Description
Book SynopsisBritish Communism and the Politics of Race explores the role that the Communist Party of Great Britain played within the anti-racism movement in Britain from the 1940s to the 1980s. As one of the first organisations to undertake serious anti-colonial and anti-racist activism within the British labour movement, the CPGB was a pioneering force that campaigned against racial discrimination, popular imperialism and fascist violence in British society. The book examines the balancing act that the Communist Party negotiated in its anti-racist work, between making appeals to the labour movement to get involved in the fight against racism and working with Britain's ethnic minority communities, who often felt let down by the trade unions and the Labour Party. Transitioning from a class-based outlook to an embrace of the new social movements of the 1960s–70s, the CPGB played an important role in the anti-racist struggle, but by the 1980s, it was eclipsed by more radical and diverse activist organisations.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Themes Shifting Away from the Centrality of Class Thinking Intersectionally about the CPGB and the Politics of ‘Race’ Situating the Party’s Anti-racism within the Wider Scholarship A Note on Methodology Book Structure 1 The End of Empire and the Windrush Moment, 1945–60 The Communist Party’s Anti-colonial Traditions The CPGB and the Era of Decolonisation Left Nationalism and the Postwar CPGB The Response of the Communist Party to Commonwealth Migration The Campaign Against Polish Resettlement The Legacy of the ‘Battle of Cable Street’ and the CPGB’s Postwar Anti-fascism Anti-fascist Action against the Fascist Revival of the Union Movement, 1945–51 The Impact of Commonwealth Migrants upon the Party’s Anti-colonial/Anti-racist Outlook The Nationality Branches Conclusion 2 Anti-racism and Building the ‘Mass Party’, 1960–9 The Communist Party, Labour and Immigration Controls The Principle of Immigration Controls The Campaign for Legislation against Racial Discrimination The Race Relations Acts Under Labour, 1965–8 The CPGB’s Concept of ‘Race’ in the Post-Colonial Era The Movement for Colonial Freedom and Moderate Anti-racism The Beginnings of the ‘British Upturn’ and the Radicalism of ‘1968’ The Trade Unions and Race The Rise of New Social Movements and Black Radicalism The Link with International Issues Capitulating to Racism: Labour and the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968 Integration and ‘Good Race Relations’: The 1968 Race Relations Act Powellism and the Rise of the National Front Conclusion 3 The Crisis Emerges, 1970–5 The 1971 Immigration Act and Opposition to the Conservative Government The Communist Party and the Reaction of the Trade Unions to the Immigration Act Facing the Limits of Industrial Militancy The Ugandan Asian ‘Controversy’ and the Rise of the National Front under the Conservatives The ‘No Platform’ Strategy Red Lion Square and the Death of Kevin Gately The Trade Union Response to Fascism and Racism in the 1970s Asian Workers and the Trade Unions in the Early 1970s: Mansfield Hosiery Mills and Imperial Typewriters Conclusion 4 The Great Moving Right Show, 1976–9 The Building of the Broad Democratic Alliance The Grunwick Strike Intersectionality and the British Labour Movement Policing the Labour Movement The NF’s Shift to the Streets and the Rise of the Asian Youth Movements The Rise of the SWP and the Revival of Militant Anti-fascism The ‘Battle of Lewisham’ ‘The National Front is a Nazi Front’: The Anti-Nazi League, 1977–9 Rock Against Racism The ANL and the Wider British left Southall and the Death of Blair Peach ‘Feeling Rather Swamped’: Thatcher and the Exploitation of Popular Racism Conclusion 5 Babylon’s Burning: Into the 1980s Further Defeats for the CPGB The Police and the Black Communities From Southall to Brixton: The Violent Reaction to the Police Under Thatcher ‘Crisis in the Inner Cities’: The Communist Party’s Reaction The 1981 Riots as Social Protest Lord Scarman’s Report and the Denial of Institutional Racism The Broad Democratic Alliance and Municipal Anti-racism The ‘Limits’ of Trade Unionism in the 1980s The Push for Black Sections/Caucuses within the Labour Movement The End of the Party Conclusion Conclusion References Index
