Here to Stay, Here to Fight

Description

From 1973 to 1988, Race Today, the journal of the revolutionary Race Today Collective was at the epicentre of the struggle for racial justice in Britain. Placing race, sex and social class at the core of its analysis, it featured in its articles and pamphlets contributions from some of the leading writers and activists of the time: C. L. R. James, Darcus Howe, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Walter Rodney, Bobby Sands, Farrukh Dhondy and Mala Sen and many more.



Here to Stay, Here to Fight, draws together many of these key articles and extracts into an impressive collection - the first book-length anthology of its kind - rescuing many contributions from the obscurity of inaccessible archives.



Framing the original contributions, there is a general introduction, which provides an overview of Race Today's 15-year history, section introductions providing context for each extract, written by writers and activists associated with the Collective, and a concluding section exploring the legacy of Race Today in contemporary social movements and debates around race, gender and class.

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Introduction - Leila Hassan, Robin Bunce and Paul Field

1. Race Today and British Politics

2. Black Youth in Revolt

3. Sex, Race and Class

4. Asian Communities, Asian Workers and Race Today

I: THE ASIAN SELF DEFENCE MOVEMENT

II: TIGER STRIKES: BHAG AND THE STRUGGLE FOR HOUSING

III ASIAN WORKERS FIGHT FOR JUSTICE

5. Challenging British (In)Justice

6. ‘Creation For Liberation’: Race Today and Culture

7. For Black and Third World Liberation

8. Legacies

Notes on Contributors

Index

Sujets

• Minority Studies
• Ethnic Studies
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Pantera negra
• News
• Institute of Race Relations
• General officer
• Journalism
• General
• Reportage
• Black Panther

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 septembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781786804846
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Here to Stay, Here to Fight
Here to Stay, Here to Fight
A Race Today Anthology
Edited by Paul Field, Robin Bunce, Leila Hassan and Margaret Peacock
First published 2019 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright Paul Field, Robin Bunce, Leila Hassan and Margaret Peacock 2019 Body Count Fred D Aguiar
The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7453 3977 1 Hardback
ISBN 978 0 7453 3975 7 Paperback
ISBN 978 1 7868 0483 9 PDF eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0485 3 Kindle eBook
ISBN 978 1 7868 0484 6 EPUB eBook


This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America
Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgements

Introduction
Leila Hassan, Robin Bunce and Paul Field

1 Race Today and British Politics
Introduction by Linton Kwesi Johnson
Darcus Howe, From Victim to Protagonist: The Changing Social Reality , January 1974
John La Rose, We Did Not Come Alive in Britain , March 1976
Race Today , We are the Majority At Ford s , 1976 November
Race Today , What s to be Done with Powell? , February 1977
Darcus Howe, Enter Mrs Thatcher , February 1978
Race Today , Building the Mass Movement , August-September 1982
Race Today , Black Representation in the Labour Party , September-October 1984
Linton Kwesi Johnson, The New Cross Massacre: We Will Never Forget , January 1986

2 Black Youth in Revolt
Introduction by Stafford Scott
Farrukh Dhondy, The Black Explosion in British Schools , February 1974
Race Today , No Longer Sleeping Rough , May 1974
Race Today , Carnival Belongs to us , September 1976
Darcus Howe, Is a Police Carnival , September 1976
Race Today , Invasion of the Mangrove, September 1976
Darcus Howe, Bobby to Babylon: Brixton Before the Uprising , February 1982
C.L.R. James, The Nine-year-old Leader , May 1982
Race Today , What We Lack , December 1985

3 Sex, Race and Class
Introduction by Kennetta Hammond Perry
Race Today , Black Women and Nursing: A Job Like Any Other , August 1974
Race Today , Caribbean Women and the Black Community , April 1975
Race Today , Black Women and the Wage , April 1975
Sarah White, The Feminist Book Fair , October 1984
Race Today Review 1985 , Talking to Two Black American Women Writers: Toni Morrison and Ntozake Shange

4 Asian Communities, Asian Workers and Race Today
Introduction by Farrukh Dhondy
I: THE ASIAN SELF DEFENCE MOVEMENT
Race Today , A Show of Strength , June 1976
Race Today , No Retreat from The East End , June 1976
Race Today , On Patrol, East London , June 1976

II: TIGER STRIKES: BHAG AND THE STRUGGLE FOR HOUSING
Race Today , East End Housing Campaign , December 1975
Race Today , Housing Struggle: The Tiger is on the Loose , March 1976
Race Today , A Victory for BHAG , November/December 1977

III ASIAN WORKERS FIGHT FOR JUSTICE
Darcus Howe, The Asian Worker , April 1974
Mala Sen, The Strike at Imperial Typewriters , July 1974
Race Today , Grunwick Gates: The Entry to Unionisation , June-July 1977
Farrukh Dhondy, Want a Lift to Grunwick? , November-December 1977
Race Today , Grunwick Revisited: Arthur Scargill and Jayaben Desai , June-July 1987

5 Challenging British (In)Justice
Introduction by Adam Elliott-Cooper
Race Today , Brockwell Three: Move as a Community , June 1974
Race Today , Times are Changing , November 1975
Ian Macdonald, The Guilty Verdicts are Unacceptable , November 1976
Ian Macdonald, Up Against the Lawyers , February 1977
Race Today , The Bradford 12: Reflecting on the Trial of the Decade , August 1982
Race Today , The Moss Side Police Force: A Law Unto Itself , May 1985
Gus John, The Trials of Jackie Berkeley , May 1985

