"The rivers of blood" .. The story of the hate speech that divided Britain

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On April 20, 1968, Enoch Powell, a prominent member of the Conservative Party in the British Parliament, delivered a speech that left his mark on the British memory, which contributed to dividing the country with his racist and abusive words. He told a group of conservative activists that if immigration to Britain continued The former colonies of the country, there is no escape from the violent clash between white and black communities. "As I look for the future, I see rivers of blood," Powell said, referring to the famous poetic epic "Enyada". Enoch Powell insisted that closing Britain's borders would not be enough. Some of the immigrants who had already settled in the country would have to be repatriated. Otherwise, he said, quoting one of his constituents, "the upper hand in the next 15 or 20 years will be the black man."

Fifty years later, Powell's name echoed and aroused many feelings among many. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) raised a national controversy when it decided to broadcast a full recording of his speech, which he called "rivers of blood." The radio station arranged for one representative to re-address the speech and initiate a critical analysis of it, but the intensity of the response was, at least in part, an indication of Powell's extended impact into the bricast era, even two decades after the man's death. His prophecies have never been fulfilled, but he has proved his insight in a different sense; he is an embodiment of the fears that continue to stir up Britain's present and help determine its future.

Powell was the founding father of the European Conservative Party in the 1960s and 1970s, when Britain was still rocking after World War II, torn from its empire. His efforts to inject the country into a new kind of nationalism revolves around a wide range of concerns, such as concern about immigration and isolationism. In addition to the obsession with parliamentary sovereignty, the fear that Britain would become a "province in a great country called Europe", the need to assert England's unique superiority within the UK and the firm belief that "the will of the British people" was betrayed by the elite, .

These fears remain so strong as they have always been among many Britons. Powell stressed that neither Europe nor the Commonwealth - the new network of countries that included Britain and its former colonies - offer a path to Britain's future. Instead, Powell moved his own memories when he was a soldier in World War II, and I think Britain needs an enemy. He hoped that confronting the specter of a common threat would help revive Britain and heal it from its own faltering faith. With all his hopes for healing Britain, Britain's exit from the EU is the belated manifestation of Powell's very narrow wish; a nation that struggles with identity issues has shrunk at a moment of profound change.

After all these years, the conflict - whether against the Germans, the French, the bureaucrats, the immigrants or the impossible alliance of all - brings to mind a mentality that the British nation feels comfortable with. Powell's violent warning came at a time when Britain's place in the world was changing. When the nation clung to its heroic memories of the war, it stuttered every time it tried to assert its status as a superpower. In 1956, Britain was humiliated when it tried to invade Egypt and seize the Suez Canal, to withdraw after America refused. Its economy was beset by crises and stagnation, making it the title of "sick man of Europe". In the 1960s, when it tried to join the European Union - known as the European Economic Community - France vetoed its membership twice. This was a kind of blow to the myths of the nation. Europe was supposed to need Britain, not vice versa.

In 1968, the Labor government approved the Immigration Act of the Commonwealth, which restricts the United Kingdom's citizenship to those born in the United Kingdom and their children or grandchildren. Those living in former colonies who are not directly related to the United Kingdom are entitled to enter the country.

British Interior Minister Jim Callahan

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"We do not want more blacks," says Jim Callahan, then interior minister, to his colleagues. At the same time, between 1957 and 1961, Britain doubled its international assistance through the Commonwealth. Britain sought to strengthen political and economic ties with the same people who wanted to keep them out. New legislation was introduced to prohibit discrimination within the borders of Britain. Thus, modern liberal Britain has emerged in all its contradictions: absolute official equality and forced exclusion of migrants. Powell was dissatisfied with this equality. For him, the legislation on aid was a clear example of a deeply burdened political institution in the past, unable to escape the guilt of the empire. The political class forgot what it saw as its first duty to the British or the English (the whites) and began looking for what was important to others. "The Conservative Party must find its patriotism again, and restore its old glory, in this 'England,'" he said.

Powell's position on the empire was strange; he was among the last to cease to hold on to it - even calling for the re-invasion of India in 1950 - but when he did, he did it in a loud way. In his speech in 1957, he declared that "the Conservative Party must be cured of the British Empire, and the yearning to cling to the effects of an outdated regime." Like a lover who did not get well, Powell was no longer able to stand up to what he liked, and the Empire - and the Commonwealth's "grand farce" - became a totally unacceptable story. He explained that Britain was "in the heart of a fleeting empire, amid fragments of threatened glory," and that what Britain needed was a "clean separation from the imperial past" and those who were left with it.

World War II was more important than the empire for Powell's view of the world. For him, the British in war really knew themselves; they sacrificed, resorted to austerity and united. The war was a time when the British people were preparing to die for what they believed, which Powell believed was the essence and origin of nationalism, the spirit of nations. "Nationalism is to have a nation to die for, to be happy," he said. "For him, you can not imagine a strong nation without war.

