RIT AIN By Gordon Henderson.
The Government's Race Relations Bill is a disappointing document, because it fails to tackle the areas of racial discri.sinetion that really matter. By making racial discrimination a criminal offense, it leaves the implementation of the law to the police and the ordinary courts, who are i11-equipped to deal with the complex problems af race relations (this is confirmed by the experience of other countries) and it fails to create a machinery to give effect to the law, by setting up a statutory commission such as that suggested by C.A.R.D. It limits itself to punitive action, and fails to provide for the possibility of mediation and conciliation by such a body as the statutory commission, before the state of punitive measures is at all reached,
There has been an alarming increase in racial discrimination and racial prejudice in Britain in recent years, Far too often, it is the British worker who is blamed for this. The fact of the matter is that it is the political leadership of the country, which has pandered to racialist pressure and stimulated its growth. Initiative in the field of race relations has been allowed to remain in the hands of the racists. People of Britain, faced with serious and difficult social problems, such as that of the housing shortage, are offered racialist explanations. The political leadership has used debates on immigration only to confirm the racialist thesis, This obscures the real issues that must be grasped, if we are to carry forward an effective struggle for their solution. The race issue has become a cloak to hide the failures of successive governments. The left has failed to confront the racialist thesis squarely. The racists are winning through our default.
It is a matter of urgency for socialists to face up to the dangers of the rapid growth of racialism in Britain, which is taking place todaye Racialism threatens not only the immigrant people, who are the immediete victims, it threatens also all that is best in British society, it threatens the very basis of the labour movement and the movement for socialism
We must act now; to secure an adequate and effective lew against racial discrimination is only part of our task, but it is the one before us noW. Unfortunately, the Government's choice of a very long title for the bill, which specifies its purposes in some detail, greatly limits the possibility of extending its scope by amendment. C.A.R.D. had made propesals for legislatjon against discrimination on grounds of colour, religion or national origin, in fields ef employment, housing, advertising, insurance, public places, education, the grant of credit facilities, clubs offering largely publio facilities, and all Government Departments and bodies receiving Government grants, subsidies and licences. The Gevernment's bill covers only discrimination in places »f public resort and the transfer of tenancies. C.A.RDalso recommended the setting up of a statutory commission to give effect to the law. C.A.R.D. has launched a petition campaign in suppsrt of these proposals, It is hoped that the Petitien Campaign will help to shift the balance of opinion in Parliament in support of amendents which might remove at least a few, if not all gaps in the bill.
Readers ef the Week, who wish to support the C.A.R.D. campaign, should write to C.A.R.De, 23, St. Georges House, Gunthorpe St., London E,l. for details.