This book is both a record of the development of a Black working class community in Newham and a post-war labour rEstory of Cast London Recruited into factories on the docks and to work on public transport, immigrants from the Caribbean and South Asia found that their labour was welcome but they weren't.
Finding that it was them who were always poorly housed, whose children were assaulted, who were employed doing low paid night work in unsate conditions, these disparate communities came together to demand their needs be taken care of.
This solidarity was an organic process fashioned by an awareness of a common oppressor - white society and the racist institutions which underpin it.
This is why anti-racists in Britain use the term 'Black. It is a sign that we will not allow our people to be pitted against each other on grounds of eth"Black' is the colour of our oppression and the politics of our The white working class faced the loss of jobs in traditional sectors and were resentful of the newcomers in their midst. The unions were faced with falling membership and a loss of influence. The ground was ready for the growth of organised fascism.
But Black workers didn't turn their backs on the unions. in 1975, at Spiralynx factory. the Black workers struck over union recognition. The success of the campaign was largely due to the alliance between the union, Black workers and community organisations. Defending Newham The self-activity and self-organisation of Black people means that, through sharing their own experiences and unders andino or racism. they are better able to set their agenda struggles 1o0.
There is much more in this book. There are accounts of defence campaigns against police brutality and fascist attacks. We are reminded that REVIEW We learn how Black women campaigned for the banning of the contracentive drug Deto Provera' and to set up a women's refuge.
It is an excellent model for the unwritten histories of local Black communities all over Available from: Newham Monitoring Project, 382 Katherine Rd, London,E7 8NW for 25 (plus 50p p&p)
Brave fighters sold out: Burnsall's strikers, with support from Timex SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 46, July 10 1993. Page 14 TING Facing mass unemployment, rampant employers equipped with savage anti-union laws, and a war on hard-won education, health and welfare services, the working class in Britain taces a real crisis - an avoidable crisis created by the historic failure of its official leadership.
Socialist Outlook exists to fight for a new type of working class leadership, based on the politics of class struggle and revolutionary socialism, to tackle this crisis.
Tine capitalist class, driven and politically united by its own crisis. its requirement to maximise profits at the expense of the workers. has been given determined, vanguard leadership by a brutal classwar Tory high command.
The Tory strategy has been to shackle the unions with legislation, and to fragment and weaken the resistance of the working class and oppressed, allowing them to pick off isolated sections one at a time. using the full powers of the state.
In response, most TUC and Labour leaders have embraced the defeatist politics of 'new realism", effectively proclaiming total surrender on every front, while ditching any pretence that they offer a socialist alternative. Every retreat and concession they have made to the employers and the government has simply fuelled and encouraged the offensive against jobs, wages, conditions and union New realism is the latest form taken by the politics of reformism. seeking no more than improved conditions within the framework of capitalist rule.
Socialist Outiook rejects reformism, not because we are against fighting for reforms, but because we know that the needs of the working class - for full employment, decent living standards, a clean