Category: Colonial/Postcolonial History
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South Africa and anti-Apartheid in British popular culture before Mandela (1976-1983)
This post is partly inspired by my work on The Young Ones and the cultural depictions of the history of Thatcherite Britain. In the first episode, ‘Demolition’, which aired in late 1982, Rick and Neil have an argument over whether the vegetables in the meal were from South Africa (there was an international campaign for a boycott…
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Anti-communism across the Commonwealth
It had long been argued by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) that the Communist Party Dissolution Act 1950 was inspired by the Apartheid regime in South Africa, in particular the Suppression of Communism Act 1950 introduced by the Malan Government. In 2004, Justice Michael Kirby gave a paper…
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Review: Constructing Post-Imperial Britain by Jodi Burkett
My review of Constructing Post-Imperial Britain: Britishness, ‘Race’ and the Radical Left in the 1960s by Jodi Burkett (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) has just been published online by Contemporary British History journal. Here is the opening paragraph of my review: Jodi Burkett’s book, Constructing Post-Imperial Britain: Britishness, ‘Race’ and the Radical Left in the 1960s, is a well-executed examination…
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Another endorsement for our forthcoming book
Following on from the very nice endorsements that I blogged about last month, I thought I’d mention this wonderful endorsement we received from Imogen Tyler, author of the brilliant Revolting Subjects and the Social Abjection blog. Tyler writes: This historical study examines the intertwining of ‘race’, gender and the body in the application of immigration…
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CPSA and anti-colonialism beyond its borders
I have started my archival research in South Africa and am currently ploughing through the extensive collection of Jack and Ray Simons’ papers. One thing that is very noticeable, but not particularly surprising, is that the issue of ‘race’ and the relationship between black and white workers is present in almost every Communist Party of…
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The intersectional politics of the Grunwick strike
Over the last year or so, the concept of intersectionality has been hotly debated within the British left. Phil at A Very Public Sociologist has written some insightful stuff into the left’s grappling with the concept, but I think a lot of the debate has lacked a historical perspective. As I noted in this blog…
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Forthcoming: Race, Gender and the Body in British Immigration Control – Subject to Examination
I am pleased to announce that the forthcoming book by Marinella Marmo and myself, Race, Gender and the Body in British Immigration Control: Subject to Examination, will be published in July by Palgrave Macmillan and is already available for pre-order! The description of the book on Palgrave’s website is: Race, Gender and the Body in…
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Communist Party’s ‘Charter of Rights for coloured workers in Britain’ (1955)
As mentioned last week, I have been flat out trying to prepare some draft chapters for a publisher of my proposed book on the Communist Party of Great Britain and the politics of race. I have just sent them off to the publisher and thought that the left-wing trainspotters that read this blog might be…
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The ‘virginity testing’ controversy 35 years on
On February 1, 1979, Melanie Phillips wrote an explosive piece in The Guardian about the practice of ‘virginity testing’ that was experienced by an Indian woman at Heathrow during her attempt to pass through border control. Over the following two months, it came to light that theses ‘tests’ were much more widely practiced than initially…
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