British communism and the politics of race

290 Pages·2018·2.536 MB·English

by  Communist Party of Great Britain.;Smith, Evan

BritishCommunismandthePoliticsofRace
Historical Materialism
Book Series
EditorialBoard
SébastienBudgen(Paris)
DavidBroder(Rome)
SteveEdwards(London)
JuanGrigera(London)
MarcelvanderLinden(Amsterdam)
PeterThomas(London)
volume143
Thetitlespublishedinthisseriesarelistedatbrill.com/hm
British Communism
and the Politics of Race
By
EvanSmith
leiden | boston
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Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
Themes 8
ShiftingAwayfromtheCentralityofClass 12
ThinkingIntersectionallyaboutthecpgbandthePoliticsof
‘Race’ 14
SituatingtheParty’sAnti-racismwithintheWiderScholarship 17
ANoteonMethodology 20
BookStructure 23
1 TheEndofEmpireandtheWindrushMoment,1945–60 28
TheCommunistParty’sAnti-colonialTraditions 29
ThecpgbandtheEraofDecolonisation 32
LeftNationalismandthePostwarcpgb 36
TheResponseoftheCommunistPartytoCommonwealth
Migration 38
TheCampaignAgainstPolishResettlement 39
TheLegacyofthe‘BattleofCableStreet’andthecpgb’sPostwar
Anti-fascism 48
Anti-fascistActionagainsttheFascistRevivaloftheUnion
Movement,1945–51 52
TheImpactofCommonwealthMigrantsupontheParty’sAnti-racist
Outlook 58
TheNationalityBranches 65
Conclusion 67
2 Anti-racismandBuildingthe‘MassParty’,1960–9 70
TheCommunistParty,LabourandImmigrationControls 71
ThePrincipleofImmigrationControls 78
TheCampaignforLegislationagainstRacialDiscrimination 80
TheRaceRelationsActsUnderLabour,1965–8 84
Thecpgb’sConceptof‘Race’inthePost-ColonialEra 86
TheMovementforColonialFreedomandModerateAnti-racism 90
TheBeginningsofthe‘BritishUpturn’andtheRadicalismof
‘1968’ 93
TheTradeUnionsandRace 99
vi contents
TheRiseofNewSocialMovementsandBlackRadicalism 101
TheLinkwithInternationalIssues 104
CapitulatingtoRacism:LabourandtheCommonwealthImmigrants
Act1968 106
Integrationand‘GoodRaceRelations’:The1968RaceRelations
Act 109
PowellismandtheRiseoftheNationalFront 112
Conclusion 118
3 TheCrisisEmerges,1970–5 120
The1971ImmigrationActandOppositiontotheConservative
Government 122
TheCommunistPartyandtheReactionoftheTradeUnionstothe
ImmigrationAct 126
FacingtheLimitsofIndustrialMilitancy 128
TheUgandanAsian‘Controversy’andtheRiseoftheNationalFront
undertheConservatives 130
The‘NoPlatform’Strategy 134
RedLionSquareandtheDeathofKevinGately 138
TheTradeUnionResponsetoFascismandRacisminthe1970s 143
AsianWorkersandtheTradeUnionsintheEarly1970s:Mansfield
HosieryMillsandImperialTypewriters 147
Conclusion 156
4 TheGreatMovingRightShow,1976–9 158
TheBuildingoftheBroadDemocraticAlliance 162
TheGrunwickStrike 166
IntersectionalityandtheBritishLabourMovement 169
PolicingtheLabourMovement 175
Thenf’sShifttotheStreetsandtheRiseoftheAsianYouth
Movements 178
TheRiseoftheswpandtheRevivalofMilitantAnti-fascism 182
The‘BattleofLewisham’ 184
‘TheNationalFrontisaNaziFront’:TheAnti-NaziLeague,
1977–9 189
RockAgainstRacism 193
TheanlandtheWiderBritishLeft 199
SouthallandtheDeathofBlairPeach 203
contents vii
‘FeelingRatherSwamped’:ThatcherandtheExploitationofPopular
Racism 206
Conclusion 210
5 Babylon’sBurning:Intothe1980s 214
FurtherDefeatsforthecpgb 218
ThePoliceandtheBlackCommunities 220
FromSouthalltoBrixton:TheViolentReactiontothePoliceUnder
Thatcher 225
‘CrisisintheInnerCities’:TheCommunistParty’sReaction 229
The1981RiotsasSocialProtest 232
LordScarman’sReportandtheDenialofInstitutionalRacism 234
TheBroadDemocraticAllianceandMunicipalAnti-racism 237
The‘Limits’ofTradeUnionisminthe1980s 242
ThePushforBlackSections/CaucuseswithintheLabour
Movement 248
TheEndoftheParty 250
Conclusion 252
Conclusion 255
References 263
Index 277

Acknowledgements
ThisbookstartedoffasaPhDprojectoveradecadeagoandhastransformed
immenselyinthepostdoctoralperioduntilnow–anditisfinallyreadytobe
read.FirstlyIwouldliketothankDavidLockwoodasformerdoctoralsuper-
visorforhisguidance,hisassistanceandhissteadfastMenshevism.Myother
colleaguesatFlindersUniversity,duringbothmyPhDtenureandmytimeasa
Vice-Chancellor’sPostdoctoralResearchFellow,havealsobeenatremendous
help–MattFitzpatrick,AndrekosVarnava,PeterMonteath,CatherineKevin
andMarinellaMarmo.
Thisbookcouldnothavebeenwrittenwithoutthewonderfulsourcethatis
theCommunistPartyof GreatBritainarchiveattheLabourHistoryArchives
and Study Centre in Manchester and I would very much like to thank Dar-
renTreadwellforhishelpovertheyearswiththis.Alongsidethis,mythanks
go to the very helpful staff at the numerous other archives visited for this
project:theWorkingClassMovementLibraryinSalford,theModernRecords
CentreattheUniversityofWarwick,theSchoolofOrientalandAfricanStudies
archive, the Birmingham City Archives, the Black Cultural Archives in Brix-
ton, the Marx Memorial Library in London, the Glasgow Caledonian Uni-
versityarchivesandtheNationalArchivesatKew.Iwouldalsoliketothank
ChristianHøgsbjergforhisassistanceinobtainingdocumentsfromtheBilly
Strachan papers at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Special Collec-
tions.
Manypeopleprovidedinformation,adviceandmaterialsovertheyearsthat
were incorporated into the book in some way, so I would like to thank the
followingfortheirinputandassistance:DavidRenton,IanBirchall,Matthew
Worley,SatnamVirdee,KevinMorgan,RichardCross,IanGoodyer,Lawrence
Parker, Nigel Copsey, John Callaghan, Sean Creighton, Anandi Ramamurthy,
Graham Stevenson, Martin Jacques, Joan Bellamy, Christabel Gurney, Mike
Squires,PaulFlewers,RobMarsden,PhillipDeeryandMarkPerryman.
IwouldalsoliketothankSebastianBudgenandDannyHaywardfromthe
HistoricalMaterialismseriesatBrill/Haymarketfortheirinitialinterestinmy
projectandtheirsupportthroughtopublication.
Thanks should also go to Keith Flett and John Callow who allowed me to
presentpapersonmyresearchinLondonattheInstituteofHistoricalResearch
totheLondonSocialistHistorians’GroupandattheMarxMemorialLibrary
respectively.
Myspecialthanksgoestothosewhoreadsectionsofthebookovertheyears,
includingLauraButterworth,NickAtanasoff,DavidBrooks,AlieseMillington