Good Riddance to Mr.Grunwick!

GEORGE WARD (right) with former Hendon MP John Gorst
WE don't often drink before our union meetings, and though as the years go on one gets used to honouring a sister or brother who has died, last night was different. We had heard the news that former Grunwick boss George Ward had died, aged 79, and before Brent Trades Union Council began its monthly meeting we raised paper cups, charged with wine that someone had brought along, to celebrate his passing.

The Grunwick factory next to Dollis Hill station is no more, and its site has been taken by a block of flats. Back in the 1970s it housed possibly the biggest film processing and photographic finishing businesses under one roof, trading under various brand names. Both commercial and amateur colour photography had grown, too much for local chemists to handle or invest in expensive equipment. Customers posted undeveloped films to the lab, either directly or through agents, and received finished photographs back. Business was growing. Grunwick's trading profit at the time was reported as being a steady 30% and above per annum.

The average wage at Grunwick was £28 a week, compared to the national average wage of £72 a week, and average full-time wage for women manual workers in London of £44 a week. Overtime was compulsory, and when there was a rush on workers would be asked to work overtime with no prior notice. Most of the workforce, about 80 per cent, were Asian women, and another 10 per cent were Afro-Caribbean women.

George Ward, himself of Anglo-Indian origin, would argue that far from exploiting the women, he was helping them by providing work. Grunwick strikers saw it differently: "Imagine how humiliating it was for us, particularly for older women, to be working and to overhear the employer saying to a younger, English girl 'you don't want to come and work here, love, we won't be able to pay the sort of wages that'll keep you here' – while we had to work there because we were trapped."

Jayaben Desai said: "The strike is not so much about pay, it is a strike about human dignity."

The Summer of 1976 was memorably hot in London, and on Friday August 20 the workers at Grunwick's Chapter Road factory were toiling to keep up with orders. There was no air conditioning. A worker called Devshi Bhudia was dismissed for working too slowly.Three others, Chandrakant Patel, Bharat Patel and Suresh Ruparelia, walked out in support of him. At 6.55pm Jayaben Desai put on her coat to leave and was called into the office where she was dismissed for doing so. Her son Sunil walked out in support of her.
The following Monday, the six began picketing their workplace, and also approached the Citizens Advice Bureau, who advised them to join a union. For some reason this was to be one of the weakest and tamest in the land, the clerical union APEX, which was how a cabinet minister - Shirley Williams, who was an APEX sponsored MP - came to be arrested on the picket line. As trade unionists from around the country rallied to support the Grunwick strikers, miners' leader Arthur Scargill was also arrested.

Prime Minister James Callaghan gave orders that no more cabinet ministers must go to Grunwick, and asked MI5 to keep him posted on Scargill's movements, saying "he may have to be warned off if necessary".

On one day alone in 1977 some 243 people were injured outside Grunwick. Many had bones broken. When a policeman was hurt it made front-page headlines. Meanwhile magistrates boasted of the stiff sentences they were handing down on people arrested at Grunwick.


There were 4,000 police to guard Grunwicks, many more than there had been at Saltley coke depot against the miners. Though Grunwick reportedly did work for the Metropolitan Police this hardly seemed enough to explain their show of strength. But evidently a decision had been taken by someone in authority to break this strike, in revenge for the miners' victory, and to inflict defeat on the unions.

While the police forcibly cleared the streets so Grunwick could 'bus in strikebreakers, workers at Cricklewood post office realised they could hit Grunwick at its most vulnerable point by refusing to handle the firm's mail. Again, someone decided that the postal workers could be locked-out for their principled stand, even though this meant the Post Office breaching its obligation to maintain postal services to the public; and that the right-wing National Association for Freedom(NAFF) could send its volunteers to handle Grunwick mail, in breach of the Post Office Monopoly Act.

Taking this further, the post office union was threatened with prosecution under laws designed to deal with highwaymen and mail robbery if it did not discipline the Cricklewood members.

As the strike dragged on there were calls for other unions to act against Grunwick, so as to effect the firm's power and other services. But the unions retreated from solidarity action, letting the dispute go to ACAS, and law. The Grunwick strikers were finally left on hunger strike on the TUC's doorstep. The Scarman tribunal recommended reinstatement of the strikers, and recognition of the union. But Grunwick boss George Ward ignored it, and the House of Lords found for Grunwick. There was no law for the workers.

The Grunwick strike was a turning point, in that large numbers of mainly white trade unionists rallied to the side of a mainly immigrant workforce, but it also became a trial run for the combination of class law and brutal policing we were to see used against the miners, and protecting Rupert Murdoch's investment at Wapping. The Grunwick struggle merits further study and investigation, both to learn about the workers' movement and the establishment that it is up against.

