The Coloreds Must Go!"

A racist movement exploits mounting frustrations

"A tide of color threatens to engulf Britian." So warns the National Front, a neofascist party whose main goal is to expel the estimated 2 million "coloreds" -- Jamaicans, Indians, Pakistanis and other nonwhite former colonials -- who have migrated to Britain since 1945. The ten-year-old front mixes crude, inflammatory racism with a dose of ultranationalism (calling for increased defense spending and high protective tariffs, for example). Official membership is only about 20,000, but the front has attracted a following among working-class whites and is the country's fastest-growing political movement. Although it has yet to elect a Member to the House of Commons, the front gained nearly 10% of the popular vote in a recent parliamentary by-election, trailing Labor and the Tories but nudging the venerable Liberals from third place.

Deeply shocked and troubled by the front's gains, British leaders have begun speaking out against the movement. Many had ignored it at first, hoping that it would fade with lack of attention. In the most dramatic anti-front action so far, Britain's 150-member Council of Churches has issued a joint declaration warning that "our traditional ideas of tolerance and respect are being eroded." The Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference has put forth a similar statement. Church officials are now urging ministers to attack the front from the pulpit and to ask parishioners to sign an "affirmation" that "the racial policies and activities of the National Front, and other similar bodies, are contrary to the truth of the Gospel."

To assess the impact of the front, TIME Correspondent Erik Amfitheatrof visited Bradford, a sooty Yorkshire mill town that once was known as "the wool center of the world." Bradford is typical of declining industrial cities with a growing race problem, and pro-front sentiment is strong. Amfitheatrofs report:

The aroma of curry and spices wafts through older areas of Bradford, where nearly everyone on the street is brown or black. Seven row houses have been converted to Islamic mosques (without minarets), and other buildings have been made into Sikh and Hindu temples. With nonwhite immigrants now accounting for about one-fifth of the city's 300,000 inhabitants, racial tensions are climbing. Bands of front backers, swinging fists and banner staves, have sallied into peaceful demonstrations by Indians and Pakistanis in what are cruelly called "Paki bashes," and at other times have smashed windows in immigrant areas.

The roots of the racial violence are familiar: a suspicion of unfamiliar customs and a tendency to blame problems on newcomers. Many Bradfordians complain that destitute immigrants are given cash payments by the government when they disembark at Heathrow Airport, while white pensioners must scrimp along on inadequate retirement pay. Describing herself as opposing immigration, Shopkeeper Patricia Barrow is convinced that the Pakistanis inhumanely slaughter sheep and chickens according to Islamic ritual; she also fears that "colored boys will be hanging around white girls."

Disgusted by the inability of the established parties to reduce inflation (now 14%), unemployment (1.5 million) and high taxes, thousands of Britons unfortunately find the front a refreshing, sympathetic alternative. Boasts James Merrick, 45, the party's spokesman in Bradford: "Sometimes people call us up and talk for hours. There is no other place for them to turn. They're just bursting with frustration." The Very Rev. Brandon Jackson, an Anglican priest in Bradford who opposes the front, reluctantly concedes the front's appeal: "People are so fed up with politics that they're impressed by anyone who'll take a stand. The front says in public what people say in private. It trades on people's fears."

Merrick insists that the coloreds are responsible for the country's chronic unemployment and rising lawlessness. Although police deny that immigrants are the major cause of increased crime, Merrick maintains that "coloreds accost half the women in town" and push drugs --which, he speculates, are cached in mosques and temples. For the dissatisfied, Merrick prescribes a "cure" for the country's woes: "The coloreds must go!"

Such rhetoric understandably frightens Bradford's large nonwhite community. Says Hukam Dad Khan, 58, who arrived from Pakistan 16 years ago and now owns a travel agency: "We felt at home here because there was justice. But since this National Front came, no one feels safe. We might become like the Jews of Nazi Germany." Khan fought for Britain during World War II as a captain in the Indian army and survived four years in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. "I have a right to be here," he insists.

Some observers believe that a reaction against the rhetorical excesses of the front is beginning to take hold. Opposition at times has become so violent that local governments have sought permission to forbid front marches through immigrant areas. The neofascist movement's activities, moreover, may be curbed by a new Racial Relations Act, which bans "threatening, abusive or insulting language" that could provoke racial hatred. After last week's church declaration, the front is certain to face morally persuasive opposition from the pulpit. Says Bradford's Father Jackson: "It's about time we came out unequivocally against the front. I will preach this and write about this." qed

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