-3).
This solution may be seriously inadequate, but it has the crucial advantage of flowing from an acute perception of the necessity to revolutionise the structure of educational roles, a problem that does not even exist in the liberal ideological framework of the LRS. What is of even greater importance is the actual practice of the children of the School of Barbiana-they have built a school around the integration of students into a functioning group involved in the joint project of education and self-education. This is the real prototype of revolution in education.
The comparisons between The Little Red School Book and Letter To A Teacher, are highly instructive because they underline one immense advantages of perceptions and responses that flow directly from the concrete struggles of the oppressed and exploited themselves. LRS always rings with a certain paternalism that on occasion becomes a kind of uncritical acceptance of "alienated" patterns of behaviour:
".... if you really can't persuade the teacher to make his teaching less boring, then you always have the possibility of escape .... Escaping is understandable in these circumstances. Here are a ******* NEW FROM RED BOOKS ** -LEON TROTSKY ON:
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