But as old enemies turned into partners now - Germany and France - in a new European peace project, the need for a new enemy emerged. In Powell's imagination, immigrants and their "allies" became the threat Britain needed to survive. "It's like watching a nation add firewood in its own fire and memories of war were necessary for this story of life and death," Powell said of Britain's immigration policy in his "Blood Rivers" speech, likening journalists who defended anti-discrimination legislation to those who " Of the twentieth century by trying to warm the country to the growing threat it faced. "The legacy of World War II for him is an endless story of Britain being attacked.

In the Precast referendum, fears and fantasies were similar to Powell's concerns. The alleged invasion - as the poster of the campaign calling for secession - came to the "endpoint." A member of the European Conservative Party and one of the leaders of the British exit movement praised Powell as a political hero. The organization (left the European Union), one of the two main organizations of the campaign of exit recently that Powell's speech entitled "rivers of blood" was "the most important speech in the history of the post-war," and that contributed to the referendum, once again, Against a common enemy; "We will win in this war," he announced at the start of the referendum campaign.

Politicians who opposed Britain's exit from the EU became more like Nazis, and judges who decided to vote for Britain were the "enemies of the people" in the Daily Mail. The group of Ministers of Theresa Mei, the negotiator on Britain's exit from the European Union, was called the "Council of Ministers of War". Asked if Britain had the ability to deal with its mission, British Minister David Davis replied: "If the civil service can deal with World War II, they can easily handle it."

During the campaign, reasonable concerns about the state of society - such as lack of housing, stagnant wages and poor public services - turned into British border policy. Opinion polls have shown that immigration was a priority for voters, and that the press played the game fiercely. In 17 of the 23 days before the referendum, the front page of the Daily Mail published stories about immigration concerns. As in the Powell era, the fear of an immigration invasion succeeded in turning an economic crisis into an identity crisis; the angry need to guard was little more than just the demand for more.

Those who exploited these fears for political gain exercised clear racist tactics. In 1955, when Winston Churchill announced his intention to "keep England white," transport workers struck central England after the local transport authority appointed the first Indian immigrant to receive tickets. In his support for the workers, Powell said he "believes" that "the strikers have prevented the dangers facing this country from any colored population living here." In 1964, conservatives campaigned under the slogan "If you do not want a Negro neighbor for you, vote for the party." The problem of migration was often presented as a problem of cohesion and popular harmony, as Powell did in his famous speech. What these cases show, however, is that for people like Powell, the fear was not that immigrants were unable to integrate, but rather that they were already integrated.

The same applies to the so-called "Wandruch generation," which began with about 500 people arriving from the Caribbean on the HMT Empire Windrush on 23 June 1948. They were part of Britain's first public service recruitment campaign. On the same day they landed on the beach, a group of parliamentarians from the Labor Party warned then prime minister Clement Attlee that "the influx of colored people into the country is likely to weaken harmony, strength and cohesion among our people."

Recently, some of the generation of Wandruch - now the name of all those who were recruited in the United Kingdom during the 1950s and 1960s to rebuild after the war - have been exposed to deportation. After a public outcry, Prime Minister Teresa May offered a public apology. The Daily Mail described it as "a shameful scandal in Britain," and most of the BRICEST brigade agreed. For them, the generation of Wandruch is now a noble chapter in British history, and one can only wonder what they would have said about it at the time.

Like the Precast referendum, police reported an increase in hate crimes and a change in the atmosphere after Powell's tough speech about colored people, so much so that people began using expressions before Enoch and after Enoch to talk about history. In 1969, thousands demonstrated in the "March for Dignity" in London, with the Indian Workers' Association, which goes hand in hand with the Black Alliance, the Action Committee for Solidarity with Zimbabwe, the Irish Republicans and others. The broad objectives were the challenge of racism and immigration law of 1968, but when the march reached the prime minister's residence - No. 10 Downing Street - a fire was set on Powell's body.

The stereotype was placed in a paper coffin, half in black and one in white. The effect of Powell's speech was immediate, he was removed from his ministerial post, but remained a member of the Conservative Party (eventually left in 1974 in protest at Britain's decision to join the European Union). Politicians and newspapers condemned him, beating thousands of workers - traditional Labor Party supporters - in protest at his dismissal, and Powell received hundreds of thousands of letters of support.

A Gallup poll found that 74 percent of the British population shared his first concerns, and even those who criticized him pointed out - and still point out - that his crime was more complex than racism. He was said to have erred only in the way he was speaking, and he held in his heart the interests of the best nation.

In February of this year, there was a proposal to commemorate Powell with a painting in the city of Wolverhampton, which he represented as a deputy between 1950 and 1974. The proposal provoked an outcry and attracted international attention, and opinion polls in the regional newspaper Express & Star found that 70 percent of the sample supported the drawing, but ultimately rejected the proposal. In any case, the plans to commemorate Powell are premature, but his spirit in Britain is certainly still alive.

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Translator for "Tarbun"