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

found Bradford totally depressing, but they were also different because they had read a lot
more political work, and they had more knowledge, but they had less connection with the
community, it felt less of a movement, not that it was not there, the Asian Youth movements
in Bradford, Batley, Dewberry and the others places were very important. They were trying
to do their owns things, and they were inspired by us, in fact, in front of their office was
huge wall with big letters ‘long live southall’. However, after the burning of the Hamborough
Tavern we were under surveillance, they had been charged with conspiracy, so it was dangerous
to meet up and develop things.
Did you work with the Southall Indian Workers Association?
The SYM didn’t get on with the Indian Workers Association. As soon as we met them we
thought they had a mentality of appeasement, we viewed their views as a humiliation for
our people, and that what they were doing didn’t represent any of us. The problem wasn’t
just that of representation, but they really had no contact with us, and didn’t engage with
our lives. They didn’t really know what we were doing, they didn’t influence our lives, they
were of a generation who related more to my parents, they worked in factories, and we
were in school and colleges, and they were totally disconnected. It was like two separate
communities, and they couldn’t understand where suddenly this all came from.
In those days, we saw the Southall IWA as collaborators with the state, and with the police.
When there a racist attack, white on black, their message to us was always, ‘calm down,
do not react’, and this is happened even so many racist attacks were occurring locally, so
many people got injured, and even at the point where there was a death, a racist murder,
here in Southall they did nothing.
The Southall IWA had their own networks and it was huge. When they had meetings
hundreds of people would come and talk and go to the elections, but they created their
own community, amongst themselves, they argued and heckled amongst themselves, and
they didn’t talk to or listen to the people outside of their own structures. So suddenly they
found themselves in a powerless position, because we were doing something different, and
we didn’t need to consult them. Suddenly, they were powerless, and they didn’t know how
to talk to us. When we sieged Southall police station because they had arrested our members,
they came and said we can get them out, instead they went in and made a deal with
the police, and they came out and told us they won’t be charged and we should disperse,
but this was not true, after this there was little trust between the SYM and the Southall IWA.
They then treated us like we were hooligans, and they even told the media this, and the media
treated us like we were hooligans. This leadership happens in all communities, certainly
it’s something we are seeing in the Muslim community at the moment.
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