6 Creation For Liberation : Race Today and Culture
Introduction by Farrukh Dhondy
Race Today , Caboo: The Making of a Caribbean Artist , February 1975
Linton Kwesi Johnson, Bob Marley and the Reggae International , June 1977
Farrukh Dhondy, The Black Writer in Britain , May 1979
C.L.R. James, I m a Poet - C.L.R. James Discusses Ntozake Shange , January 1982
Darcus Howe, Culture and Race Today , January 1983
Gerry Adams, Pawn Shops and Politics (extract from Falls Memories ), January 1983
Race Today , The Poet is Dead , October 1983
John La Rose, Fallen Comet: A Tribute to Michael Smith , October 1983
Akua Rugg, Editorial: Race Today Review , January 1984
lmruh Bakari, In Search of a Solid Foundation: Black Theatre In Britain in 1983 , January 1984

7 For Black and Third World Liberation
Introduction by David Austin
Walter Rodney, Class and Nationalism in Africa , April 1974
Race Today , Black and Wageless in Detroit: The Embers are Starting to Burn Again , November 1975
John Huot, The Milrod 34: West Indians on Strike in Canada , March 1976
Leila Hassan, How the US Government Subverted the Black Panther Party: The FBI Revelations , March 1976
Race Today , Grenada: Every Cook Can and Must Govern , March 1979
Race Today , The Grenadian Revolution , May 1979
C.L.R. James on Walter Rodney , November 1980

8 Legacies
Adam Elliott-Cooper, Race Today s Political Legacy: Remembering How Britain Came to Us
Leila Hassan and Deirdre Osborne, Complex Coalitions: Sex, Gender, Race, and Class
Gareth Peirce, Race Today and The Struggle for Racial Justice
David Roediger, Small Internationalisms and Fugitive Thoughts: An Appreciation of Race Today
Fred D Aguiar, Body Count

Notes on Contributors
Index
List of Figures
1.1 Linton Kwesi Johnson and Darcus Howe at the First International Book Fair of Radical, Black Third World Books, Islington Town Hall, 1982
1.2 Black People s Day of Action, 2 March 1981. Darcus Howe on a truck
2.1 Darcus at Clifton Rise during the anti-National Front demonstration, 13 August 1977 (photo Syd Shelton)
4.1 Race Today , 6 June 1976
4.2 Mural in tribute to Race Today Collective Member Mala Sen by artist Jasmin Sehra, unveiled in Brick Lane in October 2018. Commissioned by City Hall and Tate Collective, it formed part of a series of public art works to mark 100 years since women won the vote. Sehra has woven the Bengali words for powerful, fearless, courageous into the image
5.1 Outside Royal Courts of Justice, September 1977, following Darcus s successful appeal and release from prison: Selwyn Baptiste, Darcus Howe, Ian Macdonald, John La Rose and Barbara Beese
6.1 Claudius Hillman, Michael Cadette, Stafford Howe, Darcus Howe and Leila Hassan at Radical, Black Third World Books, Islington Town Hall, 1982
7.1 Race Today , August/September 1985
7.2 C.L.R. James and Darcus Howe at C.L.R. James s 80th Birthday Lectures, Kingsway Princeton College, Camden, 1981
8.1 Race Today : A Visual Retrospective - part of the Icons of Railton Road art installation created by Jon Daniels, and unveiled in October 2015 at Brixton Advice Centre in Railton Road
8.2 Icons of Railton Road art installation by Jon Daniels at Brixton Advice Centre, 167 Railton Road, formerly the offices of Race Today . The art work depicts C.L.R. James, Winifred Atwell, Darcus Howe, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Farrukh Dhondy and Olive Morris
8.3 The Race Today Collective, May 2019: Farrukh Dhondy, Michael Cadette, Jean Ambrose, Claudius Hilliman, Pat Dick and Leila Hassan
Acknowledgements
This book has its origins in the work of the Race Today Collective, a small organisation - in the Jamesian sense - based in Brixton from 1974 to 1991. The editorial team which put this collection together, and which worked closely with several members of the original Collective, would like to express their warmest thanks to all of the librarians and archivists who helped us access copies of Race Today , the Race Today Review , and the various pamphlets produced by the Collective in the 1970s and 1980s. The staff of the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton, the London School of Economics library in Portugal Street, the staff in the West Room, at Cambridge University Library, the staff at the Bishopsgate Institute Library, and at the Library of SOAS in Bloomsbury, and the Radzinowicz Library in Cambridge, have been unfailingly helpful. Their expertise and advice has been invaluable to this project.
The staff at the George Padmore Institute in Stroud Green Road have been especially helpful. In fact, without the ongoing aid of Sarah Garrod, whose work includes preserving and cataloguing Race Today , this volume would not have been possible. We are indebted to Sarah as on many occasions she helped locate articles from the pages of Race Today , and thank her for her expert assistance.
We must also record our gratitude to Sarah White, also of the George Padmore Institute and New Beacon Books, who put us in touch with contributors to Race Today , and who kindly gave us permission to reproduce her own and John La Rose s articles in this volume.
We owe particularly heartfelt thanks to Sandra Field, for the many hours spent patiently reading and helping to transcribe many of these articles, for which we are immensely grateful.
We are no less obliged to all of those who helped us contact the many writers whose work appears in this volume. Getting permission for every piece was an enormous task, and no mean feat, as many of these articles were written more than forty years ago and their authors are based on three different continents. Thanks to David Renton and Tim Hempstead at Garden Court C