Letters
Ban CPGB
The CPGB’s disgusting stance on Le Pen (‘Good enough for us’ Weekly Worker October 29), defending the murderous French fascist - the renowned torturer of Algerians and convicted assailant of his Socialist electoral opponent - as having an inalienable right to express his opinions on the Holocaust, coupled with its enthusiastic publication of an endless stream of letters from the paedophile, Frank Worth, will deepen the “isolation” you claim to be fighting in ‘Party notes’.
The arenas you are active in are indeed “pretty degenerate”, to use your own words. At this rate the only organisation that might possibly be interested in discussing unity with you will be LM/Revolutionary Communist Party, which shares your predilection for both fascists and paedophiles.
Those of us currently involved in unity talks in London have no truck with your thoroughly bourgeois libertarianism. We uphold the socialist principle of ‘no platform for fascists’, placing the lives and physical safety of the black, Asian and Jewish communities far above the armchair posturing of drawing room liberals - dead or alive. Similarly we place the welfare of children above the rights of the child abuser - a position which, as the Trotter sandal demonstrated, enjoys rather more popularity amongst the Hackney working class than your own. We await news of your unity slate with Frank Furedi with extraordinary interest.
Don’t expect any friendly phone calls from the Independent Labour Network, the Socialist Democracy Group, the Socialist Party, Socialist Outlook or the Socialist Workers Party responding to your unity appeal. On November 22 [the conference of the London Socialist Alliance - ed] I will be advocating a Mancunian solution: no platform for fascists or their apologists. Finally, it might be wiser not to campaign in any part of London with large numbers of Jews, blacks or Asians - unless you have your Irish National Liberation Army bodyguards in tow.
Toby Abse
South London
No agreement
The report from the Socialist Workers Party’s pre-conference Bulletin No2 on negotiations for a unity slate with the Scottish Socialist Party makes interesting reading (Weekly Worker October 29). The SWP comrades who authored it are inaccurate in their description of events in Wales, however.
They write that - in contrast to Scotland - “in Wales we have reached agreement for a common list with the Socialist Party and Cymru Goch”. In fact, the situation is far more tentative than that.
The Welsh Socialist Alliances have agreed to meet the SWP and one ‘pre-meeting’ get-together has happened. There is no agreement yet on a common list, or on a potential name for it. Given their stance on the national question, the SWP are unlikely to want to stand on any slate that describes itself as ‘Welsh’ (this question also provoked some controversy at the WSA conference on November 7).
We wait to learn their attitude here in Wales. Hugh Kerr MEP actually informed the WSA conference that the SWP were rebuffed in Scotland because of their demand for ‘parity’ with the SSP. If this is true, it is a silly sectarian attitude on the SWP’s behalf that does not take political realities into consideration.
The SWP also plan to approach the Communist Party of Britain independently, although it is hard to see any common ground emerging there. The Socialist Labour Party - typically - have refused to negotiate with any other socialist organisation and seem set on standing in at least two out of the five Welsh constituencies, whatever anyone else does.
Ceri Rhys
Swansea
Pinochet demo
On Saturday November 7 a big demonstration against Pinochet’s release occupied a large part of Trafalgar Square. Several MPs and international figures and contingents were present.
The Tories, the archbishop of Canterbury and many British legal institutions want Pinochet freed. We strongly condemn genocide. Workers all over the world should mobilise with the aim of bringing other butchers to justice - like General Hugo Bánzer, who is now again in power in Bolivia; Fujimori, the Colombian paramilitary financed by BP, etc.
Bolivian Union Solidarity Committee
London
Basic point
For whatever reason, comrade Julian Hawthorne wants to believe that all the institutions of bourgeois society are - secretly - racist (Letters Weekly Worker November 5). Quite exactly why the comrade is so eager to see racism in every nook and cranny of bourgeois society is beyond me. But unfortunately I am not a psychiatrist trained in the psycho-analytical school of thought, so I will probably remain in the dark for ever.
Our comrade insists that the police force is guilty of “institutionalised racism”. Palpably untrue. Yes, I am absolutely certain that racism - not to mention sexism, homophobia and all manner of other prejudices - is widespread in the police force. Yet this in no way means it is institutionalised - ie, officially promoted from above. Whatever may be happening below, it is the height of absurdity to imagine that Sir Paul Condon is doing anything other than propounding the state’s official anti-racism.
