Coming of Age : 1976 and the Road to Anti-Racism

HP: How did the Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1962 affect levels of racism?
VS: It created immigration controls on Commonwealth citizens via a system of employment
vouchers so people could not come to Britain to settle without acquiring the voucher from
the Ministry of Labour. Vouchers were issued in three categories, a, b and c. A was for
skilled and highly qualified people, b for semi-skilled and c for unskilled people. The Act put
first control on immigration and there was much talk among politicians about there being
‘too many’ coming in. Yet they were talking all the time about those from New Commonwealth
countries, those who were black or Asian, not immigration as a whole. In Southall,
there were few people or organisations that were, you know, pro-immigrants. There were
some trade unions that were trying hard to educate white workers that, if Commonwealth
immigrants were in this town, it was because the British government wanted them to be
here, had recruited them in certain countries and [they] were only let in when immigration
officers allowed. So it was no sort of invasion as some rightwing lobby was propagandising
at that time. Apart from a few in the unions, many people were hostile. Semi-fascist organisations
were formed here, like The Southall Residents’ Association – this was not a Southall
residents’ association, it was an association of Southall’s white residents. And people like
john Bean who were fascist and belonged to British National Party in those days used to
organise street meetings against immigrants coming in to the town. [Bean stood in Southall
in the general elections of 1964 and 1966.]
There were incidents of personal assaults during the first dispute at R. Woolf when people
attacked Asians coming home. For some time, they tolerated these things, and then there
was a fight back within the community. People organised themselves and gave on one or
two occasions good hidings to Teddy Boys (as they were called in those days). Later, that
stopped them wanting to do that sort of thing in Southall again.
HP: Do you feel the community is stronger now in Southall?
VS: The community now has grown enormously – out of a population of 78,000 almost half
are Indians, West Indians, Pakistanis, with a few from Uganda, etc. So stronger in numbers.
But also, stronger because they now have well-established community organisations – the
IWA, at least three Sikh Gurdwaras, two Hindu Mandir, cultural and literary organisations,
so now the community is more organised. And the people are more radicalised. Because
the more they live in this country, the more they get aware of the political, socio-economic
situation. And the more they are conscious of discrimination, the more they are keen to
fight back and not to tolerate it at all. The community has built up, over the years, a great
confidence.
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