While the workers who came to support the Grunwick strike were victimised in the courts and vilified in the media, George Ward became a hero of the upper class, if not quite one of them. In later years he turned from busing scabs to racing nags. "Races he sponsored included the Bonusprint King George at Kempton on Boxing Day; the Tripleprint Gold Cup at Cheltenham in December; the Bonusprint Stayers’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival; the Bonusprint Bula Hurdle; the Bonusprint Old Roan Chase; and Haydock’s Bonusprint Champion Hurdle." (Telegraph obituary).

"Yet while he remained a hero to many Conservatives, Ward’s relations with the party hierarchy were not always happy. In 1998 the then Tory leader William Hague announced the suspension of the Hendon party, of which Ward was chairman – the first such move in 50 years. Ward was accused of bringing in relatives and employees to take control of the association and signing up 50 new members in the run-up to the annual meeting, when he was challenged for the chairmanship. Ward denied the allegations". (ibid).

Ward continued to run his business until shortly before his death. Although the firm adapted to the digital camera revolution, it saw a marked decline in its business. After selling its main Bonusprint business in January last year, Grunwick closed in May 2011.

The Grunwick boss and his friends, or at least his lawyers, also continued over the years to hit out at detractors and opponents. On two occasions — in 1982 and 2007 — he won libel damages from the BBC after it broadcast (and then rebroadcast) claims by Shirley Williams about “Victorian” working practices at the company. He also obtained an apology from Socialist Worker over an article.

Brent Trades Union Council, under the leadership of the late Tom Durkin and a young trade unionist from Kilburn called Jack Dromey, played a stalwart role in mobilising solidarity with the Grunwick strikers. It was on the Grunwick picket line that trades council secretary Jack Dromey, now a Labour MP, met his wife Harriet Harman, who was a legal adviser to the strike committee. In 2006 when the Brent TUC decided to organise an event commemorating the Grunwick strike we found that local libraries which had agreed to take our publicity leaflets withdrew them from display and handed them back. It was not clear who had objected, but we did learn there had been a discussion in the Tory group office on Brent council.

We protested at the town hall one evening before a council meeting. A young woman who took our leaflet about the strike exclaimed "Gosh, I grew up around here, and did not know about any of this!" The commemoration event was a resounding success, attended among others by Arthur Scargill, Jack Dromey and Jayaben Desai, whose diminutive figure on the pickets had come to symbolise the strike for so many people.

A young Asian woman who spoke from the audience said she had been told about the strike by her parents. She kept a photograph of Jayaben Desai in her wallet, and looked at it for inspiration whenever she felt the need for courage. "It was just the times," said Jayaben, denying modestly that she had been anyone special.

In June 2007 Mrs. Desai was awarded a Gold Badge of honour at the conference of the GMB union which had absorbed APEX. In presenting it the union officer apologised to her and her workmates that their union had not given them the support they deserved. Sadly, Jayaben died on December 23, 2010, so did not live to see the death of her enemy George Ward.

For the Grunwick commemoration in 2006 there was a DVD produced, with the two films Stand Together and Look Back at Grunwick, both made in 1977. A more recent film The Great Grunwick strike 1976–1978: A history made for Brent Trades Union Council by Chris Thomas, combines period footage with follow up, and interviews with participants, including Jayaben Desai. It was shown at the tribute to her last year, and is also available on DVD.
Mr.Ward and his lawyers were not happy about this.
So it was good to raise a glass, or even a paper cup, to his removal.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/finance-obituaries/9224381/George-Ward.html

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=9436

http://www.irr.org.uk/news/remembering-grunwick/

http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2011/04/27/brent-trades-council-celebrates-grunwick-strike

Tribute to Jayaben Desai

FILM ON THE GRUNWICK STRIKE WILL BE SHOWN

THIS time next week together with friends from Brent Trades Union Council and others I'll be getting ready to pay tribute to a remarkable little woman, who deservedly became a big name in the history of British trade unionism and the advancement of Asian people in this country, particularly womenfolk. Indeed, many women from all backgrounds consider her a heroine an d role-model.

It was the hottest Summer on record, in 1976, and that August day the air conditioning at the Grunwick factory in Willesden was not working. The workers were rushing to keep up with the photo processing orders at this busy time, several having been sacked for being "too slow". At about 6.55pm Mrs. Jayaben Desai was ready to go home when she was called into the office, and told she must stay behind and work overtime.

