Racism in Scotland
By Mary Ward

In the last two weeks, the cover that Scotland is a less racist country than England, has been well and truly blown. At the very highest levels of Scotland’s “official” anti -racist establishment, we have seen the failure to prevent the deportation of the Ay family who were held in Dungavel Immigration Detention Centre for over a year. A mother and four children were kept isolated behind barbed wire, guilty of no crime other than being Kurdish and in need of asylum. Scotland’s First Minister Jack McConnell refused to speak out as the family were forced on a plane to Germany flanked by men in uniform and made to sit separately while they cried in terror at this experience. This jackboot tactic, perpetrated by those who declare themselves the stalwarts of anti-racism, stands as a chilling example of the sanitised and ultimately useless nature of official anti-racist policies in Scotland. The Scottish Executive and particularly Jack McConnell and Margaret Curran his Justice Minister stayed tight lipped because this was ‘a matter for Westminster not for the Scottish Parliament’.

This is the same Executive that had the message “One Scotland Many Cultures” emblazoned on billboards across Scotland in an attempt to convince the chattering classes that racism is being tackled from the top down. They want to convince people that the murders of Yildiz Dag and Surgit Chokaar are mere blips in a happy picture, which would not be out of place on the cover of Watchtower. There is, however, something rotten at the very core of this ‘official’ anti-racism. It is the result of years of safe, white, liberal multiculturalism. It is complacent, misguided and ultimately useless. Of course racism needs to be tackled at a multitude of levels: in the streets, workplaces, communities and schools but we are in the process of seeing the buck being passed – racism is portrayed as the fault of the poor, working class and needs only to be tackled at that level.

There is no real understanding of institutional racism and even when that is acknowledged, the solutions are based around sorting out individuals concerned. The true cause is clearly the result of the capitalist system, which rejoices in dividing the working class along ethnic and religious lines. Its real roots lie in the heart of the establishment itself. The ‘officials’ refuse to consider that government legislation and rhetoric on asylum seekers fosters racism. They refused, at Scotland’s main anti-racist rally, to discuss Dungavel or to recognise that the justice system under Labour has failed the Chokaar family and many more victims of the system.

Across Britain, black deaths in police custody are swept under the carpet and families are left brokenhearted looking for answers and justice. Black people are eight times more likely to be stopped by the police than non-black people and meanwhile the killers of Stephen Lawrence and Surgit Chokaar walk the streets taunting the bereaved families. We need to look at how we, on the revolutionary left work to defeat, not just the racists, but also the official non-racists who disarm the movement. The establishment can only tackle these problems in a reactionary way. Hence we have the wide promotion of One Nation values and citizenship.

We see the attempt to establish forced multiculturalism and assimilation from above. Meanwhile the BNP continues to find electoral support not from neo Nazis but from working class women and men who turn on their neighbours because of the failures of official multiculturalism and endemic institutional racism and the failure of the state to address issues of poverty, poor housing and alienation. The hysteria surrounding asylum seekers in Glasgow threw up an endemic racism, which has nothing to do with Nazis, and requires a different way of fighting. Racists in Britain are seldom stereotypes of Hitler or even Nick Griffin. In fact, many people with racist ideas would have nothing to do with Nazis in any form.

The hard thing to come to terms with, particularly on the left, is that racism is found in us, our friends and family and our workmates. To think it is confined to a small group of boneheads is a very dangerous illusion. The truth about asylum and race is not being taught in our schools and certainly does not permeate even our officially anti-racist media. Meaningful anti-racism means telling the truth about Britain’s colonial past. We must face up to Britain’s role in the subjugation of other nations and cultures. The way we built an empire, our use of slavery and how we continue to create situations worldwide that require people either to fight for their lives or flee, all need explored.

We need only think of Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq to get the ball rolling. As our population and skill base declines, we should publicly be making a case for economic migrants to come to Scotland - End all immigration controls! We must work to turn the slogan “Asylum seekers welcome here!” from a forlorn wish to a statement of fact. For this to happen political and economic problems need to be clarified so black and white can fight on a class basis, not on the basis of ethnicity. Meanwhile, Dungavel will be a focus of protest on September 6th. The only appropriate thing to do with the place is to pull it down!

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