These Indian women shook Britain in in 1976 | The Grunwick Strike | Jayaben Desai | Nutshell 

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Wow never knew this story.Salute to this brave woman.

Thank you so much nutshell...for introducing me to such a great woman... She is a real hero 🥺

Thanks you! I was an overseas student in Britain in the 1970s and I attended that National Day of Action against Grunwick on 11 July 1977. Yes, in mid-1976, a group of Asian women, mostly Indian and led by Jayaben Desai, were sacked for trying to form a union at the Grunwick film processing laboratory in North West London. I understand that George Ward, the owner of Grunwick was an Anglo Indian. Back in those days of film photography, having film processed over the counter in supermarkets and so forth was pretty expensive due to high labour and rental costs and one could have their film processed for about about 33% cheaper by mailing the film roll with a cheque for the processing and amount of prints such as 12, 24 and 36 to one of these film processing laboratories which would process the film, make the prints and mail them back to you. After a summer of racial tensions, racist and anti-racist protests, news of the ongoing Grunwick strike (more actually a picket by sacked workers) began to appear in socialist and communist party media, as well as in the mainstream media, as well as on TV and radio. In the first half of 1977, these media began to report the management of Grunwick bringing in a busload of scabs (strikebreakers) and the unionised workers trying to block the scab bus from getting through but failed. The postal workers' union stopped delivering mail to and from Grunwick in solidarity, which of course cut off Grunwick from its business which relied on the snail mail of that time, and the British Post Office retaliated by sealing off the slot in all postboxes in that suburb of London, as if to turn the residents against the strikers and their union supporters. Yes, around 20,000 unionised workers attended that National Day of Action, including the coal miners, the postal workers, the dock workers and others, as well as students, leftists, socialists, communists and so forth turned up to fill the road and stop the scab bus from getting in, whilst the police tried to push the workers aside to let the bus in. I remember standing amongst the group of protestors being pushed back by the police, and then a column of miners, with banners waving and chanting "The Workers United, Will Never be Defeated!" came marching up from behind us and helped us push the police back, though it was a hell of a crush like I've never felt before. Then, if I recall right, the Trade Union Congress organised a march of protesting workers around the suburb, which drew away the numbers trying to stop the scab bus from getting in, and the scab bus got in. That evening, me and my student colleagues who were there attended a workers' cultural event in a pub in that suburb. Overall the feeling of class solidarity and common purpose across ethnic lines that day was exhilarating. The Grunwick workers' strike was betrayed by Britain's so-called "Labour" government, in collaboration with the leadership of the Trade Union Congress (Aristocracy of Labour) which quite literally sold the Grunwick strikers down the drain. Also the APEX union which gradually withdrew its support for the Grunwick strikers. The objective conditions facing workers today within this neo-liberal, globalised world is no doubt different than those days in Britain, and labour unions are more of or less shadows of themselves today. However, the contradictions of the neo-liberal, globalised, capitalist-imperialist system will one day see the proverbial Pheonix Rise Again from the proverbial ashes! Workers of the World Unite!

Every time @Nutshell brings us such unknown stories which we had never heard of neither would have ever known. Hats off to your efforts.

A great documentry thanks for uploading

Thanks for bringing this to us

I want more , this type of unknown stories from NUTSHELL. 😊

So inspiring. It made my morning great & good too.

Never heard about this. Very interesting video!

Thank you for this wonderful and inspiring story....nutshell 🙂

Woah that's so cool....

INDIANS are BEST ❤️😎🇮🇳

At the beginning i thought this was a part of a independence movement !!!!

130+k subscribers and less than 5000 views on this landmark moment of history 😣

Would you remember me when you will get famous

शेरनी 🙌🏼

Britain at it's best!

Nutshell if u read this comment i would like to thank you to bring some unknown stories