THE Tory-led coalition is planning to reintroduce the Riot Act nearly 40 years after it was abolished in England and Wales.

Under proposals set out by the Home Office in a ‘consultation document’ issued last Thursday, the police will be given far-reaching powers to declare public areas such as streets, housing estates and basically anywhere that is not a private residence, a ‘no go area’.

A police officer with a rank as low as that of Superintendent merely has to designate this area as being ‘no go’ for a curfew to be imposed and members of the public forced to leave or face unspecified penalties.

No doubt armed police forces will be on hand to forcibly impose curfews and disperse crowds if the order to quit the area is defied.

There is no doubt that with this measure the coalition is re-introducing civil war measures into the UK.

The penalty for refusing to obey any instruction is not set out in the document but any refusal would certainly mean immediate arrest and charges of ‘riotous assembly’ or similar, if they can be imposed.

However, during the recent youth uprising the government was ready to bring in troops to forcibly disperse crowds of young people when the police chiefs proved to be not up to the nature of the situation. There is no doubt that a new riot act will see the troops brought out onto the streets.

Alongside their plan to provide the police with even more sweeping powers, the Home Office is proposing that ordinary police constables should have the power to instruct protesters to remove masks (hoods) without seeking the written permission of a more senior officer.

The police would further have the power to place curfew restrictions on individuals as part of the procedure under which they can issue police cautions to people.

The stated reason behind the re-introduction of civil war tactics into Britain was laid out by the crime and security minister, James Brokenshire, who claimed: ‘It is essential the police have all appropriate powers at their disposal to maintain public order. We must ensure officers on the ground have all the necessary legal measures available to them to protect our streets and keep the public safe.’

Workers will not be amazed that the police are to be handed extra powers to impose the dictatorship of the bosses onto the streets. They have already shown themselves remarkably adept at using existing laws and, when these are deemed inadequate, breaking the law with impunity.

Their illegal detention of thousands of demonstrators for hours on end through the use of the notorious ‘kettling’ strategy, demonstrates that they have already been employing police state powers, as does their use of new ‘untested’ weapons such as Taser shotguns.

The essence of the current situation is that the ruling class is preparing to meet a revolutionary wave of millions of workers in opposition to all of their savage cuts policies.

The new measures are required to deal with the masses when they take to the streets, when both armed police reinforced by troops will be needed to keep the bourgeoisie in control of society by imposing curfews and imprisoning the masses in their homes.

There is only one way to deal with these preparations by the ruling class to place the whole repressive machinery of the capitalist state on a war footing in the streets. This is to immediately demand and organise a general strike to bring down the government and replace it with a workers government.

A workers government will enact laws against the real criminals and violent looters of the welfare state through the expropriation of the banks and the entire capitalist class and going forward to socialism.

Amongst its first acts will be to use the power of the working class to smash up and destroy the capitalist state, its police forces, its secret police forces, and its armed forces’ officer corps.