The Police
Whose side are they on?

The riots which occurred during the J18 Stop The City demonstration have once again illustrated the true nature and role of the British police. That is to defend private property and the existing social order. When the interests of the banks and financial institutions were threatened the police quickly responded, baton charging the largely peaceful crowd and putting over 50 demonstrators in hospital.

The TV and papers portrayed the police as heroes in blue defending the rule of law. We are told that they are there to protect 'normal people' and our local communities. But the truth is that we often have to wait hours for them to show up when anti-social crimes such as burglary and street robbery happen in poor neigh-bourhoods to working class people.

The Stephen Lawrence case has already shown us that the police are racist to the core and women who are the victims of rape and domestic violence often find the police incredibly unsympathetic.

After the recent Soho nailbomb which targeted London's gay community, police in Manchester taunted gay protesters at a Reclaim The Streets street party with homophobic jokes.

We are constantly told by the press and politicians that without the police crime would explode. This is to ensure our obedience and co-operation, and also to get us to accept law and order policies: more power, more weapons, more numbers. It is all based on the lie that our communities would be incapable of policing themselves if they were allowed to.

So what is the answer? Can the police be reformed? The answer is a definite no!

The police like to portray themselves as a neutral force standing above society. However the truth is that when it comes to the crunch the cops and the state will always defend the interests of the bosses against the workers.

A clear example of this was the miners strike in the mid 80's. The Tory government wanted the miners smashed, so thousands of police were poured into pit villages to try to physically smash the picket lines of striking miners who were fighting to defend their jobs. Millions of pounds were poured into the police force and intelligence services. More recently a tooled up police force has been used to smash an anti-Nazi march against the BNP in Welling and also the demonstration against the Criminal Justice Act in Hyde Park.

In the face of attacks on pickets and demonstrations REVOLUTION believes that we should not turn the other cheek. We need to organise a disciplined defence capable of winning when the police attack. This was sadly missing on June 18th.

On demonstrations, stewarding should be geared to defence and organised enough to resist attack. On pickets, defence squads controlled by workers need to be set up to stop the police getting scab labour in. Against racist and homophobic attacks we need our own street patrols which are accountable to committees of local workers and the community. As well as preventing police harassment these patrols could deal more effectively with anti-social crime than the police ever could.

The events of June 18th are just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine how the state and their police force would react if a movement, supported by the mass of working people, tried to seriously change the distribution of wealth from the rich to the poor.

The police are a real, everyday threat to our interests and an obstacle to our socialist goal. This is why we must strip them of their powers, and fight for our right to organise our own self defence now!

Disband the police.

-Abolish the Tactical Support Groups (the bastards in riot gear and blue helmets).

-Strip the police of thei weapons: no batons, CS gas, riot shields, etc.

-Organised stewarding on demonstrations and self defence.

-Workers and local communities to safeguard their own areas.

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Democracy: do we live in a democratic society?

Police: only doing their job?

Police: whose side are they on

State & Revolution

Lesson of Chile