Letters

Killer deserves praise

The immigration laws hang like the sword of Damocles over ethnic minorities in the UK. Unable to muster evidence to charge Indian citizen Raghbir Singh with murder, home secretary Michael Howard has ordered his deportation, despite his having attained permanent residency rights.

Whoever killed Des Pardes editor Tarsem Singh Purewal in January deserves praise, not deportation. When Purewal launched the longest established Punjabi language weekly in Britain, he claimed spiritual authority on the grounds that he came from the same village as the mother of Indian communist and national martyr Bhagat Singh, to gain undeserved respect.

Over the following decades Purewal’s corruption, scandal mongering and tittivation took gutter press techniques to a new low in Des Pardes, making many personal enemies who must surely now feel avenged.

Seema Kumari
Brent

Same old rag

“Three communists are standing” in the Scottish local elections, according to the dishonest ‘official communist’/Labourite Morning Star. Apparently the Communist Party of Britain is fielding John Foster in Glasgow and Robert Ross in South Lanarkshire, while Willie Clarke is “defending his seat” in Fife for the Communist Party of Scotland.

No mention of CPGB candidates Mary Ward and Dominic Handley in Dundee. In the 1992 general election, the Star even dropped its previous custom of printing full results for every constituency in order to avoid mention of our name.

A new broom sweeps clean, they say. But bureaucratic censorship is safe with its new editor John Haylett, who took over with no noticeable impact on April Fools’ Day. A little bird told me the four months’ delay in Chater’s retirement allowed his chosen successor to fight off a challenge by Mary Rosser’s candidate, who lost the battle amid charges of nepotism. For readers, however, Haylett’s appointment was “unanimous”.

This daily champion of ‘glasnost’ is, unfortunately, the same old rag.

Stan Kelsey
Brent

Lone canoeist

I am sorry Peter Manson (Letters, No86) misunderstood my point about P Conlon and Harry Gwala: perhaps in trying to keep my letter short I sacrificed clarity. They have only one thing in common: their actions are not in the interests of the working class.

Comrade Conlon likes to paddle his own canoe. In practice this ends up with him working with other lone canoeists with whom he has less in common theoretically than he has with the CPGB. However he respects these people because they have a record of activity on class issues and do not cramp his style. You cannot build a communist party in this way.

Comrade Gwala is no loose cannon. He has worked loyally within the SACP, and his position in SACP politics reflects the importance of working within a party that is also part of the class. However, despite his suspension from its leadership for allegedly attempting to set up hit squads, he is not prepared to challenge Mandela’s political line publicly for fear of unpopularity.

In a rapidly moving political scene like South Africa mistakes are inevitable. SACP revolutionary aims are restricted to achieving black participation in capitalism, and it does not practise democratic centralism. To reforge a genuine revolutionary party of the working class the comrade will need the utmost theoretical clarity.

I do not doubt comrade Gwala’s courage and commitment, but he is not telling the truth to the class. That is the crucial point. The fact that he is in a position to lead millions makes it disastrous.

Phil Kent
Rochester

Sylvia Pye Appeal

The Sylvia Pye Appeal / Fighting Fund was set up at the end of April 1994, when Sylvia was singled out to pay the £15,877.16 costs British Coal ran up in forcibly evicting Parkside Pit Camp, after it kept the pit open for 20 months despite riot police threats and state surveillance. Yet if she does not pay she faces prison.

The SPAFF
c/o Common Road Nurseries, Newton-le-Willows WA12 9JJ

Communist history

Hundreds of thousands of dynamic and principled people interested in justice and change have been involved in the British communist movement. But how will people remember them? What did they sound like? What did they care about? What were their views on events that were later scandalised over the media?

The Communist Oral History Project has just been set up to address the need to get history straight from the horse’s mouth. And it is appealing to those who want communist memory preserved. Many communists have been audio- and video-taped, but these tapes now need to be gathered and held in one safe public institution. This new project will ensure that the taped life stories of individual communists are not lost, and those who have not yet been taped will not be overlooked.

We are looking for people to be interviewed, to do the interviewing and to help transcribe a tape, or to send a donation.

COHP
East London