Apparently this was not uncommon at Grunwick, where business was thriving, and the workforce were mainly women earning on average £28 a week - when the average wage for women factory workers in London was about £44 a week.

But like Rosa Parks in Alabama, who defied Jim Crow and sat down on the bus because she had "tired feet", Jayaben Desai had had enough. She was not intimidated by the threat of the sack. The little (4ft 10) woman from Gujarat would lead a walk-out, telling the six foot manager who tried to stop her: "What you are running here is not a factory, it is a zoo. But in a zoo there are many types of animals. Some are monkeys who dance on your fingertips, others are lions who can bite your head off. We are the lions, Mr. Manager."

The Grunwick strike was to last two years, putting paid to the myth of Asian women's subservience, and marking a change in the attitude of white trades unionists, as thousands - engineers, postal workers, dockers and miners - rallied to support the strikers at Grunwick. Cabinet minister Shirley Williams and miners' leader Arthur Scargill were arrested on the picket line.

Altogether there were 550 arrests during the strike, as the police battled their way through trade unionists and students to fetch scab buses in. Mrs Desai (as she was always referred to at the time) recalled her thoughts in an interview for Hannah Phung of Brent Museum Archives: "It was amazing, let me tell you, it was amazing.[…] tears were in my eyes to see these people […] they were hurting themselves and the police were charging them with horses and everything and still they were standing strong."

Postal workers at Cricklewood decided to refuse to handle Grunwicks mail, a vital part of the film lab's operations. The right-wing National Association for Freedom organised scabbing to pick up the mail, probably illegally, while the law was used to break the post workers' stand, with their help of frightened union leaders.

"This is not a strike about wages, it is about human dignity", said Jayaben Desai. The strikers, who had joined the clerical union APEX, well-known for moderation, insisted on union recognition. Grunwick boss George Ward refused to recognise the union even when this was recommended by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), by a government inquiry, and by law lords. Ward enjoyed strong Tory backing. Meanwhile as we now know, Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan had asked the security services to spy on Scargill.

The Grunwick strike ended in acrimony, with strikers feeling let down,hunger striking outside the TUC, and being expelled from their union. But APEX became part of the GMB union, and a few years ago Jayaben Desai was invited to its conference in Brighton, where to a standing ovation she received an award and apologies from the GMB's present leaders that the Grunwick strikers had not received more help from the union.

Jayaben Desai died on December 23 last year, aged 77. Her funeral was well-attended, but many more people said they would like to have paid tribute. There will be an opportunity to do that next Sunday, and to see the new film about The Great Grunwick Strike that was made on its anniversary.

The event is being organised by Brent Trade Union Council and will commence at 2.30pm on Sunday, April 17, at the Tricycle Cinema Theatre, 269 Kilburn High Rd, NW6 7JR (nearest tube is Kilburn) Tickets are £5.

Higher Education at Grunwick

THE sad death of Mrs. Jayaben Desai, whose funeral took place on Friday, has brought forth more reminiscences and reflections on the Grunwick strike in northwest London, of which she was the best known face, and which was an important episode in the lives of many more besides the workers directly involved in fighting for their union rights.

There were more than five hundred arrests at Grunwick, and of course not all were as famous as then cabinet minister Shirley Williams, or miners' leader Arthur Scargill. Some magistrates boasted of handing out stiffer punishment to those arrested for activity around the strike. Sometimes the consequences lasted well after any fines or custody. A south London friend of mine suspected years afterwards that he was being unfairly kept out of certain jobs, or overlooked when it came to promotion. He thought his troubles seemed to have started after his arrest at Grunwick. But it was not until after he went to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg some two decades after that he obtained confirmation that he was on a civil service blacklist.

Another friend of mine, who had been a student at the time of the strike, recalls how, coming from a fairly sheltered, respectable middle class home, he got educated about the police by something he witnessed in connection with the battles at Grunwick. 'This fellow was arguing with the landlord of a pub nearby, I think he just wanted him to let him in to use the toilets. A policeman came up and arrested him, and the guy appealed to any of us to be witnesses. When it came to court I was amazed by some of the police evidence'. According to the arresting officer, the accused had been leading a mob down Dudden Hill Lane, chanting 'Kill the Pigs' and similar exhortations.

Although we have talked before about how other trades unionists rallied to the cause of the Grunwick workers, we should not forget the students who saw this as a battle for decency and justice, and found themselves getting a crash course in the nature of the state and injustice. A report in a student paper at the time says 'The police Special Patrol Group were there, carrying out their standard 'snatch squad' technique to soften up the crowd by swooping in to make random and brutal arrests'.

