The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (25 page)

 
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A movement calling for fuller rights and more resources for black people, especially in the United States.
Initially, a vague and provocative slogan used by some radical black leaders in the United States during the 1960s, the most notable being Stokely Carmichael . For a while the ambiguity of the phrase appeared to be tactically deliberate, but Carmichael, in collaboration with Charles Hamilton , eventually provided an exposition of its meaning in
Black Power
(1969). This made it clear that those who advocated black power were part of the black nationalist tradition exemplified by Marcus Garvey and later,
Malcolm X
. They similarly emphazised the need for African-Americans to glorify in their blackness; they called on them to exhibit pride in their history and culture, and exhorted them to develop a sense of community embracing all members of their race. The evils of white racism were denounced, parallels were drawn between the conditions of blacks in the United States and the circumstances of oppressed colonial people elsewhere, and the integrationist tactics of moderate black leaders like Martin Luther King , were condemned as ineffective and futile.
There was no point in African-Americans allying themselves with the left wing of the Democratic party, trade unions, or any other groups, because it was self-defeating for weak groups to enter alliances with the strong. ‘Coalitions of conscience’, in other words, were unacceptable, but the exponents of black power, unlike black separatists, were not opposed to coalitions in principle, or indeed, to pluralism as such. However, ‘before a group can enter the open society it must first close ranks. By this we mean that group solidarity is necessary before a group can operate effectively from a bargaining position of strength in a pluralistic society’ (
Black Power
, 58).
Contrary to popular impressions at the time therefore, black power was not about overturning the existing system, but with preparing African-Americans for participation within it. This meant instilling them with a new sense of militancy and solidarity. They were urged, furthermore, to build their own organizational structures, and to develop their economic and political resources so that they would then be able to participate in the American pluralist system not as subordinates, as had been the case hitherto, but as full and equal partners.
DM 

 
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Special sections of the
Labour Party
for members from ethnic minorities. The campaign for them was stimulated in the early 1980s by the frustration of aspiring black politicians who were unable to gain selection for winnable parliamentary seats. In the general election of 1983 only one black Labour candidate was selected, for a safe Conservative seat. At the 1984 Labour Party Conference the campaign secured the support of 25 constituency parties and one trade union. The Labour leadership opposed their resolutions as divisive and marginalizing for black members; the resolutions were heavily defeated at this and subsequent conferences. The election of four black Labour MPs in 1987 and of growing numbers of black councillors took some of the heat out of the campaign. In 1990 the Labour Party agreed to set up a Black Socialist Society in an effort to accommodate some of the aspirations of black Party members.
ZLH 

 
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(1805–81)
French insurrectionary communist who failed completely in all his attempted
coups d'état
, and spent more than thirty years in prison. In his theory of revolutionary organization, based on the cell structure, he was a precursor of
Lenin
and of many communist and terrorist movements after the
Russian Revolution
(1917).
CS 

 
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A central grant in general aid of local government services, distributed on one or more of the criteria of local needs, resource equalization, or relief of local taxation. Often called general grants, block grants are predominant as the form of central grant subvention to local government in the United Kingdom and Europe, in contrast to the United States where specific service targeted grants are still more common. Confusingly, some US government grants made to local authorities for discretionary usage within a broad policy area, such as education, are also called block grants.
The first block grant in the United Kingdom was introduced in 1929 in the form of the General Exchequer Contribution. This sought to provide grant aid in relation to local needs and to generally relieve local taxation. After 1945 there were numerous experiments, including the Rate Support Grant (RSG) introduced in 1966, which became the ultimate consolidated block grant, distributed on all three criteria listed above. However, the RSG became increasingly complex, unwieldy and subject to political controversy and in 1981 a new Block Grant was created, comprising the needs and resources elements of the former RSG. The RSG continued as a general aid to local taxation, becoming the Revenue Support Grant after the abolition of domestic rates.
Block grants allow the centre to set the aggregate amount, an important instrument for the national budgeting process. At the same time their method of distribution can facilitate even development of local government services across the country. Local government has also welcomed block grants for the greater discretion it leaves authorities in grant expenditure, subject to satisfying legislative requirements, and/or the financial help they have brought to poorer areas. In the United Kingdom, however, the post-1981 block grant has been provided on the basis of target expenditures and grant penalties, as well as increasingly itemized approaches to its expenditure. Such developments have allowed the centre to control both the level of aggregate grant aid, and the amount spent on each service locally using block grant. The resulting loss of funding and local discretion has brought the use of block grants in practice into disrepute in local government. However, it may be argued that, in the process, the grants in question have ceased to be block grants. Outside the United Kingdom the principle of the block grant remains more popular.
JBr