It was the yeomanry who chopped down the massive werking class demonstration at Peterlco, Manchester in 1819. There was panic amceng the yeomanry on horseback and their swords flew - killing 11 and wounding about 500. In the present century, the police and army have been used against workers and strikers in Britain, eg during the strikes of 1911 and 1926; and notably as the ‘black and tans' in Ireland. And all the time the police protect the property of anti-trade union companies and their ‘lacklegs - the Mytcn and Roberts Arundel experiences are just two recent examples of this. It all reflects ruling-class anxietv. One of the points which last Sunday's excellent Vietnam solidarity demonstration has brought home to those taking part is the political role of the police as part of the capitalist state's apparatus, No-one cn the demon~ stration expected that the police would invite the protesters to cccupy the American Embassy for the day. However, the more we leern about the _activities cf the police last Sunday, the more we can see the way police power, and even violence, reflects an element of panic and anti~socialist bias. As with Peterlco, the element cf panic last Sunday cannot be excused (as some right-wingers try to excuse Peterlco) as the result of bad horsemanship by police hemmed in by a crowd, The extreme right-wing group —- the Tory Monday Club were given access tc the US Embassy last Sunday afterncon to hand in their puppet petition, At exactly the same time the police were stopping coaches of Vietnam solidarity demonstrators coming into Lendon from the provinces. The police simply invaded and summarily searched the people on the coaches hours before and miles from the demonstration, As even the Daily Telegraph reported: 'Some students never reached the "battlefield'. Six ccaches ccntaining 330 students from Cambridge and Leeds were stopped at noon on the Watford Wav, West Hendon, The coaches were escorted to Hendon police station where the students were searched. Police found a quantity of tins of pepper, bags of paint and glass marbles. Four male students were later charged with possessing cffensive weapons and appeared at Hendon court, At Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, two coaches were stopped.and police took possession of bags «f flour, pepper, plastic paint, end marbles. Five cf the cccupants were charged with possessing offersive weapons, and one with using insulting behaviour,! You have been werned ~ if you are going to London with marbles in your pocket you will be arrested. The police were keen to arrest some lads on the ccaches who were carrying a packet cf razor blades - an ‘offensive weapon', So, if you go te Londen, you can't shave! This really is wnic. Did James Callaghan, the utterly discredited Home Secretary, instrict the Londen police chiefs t« do this and to have mounted police chsrge the deronstrators with trunchecns flying? This is what happened. On whose instruct— ions did the police try (unsuccessfully) to prevent the solidarity demonstrators from even entering Grcsvenor Square? Peter Jackson, MP, has said
that he was particularly upset »bout the use of mounted police on Suniay end intended to put down eo question about ‘unnecessary violence' by the police. If the Labour Gevernment refuses to issue instructions of restraint to the police, then we might well be driven tc adopt some of the tactics of the Japanese socialist demonstrators, Before their recent brilliant demonstration the Japanese Zengakuren students prepared for police violence by collecting money to buy helmets. The recent statements by Callaghan and the Labour Government on left-wing demenstraticns may bring a’ out similar developments here.