The student reporter saw them swoop on a person standing next to a fellow student, Chris, who in common with others, instinctively put out his arm to try and protect the person being attacked. Next thing was Chris himself was grabbed, and punched and kicked by several coppers as he was dragged away.

As it happens, I've contacted this Chris, who recalls:

'On one occasion I was pulled out of the crowd and surrounded by police who were kicking me before I was led off to a waiting van and taken to Willesden Green Police Station I think it was. I first appeared at Barnet magistrates court charged with – I think – a breach of the peace. Despite ridiculously contradictory evidence from the police I was found guilty and fined £50 with £20 costs. Due to the police evidence I was advised to appeal and appeared at Knightsbridge Crown Court. At this hearing it was suggested that I “fought my way through lines of police six deep and must have assaulted 3 dozen policemen” !!!!!

My conviction was upheld and my sentence was increased to 21 days imprisonment which I served at HMP Pentonville.'

Apparently, the arresting officer who gave evidence at Barnet said he had seen Chris with fist raised in the air, shouting 'Scabs', Scabs', 'Kill the Scabs' 'Get the bastards off the bus'. A second officer testified that the accused had fought his way through lines of police and been too violent for them to stop him, while at the appeal hearing a fresh police witness, a commander, said Chris had assaulted between two and three dozen police before he was arrested. No wonder this young man was described as one of the most violent figures at Grunwick.

Fortunately, his prison sentence, criminal record and violent reputation does not seem to have badly affected Chris's subsequent career in the real world, where he has continued caring for others, as he did at Grunwick. '. I continued with my studies including a placement as a Probation Officer. I subsequently worked with young offenders in alternatives to custody before going overseas with Save the Children for 10 years working in Uganda and Rwanda, Bosnia and Kosovo'. After further work for Save the Children and VSO, he now has a senior post in an important children's health charity.

As for his experience all those years ago at Grunwick:

'I had been a great believer in the great British justice system – but my own experience gave me first hand experience of how corrupt it actually is. I do believe that most policemen and women are decent human beings and do a very valuable job. However in those situations they seem to change completely and their tactics seem designed to provoke conflict. I think they need to do some marketing and some cultural change needs to happen within. The police should be there to protect and help the demonstrators legal rights to protest.

'In my work I have to have CRB checks and recently when mine came back clear I rang them and said did they know I had a conviction – they replied that it was so long ago and not relevant.

'I was pleased to see some student activism recently although not the more violent aspects. I hope that such experience will politicize them and they will engage in other political activity – and not just for themselves'.

Farewell to Jayaben Desai

A GENUINE working class heroine died on December 23, aged 77 after some months of illness.
Jayabene Desai was the little Asian woman who became the best-known face of one of the biggest industrial struggles in Britain within living memory.

Grunwick is a film processing and photographic finishing business that was operating in back-street works in Willesden, north-west London, and trading under various brand names. Customers posted undeveloped films to the lab and received finished photographs back. With the growth of both commercial and amateur colour photography, too much for local chemists to handle or invest in expensive equipment, business was growing. Grunwick's trading profit at the time was reported as being a steady 30% and above per annum.

The average pay at Grunwick was £28 a week, compared to the national average wage of £72 a week, and average full-time wage for women manual workers in London of £44 a week. Overtime was compulsory, and when there was a rush on workers would be asked to work overtime with no prior notice. Most of the workforce, about 80 per cent, were Asian women, and another 10 per cent were Afro-Caribbean women.

Grunwick boss George Ward, himself of Anglo-Asian origin, would argue that far from exploiting the women, he was helping them by providing work. Grunwick strikers saw it differently: "Imagine how humiliating it was for us, particularly for older women, to be working and to overhear the employer saying to a younger, English girl 'you don't want to come and work here, love, we won't be able to pay the sort of wages that'll keep you here' – while we had to work there because we were trapped."
Jayaben Desai said: "The strike is not so much about pay, it is a strike about human dignity."

There had been a previous attempt to organise Grunwicks by the Transport and General Workers Union, but without success.

The Summer of 1976 was memorably hot in London, and on Friday August 20 the workers at Grunwick's Chapter Road factory were toiling to keep up with orders. There was no air conditioning. A worker called Devshi Bhudia was dismissed for working too slowly.Three others, Chandrakant Patel, Bharat Patel and Suresh Ruparelia, walked out in support of him. At 6.55pm Jayaben Desai put on her coat to leave and was called into the office where she was dismissed for doing so. Her son Sunil walked out in support of her.

