The Race against Racism

Abstract

This chapter and the following two examine the municipal Left’s initiatives on equal opportunities for blacks, women and gays and lesbians. The roots of these initiatives lay very much outside the traditional Labour movement, stemming from the single issue campaigns and community action of the 1970s. Disenchanted with the limitations of this kind of pressure group politics, and growing weary of internal splits, many of the activists joined the Labour party and attempted to broaden its concerns away from traditional issues. Some became councillors themselves. So, gradually, these new concerns crept onto the political agenda.

‘This was exemplified in the autumn of 1979 when the principal race advisor and the race advisor in management services were given a hostile reception at a shop stewards meeting in one of the large predominantly blue-collar directorates. Their instant view of the Race Relations Unit and the Equal Opportunities Policy was encapsulated in a statement made by one of the stewards: “We know what you’re up to. If you think you’re going to turn up with a truck load of niggers on a Monday morning and tell us we have to take them on, you’ve got another thing coming!”’ (Ouseley, 1983, p. 170).