Like virtually everyone else on the left comrade Hawthorne cannot grasp this very basic point. The bourgeoisie wants to incorporate everyone under its hegemony using divisive bureaucratic methods. Which do you think is the best way of achieving this aim: by stoking up the fires of racism (always a risky option) or by preaching the marvels of anti-racism and equal opportunities under the state? You decide, comrade Hawthorne.
Comrade Hawthorne informs us - talk about teaching your grandmother to suck eggs - that “it is well known that judges and cops have worked together to pervert the course of justice”. Gee, I never thought of that before. There I was thinking the police and the judiciary were friends of the working class. Comrade Hawthorne’s astounding revelation in no way proves though that the judges and the police are working to some official racist agenda. Just that they are defenders of bourgeois order. And bastards to boot.
When is the left - and comrade Hawthorne seems a perfect embodiment of the spirit of left doctrinairism - going to wake up to the obvious and self-evident fact that anti-racism/sexism can be an excellent weapon to divide the working class. Which makes it - section vs section - look to the civilised bourgeois state for salvation, as opposed to the ‘yobs’ on the council estates - where racism can easily be found.
Finally, I apologise to comrade Hawthorne for using incredibly ‘obscure’ expressions like reductio ad absurdum. However, if our comrade would care to look at his English dictionary and you will find it in there as a perfectly standard expression. The comrade may be horrified to discover that English is littered with ‘loan words’ like ‘pork’ (Old French/Latin) or ‘khaki’ (Urdu). Language, like anti-racism and everything else, is in a process of constant change.
Don Preston
Middlesex
Free Zoora Shah
We urgently need your support at this time as we prepare to make representations to the home secretary to reduce Zoora Shah’s excessive tariff of 20 years. She is in prison for killing a man who sexually and physically abused her for 12 years.
The court of appeal dismissed Zoora Shah’s case. On April 30 1998, Zoora Shah lost her appeal to overturn her conviction for the murder of Mohammed Azam on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
Zoora’s testimony was dismissed as being “not capable of belief”, mainly because she had originally lied to the police. In effect, she is now serving a life sentence for lying rather than for her culpability for murder.
The court ignored substantial independent evidence from her GPs, showing that she was depressed. It rejected the testimony of an expert in transcultural psychiatry, who explained that Zoora’s inability to tell the truth at her original trial stemmed from her fear of shame and other cultural constraints.
The court denied Zoora the right to put forward her defence - a defence not available at her trial because she feared for the future well-being of her daughters. The judgement has far-reaching consequences for all vulnerable people who are unable to tell their story because of mental illness or trauma.
The judgement is littered with ill-conceived and prejudicial misconceptions. It rides on sweeping assumptions about the codes of shame and dishonour - key constraining mechanisms which bind many Asian women into silence and submission. No attempt is made to recognise how these complex notions affect all Asian women, particularly those who are ‘discarded’ by their husbands and communities. It was her status as a divorced, isolated and poverty-stricken Asian woman which made her vulnerable to exploitation by predatory men.
In essence, the court system has discriminated against Zoora because she does not fit the category of the ‘fragrant housewife’. The courts have been rather more willing to accept cultural and religious factors when used by Asian men to excuse the killings of wives and daughters, on the basis that ‘their’ wife’s/daughter’s behaviour transgresses cultural norms.
Witness the recent case of Shahir Hussain - an Asian man from Bradford - whose murder conviction for deliberately killing his sister-in-law was quashed by the court of appeal. Subsequently, at his retrial on July 27 1998, a plea of guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of provocation was accepted by the prosecution. He argued at his retrial that his sister-in-law had brought shame on the family by having an affair outside of marriage. Compare the sentence of six and a half years which he received to the 20 years imposed upon Zoora Shah. The bottom line is that Zoora, and women like her, should not be punished twice - first by their oppressors and then by the law.
Zoora Shah urgently needs your help to end the injustice she has faced at the hands of her family, the community and now the law. Southall Black Sisters is currently working with Zoora’s lawyers to explore avenues to secure justice for Zoora Shah.
You can help in the following ways. Make a donation. Some of the campaign funds are also used to enable Zoora Shah’s children to visit her in prison. Write to the home secretary urging him to reduce her tariff and secure her release. Sign the petition which we hope to present to the home secretary in November (please return all petitions to SBS by the end of November). Affiliate to the campaign to free Zoora. Raise the issue with your MP.
Southall Black Sisters
London