As Jayaben told the boss:
"What you are running here is not a factory, it is a zoo. In a zoo, there are many types of animals. Some are monkeys who dance on your fingertips, others are lions who can bite your head off. We are those lions, Mr Manager."

The following Monday, the six began picketing their workplace, and also approached the Citizens Advice Bureau, who advised them to join a union. For some reason this was to be one of the weakest and most 'moderate' in the land, the clerical union APEX, which brought the unusual sight of a cabinet minister - Shirley Williams, who was an APEX sponsored MP - being arrested on the picket line. As trade unionists from around the country rallied to support the Grunwick strikers, miners' leader Arthur Scargill was also arrested. Prime Minister James Callaghan gave orders that no more cabinet ministers must go to Grunwick, and asked MI5 to keep him posted on Scargill's movements, saying "he may have to be warned off if necessary".

In some previous disputes involving immigrant workers fighting for their rights, the white workers had been indifferent or even hostile, but things were changing, and the Grunwick workers seemed to catch the imagination and the mood. Thousands of trade unionists came to join mass pickets, seeing it as a matter of honour, while on the other side, still remembering the miners' success in closing Saltley coke depot with other workers support, there was a determination - running from the Tory party through the right-wing National Association for Freedom (NAFF) and the Metropolitan Police Special Patrol Group - that the unions would not succeed.

The strike lasted two years. Thousands of pickets and police were involved in clashes, hundreds of people were injured, and there were 550 arrests. It was said that magistrates took a pride in extra harsh treatment of anyone arrested at Grunwick. Not that the law in this country is class biased or political, of course.

When an important group of workers - the post office workers at Cricklewood office particularly - decided to help the Grunwick strikers by refusing to handle the company's mail, an old law was dug out making it a criminal offence to hold up anyone's mail. When this did not suffice to intimidate the post workers, unfortunately their own union got fright and disciplined those who were not willing to back down. On the other hand when the NAFF organised scabbing and arranged for some of its middle class volunteers to pick up Grunwick mail, the laws governing postal services were ignore, and the authorities looked the other way.

The Labour government commissioned an inquiry, chaired by Baron Scarman, which came down in favour of union recognition, and the re-instatement of sacked Grunwick workers. The employer, supported by the Tories and the NAFF, rejected its recommendations.

What was left? Calls were made for other workers besides the post workers to cut Grunwicks services off. Trade unionists picketed some chemists shops to persuade them to stop dealing with Grunwick. Legal action to stop this failed. But the firm kept going. One of its chief customers now was said to be the Metropolitan Police. And rather than cut off Grunwick, the TUC cut off the strikers by withdrawing its support. Jayaben and others held a hunger strike outside Congress House, for which they were expelled by APEX.

At a ceremony presenting Jayaben Desai with an award on the anniversary of the strike, an official of the GMB union (which now incorporates APEX) apologised publicly for the way the union had let the Grunwick strikers down.

Earlier, at a benefit for the Gate Gourmet workers defending jobs and union rights at London Airport, there had been a message of support and generous donation from Jayaben Desai on behalf of her fellow workers, and her apologies that due to ill-health she could not attend.

Fortunately Jayaben and some of her family and friends did manage to attend our Brent Trades Union Council event commemorating the Grunwick strike, and she was one of the liveliest speakers. Perhaps the most moving tribute paid to her there came from a young woman who spoke from the floor, a trade unionist of Asian family background, who said that she had not been born yet at the time of the Grunwick strike, only hearing about it from her parents and books. But she had obtained a picture of Mrs.Desai which she kept. Whenever she needed to summon up courage, she looked at the photo, she said, it inspired her with confidence that she could speak up, and fight for what was right.

In response, Jayaben said modestly that she had only reflected her times, along with her fellow-strikers, and was thankful for having had the chance.

Note from Pete Firmin:

Very sadly Jayaben Desai, who became the public face of the Grunwick strike of 1976/77, died on 23rd December. She had been ill for several months. The funeral will be on 31st December, 11.00 am at Golders Green crematorium. Mr Desai is quite rightly very proud of his wife and would like people to come if they are able, so can you spread the word around? A sad loss for us all.
Pete Firmin
President Brent TUC

Who decided to bust Grunwick pickets?

POLICE hold line at Grunwick. Home Secretary Merlyn Rees told strikers they had right to halt buses and persuade people not to go in. But police evidently had different instructions.

