Ron Ramdin - The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain

This book is an attempt to put in historical perspective the Black presence in Britain as it relates to the development of British capitalism and its control and exploitation of black labour. The making of the black working class in twentieth-century Britain has been a long process, reflecting essential changes in Britains labour needs over time, both at home and abroad.

As overseas trade expanded, the discipline and control of labour (both black and white) became imperative to Britains economic well-being. To ensure the continued exploitation of colonial labour, an ideology based on racial differences, which bred an inferior/superior nexus both in interpersonal relations and in international trade, was constructed to keep Blacks in subjection.

Thus, plantocracy racism supported by British capitalists, politicians, historians and influential people of letters, engendered dogmatic belief in white supremacy and institutionalised racism in Britain and her colonial possessions. Consequently, the cultural transmission of racist ideas was handed down over generations. Historically, as Blacks in the colonies laboured under the inhuman and deplorable working conditions endemic in slavery, indentureship and trade union-regulated working conditions, in response, they resorted either spontaneously or in an organised way to various forms of resistance, creating in the process, their own ideologies of Indian nationalism, Pan Africanism and Black Power, and autonomous organisation. This tradition of struggle has, in turn, informed and strengthened the black working-class movements both in the colonies and Britain in recent years.

In order to avoid any confusion that might arise in the readers mind, it is perhaps necessary to define the black working class in the context of this book. In general, black refers to non-white persons, particularly those from former colonial and Commonwealth countries. Within this usage, there are sub-divisions denoting the various constituent groups: these are Africans, Asians, West Indians, Afro-Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Asian-Caribbeans and Black British. Working class refers essentially to those unskilled and semi-skilled Blacks who came to Britain throughout the period, but particularly during the heavy post-war immigration in search of jobs.

The task of writing this book has been made less onerous by the encouragement of many people, particularly Tim OKeeffe and Louise Floyd; Ziggi Alexander, Jane Anthony, Crispin Cross, Ghazala Faizi, Moira Ferguson, Peter Fraser, Peter Fryer, David Hill, Peter Hogg, David Paisey, Lina Patel, Brian Rooney, Allen Synge and Rosina Visram. I would also like to thank many of my colleagues and members of staff in the British Library (at the Reference Division, Bloomsbury, the Newspaper Library, Colindale and the India Office Library); the staffs at the Public Records Office Library (Chancery Lane and Kew); the Library of Economics and Political Science; the Institute of Commonwealth Studies Library; the Labour Party Library, and A. Sivanandan, Director of the Institute of Race Relations for permission to use the Institutes unique collection of material. My grateful thanks to Jen Scallan for her assistance.

Finally, I am grateful to my parents, brothers and sisters for their invaluable support.

Ron Ramdin
Bloomsbury, London
14 April 1986