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Tag: black history

September 18, 2019January 26, 2021 Working Class History Podcast

E33-34: Asian youth movements in Bradford

episode-graphic-Bradford-12.jpg

Double podcast episode about anti-racist Asian youth movements in Bradford, England in the 1970s and 80s. We speak to Tariq Mehmood about the Asian Youth Movement, the United Black Youth League, and his seminal trial as one of the so-called Bradford 12. Continue reading “E33-34: Asian youth movements in Bradford” →

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On this day, 17 October 1950, miners of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers went on strike against the Empire Zinc Company. Their initial demands were for the end of discriminatory pay which paid white workers more than Mexican workers, and an end to segregated housing. Later they added indoor plumbing and hot water for Mexican-American homes to their list of demands. The company fought back, sending police to harass picketers, posting eviction notices on company houses, cutting off credit to strikers at the company grocery store, and sending in scabs. In time miners from other companies in the area joined the picket line. Eight months into the strike, the company got a court injunction forbidding the strikers to return to the picket line, and so the wives of the workers took up the picket line to get around the company’s legal tactic. The women faced sexism, police violence, and mass arrest, but stayed strong. After 15 months the company gave into nearly every demand, agreeing to improve wages and benefits and provide hot water to homes in the town. The strike drew national attention and was dramatised in the 1954 film “Salt of the Earth,” which was mostly acted out by workers rather than professional actors and was directed and produced by filmmakers blacklisted by Hollywood.
On this day, 17 October 1961, scores of Algerian demonstrators were massacred by police in Paris after a curfew from 8:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m was order for "Algerian Muslim workers," "French Muslims," and "French Muslims of Algeria." Some 30,000-40,000 had been marching in the demonstration called for by the Algerian National Liberation Front, which was fighting for independence from France. 11,000 of various nationalities and religions were arrested and up to over 200 demonstrators were beaten to death, robbed by police and thrown in the River Seine. The chief of police during the operation had been a prominent Nazi collaborator. At the time the French media hardly covered the killings, and the government only eventually admitted it occurred and 40 were killed in 1998.
On this day, 16 October 1968, Black sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved fists in a Black power salute during the playing of the US national anthem as they were awarded gold and bronze medals at the Olympics. Smith would later clarify: “I wore a black glove to represent social power or Black power; I wore socks, not shoes, to represent poverty; I wore a black scarf around my neck to symbolise the lynching, the hangings that Black folks went through while building this country.” Following the protest, they were largely ostracised by the US sporting establishment. While Time magazine now considers their picture of the event as the most iconic photograph of all time, back then they wrote: "'Faster, Higher, Stronger' is the motto of the Olympic Games. 'Angrier, nastier, uglier' better describes the scene in Mexico City last week." Back home, both Smith and Carlos were subject to abuse and they and their families received death threats. The Australian athlete Peter Norman, the other man on the podium, also showed solidarity with the protest wearing an 'Olympic Project for Human Rights' badge in protest of his government's 'White Australia' policy. He too would also be reprimanded by his nation's Olympic authorities and was not picked for the following Olympic games - although it is disputed whether this was as a consequence of his stand in Mexico. After Norman’s sudden death in 2006, Smith and Carlos helped carry his coffin and delivered eulogies at his funeral.
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