(pic P.J. Arkell, Marg Nicoll collection)

AROUND 400 people must have attended Brent Trades Union Council's event commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Grunwick strike on Sunday. Contrary to my earlier expectation, strike leader Mrs.Jayaben Desai was able to come and speak, despite recent illness and a family tragedy (a son's death). This is one frail but very determined lady.

Jayaben shared a platform with niners' leader Arthur Scargill, who led miners to join the Grunwick picket line, former Brent TUC secretary Jack Dromey who gained prominence supporting the strike, and Derek Walsh, whose postmen defied the state and their own union leadership at the time by refusing to handle Grunwick mail.

Among tributes paid to the diminutive strike leader perhaps the most moving came from a young woman trade unionist of Asian background who said she had not been born at the time of the Grunwick strike, but had always been inspired by the picture of Mrs.Desai to know that she could stand up and fight for what was right. In response, Jayaben said modestly that she had only reflected her times, along with her fellow-strikers, and was thankful for having had the chance.

Besides reminiscences and discussion, which inevitably turned to more recent struggles like Gate Gourmet, the role of the unions and union officialdom, and the failure of Labour to repeal Tory anti-union laws, there were films and a photographic exhibition, Indian food, and performance by the Banner Theatre and singer Leon Rosselson. All in all, though not without controversy, the day was a good one for all.

Not that everybody was happy to see Grunwick being commemorated. Tory councillors in Brent had the Trades Council's publicity leaflets banned from the borough's libraries. The Tricycle Theatre which hosted the event received a letter from someone who said she was a former Willesden resident, denouncing those who had joined the Grunwick picket as a "rentacrowd", and claiming she had seen miners sticking knitting needles into police horses. Oddly enough, despite plain-clothes police mingling among the crowds, hundreds of arrests in the two-year strike, and some pretty imaginative charges, this lady and her shocking evidence of equine abuse doesn't seem to have figured in any of the court cases.

On one day alone in 1977 some 243 people were injured outside Grunwick. Many had bones broken. When a policeman was hurt it made front-page headlines. Meanwhile magistrates boasted of the stiff sentences they were handing down on people arrested at Grunwick.

Thinking about the police determination to bust the pickets and keep supporting trades unionists and students away from Grunwick, I remember a conversation I had about a year before the strike with a young police officer in the West Midlands. He told me he had been on duty at Saltley coke depot in Birmingham in 1972 when engineering factory workers decided to come to the aid of the picketing miners. "The moment we saw those union banners coming over the hill we knew we were defeated".

The police decided to withdraw from Saltley depot that day, the gates were closed, and workers claimed a victory for which the Tories never forgave them. But by the time of the Grunwick strike a decision was evidently taken to beat the strikers and their supporters by whatever means were necessary. Admittedly the Metropolitan Police were probably less inhibited than their Midlands counterparts about turning local streets into battlefields, and attacking working people. In the newsreel film you can see the Special Patrol Group thugs enjoying their violence. But the use of tough measures and horses was a sign of bigger and worse to come against the miners, and the printworkers at Wapping. There's your rentamob, and well-paid for it.

There were 4,000 police to guard Grunwicks, many more than there had been at Saltley. Unless we imagine a backstreet colour processing lab was somehow as important as a major fuel depot - or Murdoch's presses - we have to see the decision to break Grunwick's pickets was political. But whose decision was it, considering Labour cabinet ministers, including the now Baroness Williams actually came on the picket? Again, who decided that the Post Office could allow the right-wing National Association for Freedom(NAFF) to handle Grunwick mail, in breach of the Post Office Monopoly Act, as Derek Walsh says, and yet to lock-out Cricklewood post office workers for refusing to handle Grunwick mail, thus breaching its own obligations to ensure mail service to the public? Who decided that post office unions could be dealt with under laws designed to deal with mail robbery if they did not discipline their members?
The unions retreated from solidarity action, letting the dispute go to ACAS, and law. The Scarman tribunal recommended reinstatement of the strikers, and recognition of the union. But Grunwick boss George Ward ignored it, and the House of Lords found for Grunwick. There was no law for the workers.

Having signed up for the International Monetary Fund's loan, the Callaghan government had to adopt the austerity measures which led to the so-called "winter of discontent". Discussion at Sunday's Grunwick commemoration rightly turned to how right-wing union leaders helped the government by doing everything to weaken and undermine the kind of solidarity shown at Grunwicks. But should historians be interested, there is also much to be uncovered about how, and where, and by whom, decisions were taken about the use of force against workers, that should help us understand more about how Britain is really governed.

