Catalogue Number
NMLH.2025.11.1
Object Name
pamphlet
Title
'The Battle of Grunwick. View from the left by Geoff Bell, Mick Gosling, Jonathan Silberman, and Tessa van Gelderen. Socialist Challenge Pamphlet. 30p'
Place
Chapter Road, Dollis Hill, Willesden, London, UK
People
Jayben Desai, Grunwick Strike Committee, Geoff Bell, Mick Gosling, Jonathan Silberman, Tessa van Gelderen, Socialist Challenge
Events
Grunwick Strike
Description
A black and white pamphlet with a cartoon image of George Ward in front of a double decker bus labelled 'Grunwick scab' being driven through a picket line. Text reads: 'The Battle of Grunwick. View from the left by Geoff Bell, Mick Gosling, Jonathan Silberman, and Tessa van Gelderen. Socialist Challenge Pamphlet. 30p'.
The Grunwick Strike was a two year dispute between 1976-1978. It began after the man in the image, George Ward, the owner of the Grunwick film processing plant refused to recognise the unionisation of the workers in the plant. When the workers went on strike to push for union recognition, Ward sacked them all. The Grunwick workers were mainly young Asian women, and some speculate Ward intentionally hired from this community in an attempt to exploit them more easily, assuming migrant women would not know their rights as workers and would not unionise. Ward was accused of racist pay conditions, paying white workers more for the same jobs.
The strikers were led by Jayben Desai, who led pickets and was repeatedly subjected to violence and arrest while participating on the picket line. She also faced off against union leadership when she felt they were undermining the strikers' cause. While the strike ultimately was not successful, and courts ruled Ward did not have to recognise the unionisation, Grunwick changed unions perceptions of global majority workers - prior to this, accepted wisdom in British unions was that Black and Asian workers were hard to unionise and wouldn't participate in strike actions. Grunwick shattered that myth and the leadership of Jayben Desai is still widely remembered today.
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