Strikes, Solidarity and South Asian Britain
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Hello. Although it is now nearly half a century since the strike at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in the London suburb of Dollishill, that dispute still retains its place in one's memory. Well, in my memory, because of the distinctive nature of the strikers – female, immigrant, East African Asians – and because of the sometimes, well, ambivalent response of trade unionists and politicians. But I've now got a chance to revisit that dispute and consider the part it played in other stories of South Asian resistance in Britain, because I'm joined by journalist and historian Taj Ali, who's the author of a forthcoming book called Come What May, We're Here to Stay, The Story of South Asian Resistance in Britain.
One could hardly accuse your book of lacking a positive title. But you draw on a long, long history of South Asian activism in Britain. Can you tell me what got you going on these stories? What first sparked your interest?
Well, I was born and bred in Luton. I come from a Pakistani background. And at the age of 12, I was told by my teachers, you can't go into the town centre because the English Defence League are in town. So from a very early age, I was grappling with identity, what it meant to be Muslim, what it meant to be South Asian, what is racism all about? And then I heard stories from my father about growing up in Luton in the 70s and 80s, where racist violence was very common. And I felt that there was a lack of storytelling within the South Asian community about our experiences. We weren't just passive victims of racism and colonialism. There was a great deal of organizing. And so I felt compelled to tell these stories and to talk about that rich history of British South Asian political activism.
Wow.
I mean, this really turned into a formal research project. Tell me about the stages from your initial curiosity to the formation of that project.
Well, I studied history and politics at Warwick and we did modules on race, ethnicity and migration. But I felt there was a lack of stories on South Asians themselves organising. And I'd heard stories from people I knew in Luton. In my final year of university, we had a public history project as part of our assignments. And I did a public history project on a group called the Luton Youth Movement, which was a group of South Asians in Luton. the 70s and 80s who organized against racist violence and so I interviewed some former members of the Luton youth movement for that project I ended up posting a video on YouTube about these individuals and through them I learned about the Sheffield Asian youth movement and the Bradford Asian youth movement and the Manchester Asian youth movement and I felt there were so many stories out there that were at risk of being lost an older generation were getting ill some of them had passed away and nobody had captured their stories so I felt that there was an urgent need to present
And you began to write about it, didn't you?
You got something published in Tribune. Was that the first? In the 1980s, I wrote on South Asian solidarity during the miners' strike and the connections between these predominantly white working class communities and South Asians. And so I started looking into the 70s and 80s. And actually, I got offered a book contract with Manchester University Press to tell some of these stories. It was initially just something I was doing in my spare time as an oral history project. And I felt that in order to understand these Asian youth movements who had anti-imperialist politics, who were class conscious, you have to understand the people that came before them.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–7:55
2
What was the Grunwick strike and why does it matter for South Asian labour history?
7:55–10:57
3
How did Taj Ali become interested in South Asian resistance and what sparked his research?
10:57–14:50
4
What early anti‑colonial and seafarer organising did South Asians undertake before the 1970s?
14:50–19:06
5
How did post‑World‑War II immigration shape South Asian community organising in Britain?
19:06–23:40
6
What role did Huddersfield play in anti‑racist activism from the 1960s to the 1980s?
23:40–27:42
7
How did the 2002 witness seminar reveal connections between trade unions, anti‑fascist groups and South Asian activists?
27:42–30:30