Category: TUC
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After Grunwick: Trade unions and anti-racism in the 1980s
This is the latest post looking at the history of the turbulent relationship between the British labour movement and black and Asian workers in the post-war era, following on from posts on the Imperial Typewriters strike in mid-1974 and the Grunwick strike between 1976 and 1978. While Grunwick is seen as a turning point, there…
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The Communist Party’s campaign for the Race Relations Act 1965
This month is the fiftieth anniversary of the introduction of the Race Relations Act 1965 by the Wilson government, the first piece of legislation dealing with racial discrimination in the United Kingdom. As I have argued elsewhere (here and here), a major part of the Communist Party of Great Britain’s anti-racist activism between the 1950s…
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The intersection of race, class and gender at the Grunwick strike
On 23 August, 1976, six workers went on strike at the Grunwick Photo Processing Lab in North-West London, beginning a strike that lasted for almost two years and involved thousands of people over the course of it. The Grunwick strike is now considered a turning point in the history of British trade unionism and race…
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Before the ‘unity’ of Grunwick: 40 years since the Imperial Typewriters strike
I am currently in Birmingham and have spent the day in the archives of the Indian Workers Association, held in the new Library of Birmingham. Amongst the papers of the IWA is a lot of correspondence linked to the Imperial Typewriters strike on the summer of 1974, where South Asian workers went on an unofficial…
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Disobedient Objects at the V&A blog: The Grunwick strike
Disobedient Objects is a forthcoming exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum (26 July 2014 – 1 February 2015), curated by Catherine Flood and Gavin Grindon, which brings together materials related to activism and social movements from across the world. In the lead up to the opening of the exhibition, the curators have been running…
New Historical Express 