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

evisionist organisation, but also set up their own communist organisation in 1966 called the
Association of Indian Communists (AIC).
The Sino-Soviet split was reflected in the CPGB with adherents and opponents of ‘the
British Road to Socialism’, the pro-Soviet analysis published by CPGB in 1951 recommending
fighting for socialism within the democratic framework by working within the Labour Party
and trade unions rather than waging a class war. A similar split was also reflected among AIC
members in their attitude and actions not only in this country but also in India. IWA (Southall)
was led by the AIC followers of the Soviet line. In 1971 their leader Vishnu Sharma became
a member of the Executive Committee of the CPGB. In India they supported the CPI (M). In
contrast the IWA (GB) eschewed “entryism” (meaning infiltration in political organisations
such as the Labour party and trade unions) in Britain and supported the CPI (ML).
The IWA (Southall) and the IWA GB) also had different perspectives on race relations in
Britain. The IWA (Southall) worked with government bodies whereas the IWA (GB) refused
to become involved with state-sponsored organisations. The IWA (GB) claimed that the IWA
(Southall) had an assimilationist philosophy and saw their role in educating Indians to make
themselves acceptable to British society. This was in contrast to the IWA (GB) which considered
the problem to be racism, and saw their role as one of fighting racism and not of Anglicizing
Indians. After the passing of race relations legislation in the mid-1960s these differences
had become more pronounced.
I joined the IWA (GB) as a way of pursuing my revolutionary dreams without knowing
about, leave alone joining, the Association of Indian Communists. Once Ranjana Ash left the
branch there was no AIC member left but all the branch central committee members were
sympathetic to the Naxalite cause.
Activities of the Central London Branch
As Indian ‘communists’ in London we primarily involved ourselves with Indian workers’
struggles in London which had two dimensions: fighting for rights at work and fighting
against racism, The 1960s and 70s was a period of expansion of medium-sized manufacturing
and engineering companies in West London. Many of these hired recently arrived Indian
migrants from Uganda and Kenya as a source of cheap labour. (5) Struggles broke out
all over the place for minimum wages, parity with white workers about wages and working
conditions, proper work contracts, right to join trade unions and more. Strikes, walk-outs
and other forms of struggle were commonplace. Among other things, we joined picket
lines, distributed leaflets, sought support from other workers and from trade unions. The silk
thread-making firm Perivale Gutterman’s strike in Perivale near Southall in 1973 and the strike
at the film processing business run by Grunwick Processing Laboratories Ltd in Willesden in
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