First Published: Finsbury Communist, No.196, May 1981.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Sam Richards and Paul Saba
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The April, 1981 issue of Class Struggle (CS), the Paper of the Revolutionary Communist League of Britain (RCLB), is largely devoted to what the RCLB regards as the “national minorities” of Britain. These include British citizens of West Indian and African origin, the people of Northern Ireland, British citizens of Indian or Bengali origin, and the people of Wales. Referring to the march against the New Cross massacre, the editorial of CS says: “This march showed that the national minority peoples, whose in imperialist Britain is one of double oppression – class and national – are a great advance revolutionary force in the struggle to destroy the racist and imperialist British state.”
The RCLB, by calling blacks national minorities, loses sight of the real nature of the struggle of the immigrants. Immigrants do not want self-determination for Southall or Brixton, but simply the right to be treated equally with other British citizens.
Until recently, the RCLB, and its predecessor the CFB (M-L), did not even regard the people of Scotland and Wales as national minorities. Now it discovers “national minorities” all over the place.