COPIES of the films Stand Together and Look Back at Grunwick produced by Newsreel Collective were made available on one DVD for the event and at £6 sold like the proverbial hot cakes, or whatever. It may be possible to order, though I'm not sure of the price, from Brent Trades Union Council, 375 High Road, Willesden, NW10 2JR

A piece of local history that's too "political"?

IT'S 30 years since a strike by 130 workers, mainly Asian women, at the Grunwick photo processing laboratory in Willesden, led to clashes on the street and battles in the courts, but this episode in history is once more a live issue causing controversy in north-west London.

Trade unionists from around the country rallied to the side of the Grunwick strikers in their fight for union rights and conditions. Unthinkable as it now seems, Labour cabinet ministers like Shirley Williams (a member of their particularly moderate trade union, APEX) joined the picket line. Post office workers at Cricklewood refused to handle Grunwicks mail until they were locked out and their union, facing legal action, disciplined them.

On the other side the Metropolitan Police were out in strength to keep Grunwicks open for scabs, and the right-wing National Association for Freedom intervened to support Grunwick boss George Ward with both strikebreaking and legal moves.

Now thirty years later, the Grunwick strike seems to have divided Brent borough council.

Brent Trades Union Council, whose then leader Jack Dromey made his name rallying support for the strike, is planning a commemoration event on Sunday, September 17. Bro.Dromey, now deputy secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, and until recently Labour Party treasurer (as well as partner of Solicitor General Harriet Harman) has agreed to speak. Arthur Scargill, who brought Yorkshire miners down to join the picket is expected too. Jayaben Desai, whose refusal to work compulsory overtime started the strike, and who became the best-known of the strike leaders, may not be able to come now due to family illness, but another of the original strike committee has agreed to replace her.

Besides the speakers there's to be a photographic exhibition and a film.
The event takes place at the Tricycle Theatre, in Kilburn, on Sunday, September 17, and you can find out more by visiting http://tinyurl.com/o9uyv2
or
http://www.brickman.dircon.co.uk/grunwick_commem.htm

Two weeks ago the trades unionists delivered leaflets advertising their event to local libraries in Brent, which took them without any problem.
But then a week ago librarians contacted the trades council to say they could not display the Grunwick commemoration leaflets. Asked why, one said there had been complaints, including from local councillors, and the head of Libraries in Brent, had decided "the subject matter is political and therefore unsuitable for display in libraries". .

Brent TUC secretary Ben Rickman made some enquiries and found that the request to pull the leaflets came from Linda Silver in the Tory group office at Brent Town Hall. Apparently Tory Cllr Bob Blackman was involved.

So Brent trades unionists, including those who work in the libraries staff, were pleasantly surprised this week to see a press release announcing that Brent's local history museum - now housed in the Willesden library centre - is holding an exhibition to commemorate the Grunwick strike. The release quotes Cllr Alec Castle, Brent Council’s Lead Member for Human Resources and Diversity, Local Democracy and Consultation, praising the museum's work in encouraging residents "to learn more about our rich local history".

“Many people may not realise that an event of national importance happened close to where our own local museum is located. We would encourage residents to take some time this month to go and learn more about the Grunwick Strike and about the people involved who risked a great deal to stand up for what they believed in.”
http://www.brent.gov.uk/press.nsf/
1454664374ee54ce80256a790055374e/
7f824d5fb5d8f255802571ce005e043b!OpenDocument

Someone remembered that Councillor Castle, nowadays a Lib Dem, was on the Grunwick picket line. It was also noted that Grunwick boss George Ward resurfaced almost ten years ago as secretary of Hendon Conservative association, in the neighbouring borough of Barnet.* But that can't possibly have had any influence on fellow-Tories in Brent. Incidentally, I wonder who those "members of the public" were who complained, if such really exist, and how their complaint came to be routed via the Tory councillors' office. And what size boots they take.

If they get away with censoring leaflets what next? The exhibition at the museum? Publicity for plays at the Tricycle (which are sometimes "political")? Or newspapers and library books?

* Hansard, 6 April 1998:

Mr. Andrew Dismore (Hendon): As we have already heard one or two blasts from the past, would it surprise my hon. Friend to learn that the infamous anti-trade unionist George Ward is chairman of Hendon Conservative association?
He has not lost his anti-democratic principles, and that association has, recently been suspended from the national association, on the ground that Mr. Ward, among others, has been trying to infiltrate the Conservative association
with his friends and relatives and employees of Grunwick?

