February 8 at about 4 in the morning. Black residents of Everleigh Street were woken up by 100 armed cops from the Special Weapons Operations Squad. The raid was planned. Houses had been targeted. Doors were bashed in and black people, and their children, woke up to guns pointing at their head. One resident, suffering from a kidney complaint, was physically attacked. This could have killed him. Only minor charges ended up being laid against the victims of this terror raid.
The raid exposed the fraud of black-police liaison. There was no attempt at any level to give the black community any notice. This thoroughly unjustified brutal raid has been well publicised. But it was only the tip of the iceberg - state attacks on the residents of Everleigh Street are part of a consistent campaign: some blacks live in fear of walking the streets lest they get shoved in a paddy wagon, taken to Long Bay and perhaps, even killed in custody. Police harassment and attacks are a normal part of day-to-day life in Everleigh Street. Make no mistake - an attack such as this will occur again.
Why did this raid happen? Some suggest that TNT is planning to remove the black community so they can develop Redfern. This is quite possible. In the City of Sydney plans for Redfern there is no place for a black community. The State government finds the blacks an obstacle to their plans to relocate the country train terminal. The cops, of course, merely claim to be acting in response to a community complaint. In no other area would they have mounted such a massive raid. There is crime in Everleigh Street but it is the crime of kids who have nothing. They have no jobs, no decent amenities and no future except degrading from a racist society. Capitalism is responsible for this degradation. And they have every reason to actively resist police attack.
Police are the energy of all workers, unemployed and poor people. In Everleigh Street their attack was whetted by racism. When, in 1979, TNT tried to remove working class tenants in three Kings Cross streets they owned, they brought in security guards. It was not, however, a paramilitary operation. The Communist Tendency considers this raid as part of the continuing conquest of black people begun in 1788. It shows that as long as there is a racist state there can be no real black community. Whilst black people should not be forced to live in Everleigh Street they should have the right to live without fear of state attack. Everleigh Street black people are outnumbered and outgunned by a brutal, racist state machine. As long as the state exists cops will harass, attack, arrest, and perhaps even kill black people at will. Unless we stop them. The more isolated the black people are the more vulnerable they are to attack. Solidarity is urgent - it may be a matter of life or death.
The Communist Tendency urges organised workers' defence now. We may not have the forces to beat the cops at the moment, but the more people who mobilise to resist, the more wary the cops will be to attack and the more each attack will be exposed. We have raised this at community meetings and got some support. A telephone tree to alert more people for the next raid is being prepared. This is a start. Every union and working class organisation should also commit itself to mobilise in support. A strong community network is not enough. Organising against police attacks must become policy for the whole of the labour movement.
Australian workers have direct interest in defending black people. If we ignore them when they are under attack, then we won't be able to fight the system when it attacks us. Fighting racism and fighting for black self-determination means more than wearing a badge. It means organisation and action.
Build workers' defense to defend Everleigh Street now!
communist tendency p.o. box 119 erskineville
1 march 1990