Our beginnings with the Indian Workers Association
The revolutionary Ghadar party was an important catalyst for anticolonial activities for Indian Independence in the early 20th century. It was formed on 21st April 1913 California from a movement of Asian-American radicalism, which called for the direct overthrow of British rule in India. This message reverberated worldwide, creating fear in the colonial authorities. This led to many of its members being executed, deported or subject to harsh prison sentences and the organisation being shut down through large-scale surveillance.
Comrades of the now international Ghadar Party, Charan Singh Cheema would travel to Britain in late 1937 carrying a message on behalf of other Ghadar revolutionaries, namely Baba Karam Singh Cheema and Baba Bhagat Singh Bilga. They were to set up the seeds of the Indian Workers’ Association [UK], at a home in Coventry, 23rd December, 1938.
Later, the IWA would become associated with Udham Singh, popularly known for the shooting of Sir Michael O’Dwyer, in Caxton Hall London, 1940. A skilled electrician, trade unionist and delegate to the local trades council, he was a member of both the Ghadar Party and Hindusthan Republican Socialist Alliance [HRSA] and would allegedly avenge the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre and O’Dwyers’ role as Lieutenant Governor of Punjab. He would be executed in Pentonville Prison, London, in June 1940.
His legacy of anticolonialism is honoured with the naming of the opening of the Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Centre / Trust by the IWA in 1978. From a radical hub of agitating for Indian Independence, the IWA became a bedrock for social, cultural, political and welfare activities with the arrival of hundreds of immigrants, notably from Punjab, India. Its activities were targeted on the impact of racism and fascism on its now settled communities; cultural events, worker rights and influencing the British Trade Union and Labour movement.
Challenging racism in the Midlands since the 50s
The 60s and 70s would see the rise of the National Front [NF], founded in 1967 and becoming the face of fascism. The same year as the 1968 Race Relations Bill focused on outlawing discrimination in housing and employment for the first time, a speech was made by Enoch Powell, a Tory MP dubbed “Rivers of Blood” at the Midland Hotel in Birmingham. Racialising immigration, it actively called for a curb to numbers e.g. collecting funds to “re-emigrate” and repatriate Black and Asian people. Though sacked from the shadow cabinet, it’s claimed Powell “received almost 120,000 letters, and…‘I’m backing Enoch’ campaign spread across several factories in Birmingham”. The number of racial harassments and attacks began to soar. In response, the IWA worked tirelessly across the Midlands to support families facing racial violence and attacks through several different coalitions and different organisations.
The IWA was also instrumental in developing as well as supporting various campaigns, inclusive of the Campaign Against Racist Laws (CARL), Campaign Against Racism and Fascism (CARF), the Anti-Nazi League (ANL) and various anti-deportation and defence campaigns, such as for Mohammed Idris, Viraj Mendis, Baba Bakhtaura, Bradford 12 and the Newham 8. Its work is rooted in the lived experience of the local Indian community, and has over 60 years been a important part of the local anti-racist ecology bringing people together from political activism, art, culture, trade unions and welfare services.
Defending workers rights
Another focal point of the IWA activism was workers’ rights. Employed in foundries, factories and various textile and paper mills, the hub of industrial operations were in the West Midlands. Predominantly Asian workers were often subject to humiliating conditions and practices in the workplace. These included low wages, being paid less than white counterparts, overlooked for bonuses, having segregated bathrooms and facing racism in the trade unions themselves.
Many of the factory campaigns that the IWA supported were being led by women. In 1972, 500 garment workers in Mansfield Hosiery’s factory in Loughborough went out on strike for higher wages and against the denial of promotion. Strikes that gained national media notoriety included the Imperial Typewriters strike (Leicester, 1974) and the Grunwick strike (London 1976). In Leicester 500 Asian workers would walk out on May Day, denied bonuses on par with white working counterparts to be sacked and for the plant eventually being shut down. This was followed by the success of Grunwick, whereby thousands of rank and file trade unionists from all over the country, including miners from Yorkshire NUM, travelled to support the mass pickets – setting a pattern followed in later dispute.
Not only did the IWA encourage workers to join trade unions by using their own rule books, and developing Black Sections, they worked to get the first Black General Secretary elected to the Transport and General Workers Union. The IWA as trade unionist also showed solidarity during miners strikes (1972, 1974 and 1984/85) both on picket lines and providing overnight accommodation for flying pickets in their homes.
Since the 1980s, the role of providing welfare would become even more significant at the Shaheed Udham Singh Welfare Trust [SUSWT] in Birmingham and Leicester. From filling in immigration papers to campaigns for workers’ rights and the ongoing offering of material advice and support.