4 June 2001
By Jack Tan

Dimsum: Why and how did you get involved with the Socialist Alliance?

Wong: I have been a socialist and trade unionist for over 15 years. I remember the defeat of miners' strike and the sweet victory of the Poll Tax rebellion. It is exciting to participate in an election campaign that stands for much of what I believe in. In 1997, people gave New Labour a 179 majority because we wanted change, change from Tory policies. Instead, we got 'Tory' Blair; Tory spending plans adhered to, continuation of Tory foreign policy, tuition fees, and so on.

The Socialist Alliance (see www.socialistalliance.net) came together to offer an electoral choice to those who feel betrayed by Blair, who has represented the interest of corporate capital - he promises more privatisation. There is an alternative to global and market capital, but this requires putting the interests of ordinary people before the interest of corporate profit.

Dimsum: What do you know about the needs of the Chinese community and how do you propose to address them?

Wong: The needs of the majority of the Chinese community are similar to the needs of ordinary people in Britain - education, decent wage, holidays, pensions, health, welfare spending etc.

Specific needs of Chinese are similar to those of other ethnic minorities; that we should be recognised as contributors who helped build the NHS, the railways, worked in the London docks etc and not be blamed as scapegoats for the wrongs of others.

The wind, Chinese restauranteurs, new strains were blamed for the Foot & Mouth epizootic because no suspicion can be cast upon Sainsburys. This time it was the large scale movement of animals to slaughter houses for reasons of profit that spread the epizootic; unlike 1967 when a similar FMD was localised and contained.

As a first step in addressing the need of the community, it would mean providing funding to increase access - minimum wage, holidays, and legal advice - that would help migrants become residents who are aware of their rights.

Dimsum:How would the Socialist Alliance propose to address the problem of racial abuse experienced by the Chinese catering industry?

Wong: Hardened racists are a tiny minority (the deaths of Stephen Lawrence and Damilola Taylor show us that the majority of people can be won to an anti-racist view).

The problem is of racism institutionalised into our laws and the media. Immigration law for example allows official racism. The Home Office has recently categorised 'Chinese' as among the new categories of visitors that immigration officials should treat with suspicion. On the other hand, settlement rights are freely given to people who can prove that they a British grandparent. The effect of this is largely white-only immigration.

This sends out the signal that if non-white visitors are potential problems, then non-white residents in Britain are also potential problems. Hence, far right groups carry out racists attacks against the 'potential problems' whenever the media and politicians discuss migrants by referring to them as foreigners, swamping, and illegal?

As a first step, a section of the Crown Prosecution Service can be attached to the Commission for Racial Equality to prosecute 'racial abuse' crimes.

Dimsum:How would you deal with police incompetence and indifference?

Wong: The police is a problem because it views non-white migrants as 'potential trouble'. If your job is to question Chinese with diligence, how can you spot the difference between British Born Chinese and Falun Gong refugees? The answer is to stop and search them all. Why do you think that the police's own figures show that they stop Asian and black car drivers disproportionately?

It is the same racist attitude that results in the police arresting Chinese waiters who are victims of racism instead of the racists (Diamond 5 campaign). As I write, Asian youths in Oldham find themselves battling the police when they try to defend their homes against physical attacks from far-right racists of the BNP and the National Front.

Why do you think that the police did not spot and investigate Harold Shipman more thoroughly? According to the police's prejudices, a white middle class doctor cannot be a mass murderer. The police have not caught PC Blakelock's killer since Winston Silcott is innocent. So their prejudice has allowed a killer of one of their own, and of Stephen Lawrence, to remain free.

The MacPherson Report should be implemented without delay. The police should be held accountable to independent bodies; and to the community by having senior posts elected. Individual police constables should be helped to overcome their shortcomings in, say, a peace and reconciliation commission. Police are the legitimate dispensers of violence in our society; they should watch and be accountable for every moment when they are dispensing violence.

Dimsum: Would you promote equality in education? If so how?

Wong: Yes, by allowing teachers to explain gender, race and sexuality in schools. Access to 'equality' websites is easy with the Internet. An American friend of mine cried when she visited Hiroshima (an unrecognised act of genocide) and the horror of American presidents struck her. I am in favour of bringing pupils who may have racist views on school trips to Auschwitz, India, and the Caribbean. No expense should be spared.

I was asked in class if I was gay. I asked the pupils who wanted to know to stay behind after class, and six pupils actually did! I explained that I would not enquire if their parents were noisy or quiet lovers. It was not my place to know, as it was not theirs to ask, about another person's sexual preferences. (It would be wrong of a teacher to actively find out a pupils sexuality, unless if you are Chris Woodhead, columnist at the Daily Telegraph. I am inclined to believe Woodhead's ex-friends and ex-wife in the matter of him and a sixth form student).

When they discovered that I was married, one pupil exclaimed that I could not be gay. I pointed out that there are also bisexual preferences - a fact of life that seems to have escaped them.

Dimsum: The dispersal policy of asylum seekers is at crisis stage and proved to be a failure when it was applied to the Vietnamese Chinese community in the 80s. How would you ensure that community support and legal advice are adequately provided to asylum seekers?Or do you agree with Hague when he said, "People are arriving in Britain armed with expert knowledge of how to exploit our asylum laws?"

Wong: That Tory bigot, Norman Tebbit, recommended to British people, in the nineteen eighties, to "get on their bikes" to find a better life. Very few British took this nonsensical advice but it shows that people do not readily leave their homes, friends, and families.

Those who risk their lives in lorry containers, in the cargo of aeroplanes, and in ramshackle boats do so for good and genuine reasons. This should be the point of departure on any policy that deals with asylum seekers. Our embassies abroad should publicise that Britain welcomes refugees who flee dictators.

Migrants and refugees are people, not commodities ranked in a hierarchy of 'usefulness': teachers, nurses, doctors, and ICT workers are those whom we want; and others who are wives, children, semi-skilled employees for sub-contractors to Asda and Harrods are those whom we can discard.

A government that provides for asylum seekers - rights to welfare, education, and health - would build council homes, link pensions to wages, employ nurses, doctors, and teachers; in other words act in the interests of ordinary people. This would undercut one plank of the politics of the far right that plays on the fears of an eroding welfare state and a squeezed NHS.

A government that privatises schools, hospitals, homes, rail and air transport acts for corporate capital. Market capitalism is the reason for our insecurities because it puts profit before people. Such a government betrays the hopes of its supporters; needing a scapegoat to blame.

Money does not grow on trees and we need to pay for this. We need to abolish all stealth taxes (indirect taxes), increase corporation taxes, and renationalise many sectors (without compensation). The public debt has fallen because we individually owe more today than we have ever owed.

There is a new left and a new movement forming. Vote for Socialist Alliance on 7 June, come to Marxism 2001 (see www.swp.org.uk/marxism)in July to help build this new leftwing movement.