Mohd. Hanif Hussein, were 19 years of age. Britain's first political killing in decades took place when three young Pakistanis, incensed by reports of ill-treatment of Pakistani POWS in India, decided to occupy the Indian High Commission in London and draw attention to the plight of the prisoners. They "armed" themselves with ordinary toy guns before occupying the Indian embassy.
LIVE MATERIAL The embassy staff rang up the police and a unit of the Special Patrol Group (SPG) speclising in embassy duty was soon on the scene. The SPG's consist of armed policemen with a licence to kill if necessary. The special police gunmen opened fire on two of the Pakistanis and carried on firing regardless of the fact that there was no answering fire. There couldn't be since the two workers were not armed. The policemen emptied a total of eleven bullets into the Pakistanis, killing them immediately. Having been trained for several years the gunmen found in these two young Asian workers some live material for target practice. The third protester was a 15 year old school student, who escaped death, but is now a prisoner charged with "attempted murder" The sheer effrontery of the judicial section of the bourgeois state apparatus is staggering. An unarmed 15 year-old school student is charged with "attempted murder" and the policemen who killed two unarmed workers go scot free. That's British justice for you!
The fact that members of parliament of all parties have been commending the "courage" of the police gunmen shows the blatantly racist nature of the society in which we live. Let no one imagine that the reaction to the killing of two white protesters in a foreign embassy by British policemen would have been the same. British politicians and the mass media prefer not to discuss the killings at all. They blame the victims for the crime: the problem, we are informed, lay in the toy guns which looked very real. The discussion is thus neatly concentrated on the merits and demerits of importing toy guns from Japan. This sickening Splay of hypocrisy by bourgeois politicians nd the unfree press must be exposed by the orker movement and the left groups. TASKS OF THE LEFT The response from the left groups to the killings has been somewhat slow. The fact that the protest concerned an issue which is not of interest to the revolutionary left in this country must not be allowed to obscure the real issues involved in this episode.
Stanley Conley, of Scotland Yard's Special Patrol • Group, one of the two police gunmen who shot dead Basharat Hussain and Mohammed Hant Hussain at India House.
The left must understand that the killing of these two young Pakistani workers cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. It marks an ominous development in British politics and atfects the entire labour movement. A qualitative increase in repression has to be answered by a united left.
We have to make it clear that regardless of the issues involved, we support the right of the Pakistani workers to protest, even when it includes embassy occupations. Would the police have shot and killed white liberal intellectuals (even if they had possessed toy guns) occupying the South African embassy? The answer is obviously no. And if they had, would we not have seen a massive response by the left and the student movement? Yes, we would have. Why then has there been virtually no response to the killings of these two Pakistani workers. Because unfortunately a bulk of the left is unable to grasp the real meaning and enormity of the killings which took place in Aldwych on 20 February, 1973. UNITED ACTION NEEDED It is vital that in the coming weeks there is some united action by the revolutionary movement on this issue. The trial of the 15 year old school student provides one focus for action in the coming weeks. Pakistani workers in different parts of the country are organising protest meetings in the coming weeks and these must be supported by the revolutionary groups and by trade-union branches.
The NUS and the NUSS should also be prodded into taking action. It must be understood that the arming of special police units is only one indication of the nervousness which exists in ruling circles in Britain. The extent of the social crisis coupled with the structural problems of the capitalist economy has made the British ruling class extremely uneasy. The SPGs and similar units are not merely meant to kill Pakistanis in foreign embassies, but are meant to deal with workers and students in Britain. The creation of a British equivalent of the hated French CRS is clearly on the agenda. The response of the British left to the Aldwych killings will be an important test of its ability to defend itself in the coming months and vears.
NOTE: The IMG will be organising a picket outside the court where the Pakistani school student is being tried. For further details ring: 01-278 2616 The workers at Briant Colour Printing are entering the eighth month of their work-in and the search for a buyer continues. An agreement on the factory's sale price has recently been reached between the liquidator and a prospective buyer. But the latter's financial backers have since refused to produce the money. They claim that the militancy of the Briant workers and particularly the massive solidarity demonstration organised when the court order expired, makes the company a risky investment.
At the same time the state is sharpening its legal apparatus - last week the police went to the Town Hall to get the lay-out plan of the factory. If no deal is concluded rapidly, there is no doubt that the state will use force to repossess the place.
DECISIVE STAGE The struggle of the Briant workers against redundancies has therefore reached a decisive stage. As we pointed out in our last issue the ruling class wants to show that such militant tactics as occupations just won't work.
To make the struggle a political focus for the working class and to keep the issue alive so that the labour movement can rally to the defence of Briants if and when a controntation comes, the students at the LSE have set up a support committee. The committee, which is supported by the Briant workers, is to co-ordinate all forms of solidarity activity such as the twenty-four hours a day picket at the factory, and a teach-in on the The teach-in will take place at the University of London Union, Malet Street on Saturday, 3 March, starting at 11 am. Bill Freeman from the Briant joint shop-stewards committee and other rank and file union leaders will be speaking. Details can be obtained by phone from: 405-7686 extension 468.