strike specifically by black workers was at Courtauld's in Preston in 1965. Despite workforce only one shop steward at example, is the Courtauld's plant was black -and there was no formal relation between the black membership and the union committee at all.
Shift early 1970s by Mansfield Hosiery Mills and Imperial Typewriters in Leicester which brought the racism in the unions out into the open and for the first time forced a verwhite fascist and white scabbing revealed.
These struggles because a chill fear began to be felt even black breakaway form COT an Mansfield Hosiery strike organised the workers there that continued exclusion committee was exclusively workers.' - to become the first officialdom.
who were produced a to the field industry. large black Mansfield The But it was the key struggles in the with a 'subsidiary' black workers al nature of election whatever. bal shift in TUC policy. In both strikes racist organisations were directly involved in organising committees, and a continued brutal state of racism in the unions was 1981.
WEE Charter by the trade union bureaucracy that the situation had become so extreme that forced to would be created. The official enquiry into the and into the National Union of Hosiery and Charter Knitwear Workers (NUHKW) which - stated of black workers from all positions in the unions: 'could result in the alienation of immigrant (sic)members to such an extent structures.' that they might feel the need to enlist the support of alternative organisations or to break away completely and form a for immigrant As with the inner city rebellions of 1981 and 1985 it was not 'guidance' and partronage from above, but only action from below, that smashed even a beginning of sense, and even purely verbal adherence to what needed to be done, removal into the heads of the trade union As already noted, until the beginning of the 1970s the TUC refused to give even verbal adherence to the needs of black workers. Instead it had been directly involved in promoting racist laws and policies such as the Immigration Acts. It also opposed the introducof employment and erruptions which led to the Hosiery Imperial Typewriters disputes however forced a verbal change in emphasis by the TUC. It remained committed to the racist immigration laws but it began to made certain verbal and tactical concessions to black workers and the fight against racism. By the mid-1970s the TUC hac words.' established an Equal Rights Committee Race Relations Committee. This, needless to say given the trade bureacuracy, was a wholly appointed body with no element of democratic The TUC however still did not give any directions for action — or even pass any resolutions at Congress. The TUC CYCL verbally to acknowledge racism in the unions until In June 1981 however the TUC was issue its Black Workers Charter. This was given urgency for the TUC by the explosion of the inner city rebellions three month earlier. The declared opening sentences: Trade unions cannot just talk about equal opportunity they must be seen to be taking active steps to make it a reality. As a first step they should examine their own procedures and This 'self-criticism' for the previous decades of racism however was given no teeth whatever. It did not even mention black self-organisation. The entire document was completely bland and Ken Gill, moving the adoption of the Black Workers Charter at the 1981 declared it 'demands the of direct discrimination at the workplace; more it demands that trade union themselves look at their own structures and organisation, and break down the barriers within the unions, to advance to decision-making bodies, to executives and to officialdom. If in your industry or your occupation there are no blacks, why? If there are no black lay or fulltime officers in your organisations, why? All those questions have to be asked within our movement?
Solemn Gill solemnly declared that the TUC was going to mend its ways and that: media critics were very cynical They simply said that our Charter is just words. We insist that it is not just The TUCs position, however, did turn out to consist chiefly of words. A follow up by the TUC itself a year later, after all the solemn declarations of the congress, found that only 12 unions out of more than 100 affiliates, had taken 'some action with regard to race relations matters.' It found that the great majority of affiliated unions had taken no action, 'even of a limited type eg articies i tre umon journals.
One delegate from the Transpor Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) to the 1982 Congress summed up the situation one year after the adoption of the Black Workers Charter very well: *(the General Council) report state that some unions held race relation conferences, established advisory com mittees, issued statements and so on.
'What does this mean in effect? small number of unions are already car rying out their commitment of a yea ago. However, there is little evidence o increased activities at shop floor an branch level or in the recruitment an promotional opportunities at unio headquarters.
"As to the conclusion that th general level of activity between union has increased, let me say that if yo start from nothing than anything is a improvement.
A survey carried out by the Labou Research Department in 1983, that two years after the Black Worke Charter was adopted by the TU found that still only nine unions, out c more than one hundred, had issue positive statements against racism an had set up bodies to monitor the:
policies. Only GMBATU had held national meeting and conferences, 'on the implication of policies passed by conference.' As v have already noted only eight unio even by 1983, had even a single blac full time official.
the TUC Socialist Action 2 May 1986