PHOTO ABOVE of police at Grunwick is from Marg Nicol's Resist gallery.
http://www.margnicol.com/galleriesresist/resistfrontpage.htm

Looking back at Grunwicks

Indomitable..... JAYABEN DESAI
(thanks for this excellent photo to
Homer Sykes
www.homersykes.com

IT will soon be 30 years since a group of mainly Asian women working in a backstreet factory in Willesden, north-west London took a decision that would lead to one of Britain's toughest industrial disputes, lasting two years and involving clashes with police, hundreds of arrests, legal battles and a Cabinet crisis.

A few of us from Brent Trades Union Council were in the Tricycle Theatre, in Kilburn, on Saturday discussing arrangements to commemorate the Grunwick strike with a major event in September.

The workers at Grunwick photo processing were earning around £28 for a forty hour week when the national average was £72 a week. Conditions particularly in the mail order department were bad, and work was being speeded up to meet Summer demand. The women's toilet breaks were timed, and the management instituted compulsory overtime. There were complaints of harassment and bullying, and allegations that white workers had been paid more than the others.
.
When Mrs Jayaben Desai was told to work overtime she refused and, together with her son, who also worked at the plant, walked out. She returned to stand outside the factory collecting signatures demanding trade union recognition. Other workers joined her. They'd got a picket.
The clerical union APEX, far from the most militant in the country, made the strike official.

Gone was the myth that Asian women were docile and uncomplaining. Workers from elsewhere rallied to the support of these workers standing up against injustice and exploitation. The right-wing National Association for Freedom (NAFF) and racist Lady Birdwood's Self-Help group organised strike-breaking operations. Police swarmed into Chapter Road, the street outside Grunwick, to battle pickets.

Some 600 arrests were made, including miners' leader Arthur Scargill who had brought some of his members to join the pickets, and some Labour cabinet ministers who were members of APEX. Some policemen plainly enjoyed brutally attacking workers and student supporters, and some magistrates boasted of their harsh treatment of those brought before them for alleged picketing offences.

One group of workers who took vital action in support of the Grunwick strikers were the postal workers at Cricklewood who refused to handle Grunwick mail. Post Office management responded with a lock-out, stopping other people's mail. The NAFF helped Grunwick boss George Ward take legal action against the Union of Postal Workers, which dropped its ban in return for a supposed promise of arbitration.

Grunwick was a turning point for the workers, who showed their willingness to fight, and found they were not fighting alone. Unfortunately it was a turning point in another sense for the unions.
With powerful allies, the company refused to back down even when an inquiry under Lord Justice Scarman recommended re-instatement of strikers and union recognition. The unions which could have closed Grunwick by cutting essential services backed off, partly fearing legal action - the UPW actually disciplined its Cricklewood members - but also waiting for a call from the all-too 'moderate' APEX, which never came. The Grunwick strikers were reduced to calling a hunger strike outside the TUC headquarters, Congress House.

To reclaim a saying from the right, moderation in the defence of liberty is no virtue, and in the following decade we paid the price for being too reasonable. While the TUC leaders bleated about "partnership", the police were used en masse against the miners, and the printworkers at Wapping, while the Tories armed themselves with the anti-union laws which Blair's New Labour has still not repealed.

More recently it was the Gate Gourmet workers who tried to hold the line against sackings, pay cuts, union busting and organised scabbing, and the baggage handlers at Heathrow who stopped British Airways in solidarity, and were victimised. With the law threatening in the background the TGWU accepted a compromise which has left striking workers outside the gate.

Jayaben Desai is getting on these days, and not in the best of health, but she has promised to attend the Grunwick commemoration at the Tricycle on Sunday, September 17. TGWU deputy secretary general Jack Dromey who was secretary of Brent TUC at the time of the strike will be there, and so will Derek Walsh, who was UPW district organiser, and Arthur Scargill too.

But most important, if you were involved in the strike at Grunwicks, or came down to show solidarity on the picket line, or if you are too young but would like to know what it was all about, and what it means for working people now, this is going to be an occasion for you.

There'll be a film, "Stand Together", an exhibition, and some Indian food. It will be a celebration of solidarity, a time to remember and look back at our history, but also a time to gather our forces and think about the issues that are facing us today.

more info. and scope for comments at http://tinyurl.com/o9uy2
or http://www.brickman.dircon.co.uk/grunwick_commem.htm

see also: http://www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/
histories/asian/politics/grunwick.htm

Photo:http://www.homersykes.com.

Or http://www.photoshelter.com/c/homersykes/gallery/GRUNWICK-STRIKE-STOCK-IMAGES-PHOTOS-PHOTOGRAPHY-LONDON-1977-1970s-UK/G0000MmrftXBGUt0/>