1968—Too Little and Too Late? The Communist Party and Race Relations in the Late 1960s 1

摘要

This article examines a turning point in the relationship between the black communities in Britain and the British labour movement, focusing upon the role of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in this relationship. While 1968 saw a great wave of industrial militancy and cultural radicalism, during which the CPGB was quite influential, this upsurge in radical activist politics did not translate into major gains in the struggle against racism in Britain. 1968 saw the tightening of immigration controls and a Labour government intent on the 'integration' of black immigrants, coupled with an increase in racist agitation on the right by Enoch Powell and the fledgling National Front, which caused problems for Britain's black population. The CPGB, one of the largest leftist parties and with a history of anti-colonial and anti-fascist activism, had the potential to be an important agent in the anti-racist movement in the late 1960s, but any appeal to black workers was subsumed by the wider industrial struggles of the period—a phenomenon that was replicated throughout the British labour movement. The inability of the trade unions and the British left to effectively address the grievances of black workers led to autonomous black political organisation, inspired by the ideas of black power and the Marxism of the national liberation struggles. This division between the (primarily white) labour movement and black workers was widened by the events of 1968 and would further consolidate throughout the 1970s. The purpose of this article is to portray how the schism between the traditional organisations of the British working class and the black communities developed, significantly demonstrated by the failure of the heightened radicalism of 1968 to produce tangible benefits for black Britons, and how the potential of the CPGB to undertake an important anti-racist role was diminished by its focus on militant labourism.