Book review: Blood on the streets
01 July 1992
Blood on the streets - we fight back! Annual report 1991/1992, pp68. The twelfth annual report of the Newham Monitoring Project (NMP), is dedicated to Panchadcharam Sahitharan, a Tamil refugee who was brutally murdered by racists in Manor Park, Newham in December 1991. Sahitharan died just a few yards from the spot where, in 1980, Akhtar Ali Baig was murdered by racist skinheads for a bet over "who could kill the first Paki". It was this murder which led to the formation of the NMP and their first major defence campaigns, the First Avenue 11 and the Newham 8.
The cornerstone of NMPs success has always been the fact that it is community-based and "uses casework as the starting point to determine campaigning and educational priorities." It is an approach that rejects the paternalistic attitude of the "social advice agencies" and the knee-jerk interventionism of the white left.
During 1991 the Project dealt with 207 cases of racial harassment - a marked increase over the previous year (163) -some of which are documented in the chapter on Racial Harassment (pp6-17). The chapter "Police response to racial harassment" is a particularly telling indictment and points out that Newham police's statistics for 1991 indicated a record 100% rise in reported racist incidents while the clear-up record had only increased by 4%. It points out the abject failure of police public relations exercises, such as NORIS (the Newham Organised Racial Incidents Squad), which are often more concerned with deracialising racist attacks and results in the criminalisation of black people who defend themselves.
The problem is compounded by the attitudes of the police on the ground and the chapter on "Police harassment" shows an increase in complaints reported to the Project from 132 in 1990 to 168 in 1992. The majority of cases arose from stop and search or traffic stops, with 31 complaints of physical abuse/assault. The report notes that despite public relations exercises; "the police far from questioning its role in society is gearing up towards an even more oppressive stance." In support of this the report points to their newly built, enlarged headquarters which symbolises the centralisation of the Newham police under one command.
If NMPs strength grows from its roots in the local community, demonstrated for instance in the chapter on the ongoing Deane Family Campaign, it also is not afraid to look at broader issues. Moving from related cases of police harassment elsewhere in the east end of London the report looks at fascism, football, the media and the criminal justice system. A chapter on outreach work records the Project's work around the Asylum Bill, with students and on an international level.
The quality of the NMPs Annual Reports, with their incisive analysis combined with exemplary campaigning work, has become a benchmark for all serious anti-racists/fascists. This report is highly recommended.
Newham Monitoring Project, 382 Katherine Road, London E7 8NW. pp68.