Jayaben Desai: Lessons from the past for the future

The scene outside Grunwick's, Chapter Road, Willesden as painted by Dan Jones

The Tricycle Cinema was crowded this afternoon for a commemoration of Jayaben Desai, leader of the Grunwick Strike Committee, who died in December 2010.  The meeting temporarily brought together councillors and activists who have recently been battling over local council cuts.  As the audience reflected on the events of the 1970s both sides could draw lessons from this historical strike.

As I watched the film and once again saw Jayaben's bravery in the face of police violence, her impish sense of humour that bettered many a journalist, her self-identification as a strong woman against crude stereotypes of Asian female submissiveness and  most of all her steadfastness in standing up for her rights and that of her fellow workers, I could not help but be moved.  As people spoke about Jayaben from different perspectives our appreciation deepened. We heard from Amrit Wilson how Jayaben invited her to her home and talked at length about herself and the strike and the links with race and colonial struggle. It was alleged that George Ward, the Grunwick boss, continued to pursue Jayaben after her death, with threats of legal action against obituarists who mentioned accusations of racism  at Grunwick.

We heard from an Asian Women's group how Jayaben clashed with the group's chair about the suppression of ego and advised the women to stop buying jewellery with their money but instead empower themselves by using the money instead to buy driving lessons. It also emerged that she was an erudite contributor to the Gujerati Literary Society.

Cllr Janice Long asked for support to persuade Brent Council to name a building after Jayaben Desai to commemorate her life and urged to audience to write to the leader of the council, Cllr Ann John, who was  also present. Another speaker, stressing the need for children to be educated about the importance of Jayaben's role, urged that a school be named after here.

Broader issues were also raised. Pete Firmin linked the struggles of immigrant workers, and the support they received from  rank and file white trade unionists, with David Cameron's attacks on multiculturalism and the attempt to divide new arrivals into 'good' and 'bad' migrants.  Jack Dromey, then Secretary of Brent Trades Council and now a Labour MP reminded the meeting that a few years before Grunwick, dockers and Smithfield meat porters had marched in support of Enoch Powell after his 'rivers of blood' speech. Jayaben had said, 'We are lions - I am afraid of no one' . She went on to say that the strike had shown that immigrant workers will fight and white workers will support them. Dromey concluded that Grunwicks had 'demonstrated all that is best in our movement and in our immigrant community'.

There were many critical comments about the TUC's role at Grunwick's and warnings that their lack of will to fully use their potential power remains in 2011 as we face the attacks on public services, benefits and the vulnerable. Geoff Shears, at the time a young  legal representative for the strikers, confessed that he had felt intimidated by Mrs Desai.   He said that anti-trade union laws did not exist in their present form then but instead there was a conspiracy that enabled courts to break the law by restricting the solidarity action of postal workers, the police to break the law by attacking pickets, and George Ward to ignore the recommendations of the Scarman Inquiry that came down 90% in favour of the strikers.  He said that had prepared the ground for Thatcher in the 1980s and warned that it would be used again by the Coalition government.  Mrs Desai had understood the meaning of solidarity as requirement for workers to organise collectively to ensure that the unions served their interests.

Billy Hayes, General Secretary of the Communication  Workers Union (successor to the Union of Post Office Workers) said that the union's next conference would be considering awarding honorary membership to Jayaben Desai and wiping out the fines imposed by the union on the Cricklewood postmen who refused to deliver Grunwick mail at the time.

As I have remarked on this blog before LINK Jayeben and the story of Grunwick is a far better subject for children to study in Brent Black History Month than rehashed versions of American black history that currently dominate the curriculum.

URGENT - library consultation critique needed by noon tomorrow

The Kensal Rise Library Users have put out an urgent call for feedback to to their legal advisers concerning the Council's consultation on libraries. The feedback is need by noon tomorrow (Monday 18th April). Send to kensalriselibraryusers@hotmail.co.uk

1. in what ways is the statistical information about use of the
 libraries up for closure misleadingly presented in the officers'report?:

2. what relevant information about local needs and impact of the
proposed closures could the Council gave gathered, but did not (e.g. the
views of schools, the Education Dept., regular users who were
disproportionately under represented amongst consultation responders)
and what difference might that information have made?;

3. what else is wrong with the needs assessment included in the
officers' reports?;

4. the impact of the six closures on use of the remaining libraries (and
indeed the impact of the future planned closure of one of the remaining
ones) does not seem to have been analysed. This seems to be a serious
shortcoming. In your view, if the Council's plans are successful and all
those who currently use the six libraries up for closure do use the six
remaining ones, will that be practical? If not, what particular problems
will there be;

5. are there groups that can be defined in terms of race, gender,
sexuality, disability and religion whose particular needs are met by one
or more of the libraries up for closure, but will not be in future and
have not been taken into account in the equality impact assessment: and

6. what comments the public made in response to the consultation (by any
means - i.e. in meetings or written submissions as well as on the
on-line questionnaire) that were either not passed on to the Cabinet, or
were summarized in a misleading way?
 

Labour Councillor: Closing libraries is 'the best thing we've done'.

I am just back from holiday and catching up on local news. It was no surprise to hear that the Brent Executive voted through the library closures as that decision was anticipated by the budget approved by the Council earlier, by the officers' report to the Council and by Cllr Powney's utterances throughout. 'Consultation', 9,000 petition signatures, 'Big Society' schemes and even two hours of eloquent  presentations to the Executive. mean nothing if the Labour leadership and its supine councillors have already made up their minds.

The attitude of some Labour councillors is summed up by this comment posted on the Save Preston Library Facebook page. Cllr Colum Mahoney was alleged to have said at the end of the meeting when demonstrators said how gutted they were at losing their library:

He said with a wide grin on his face, "It's the best thing we've done." As we he was walking out of the Town Hall doors, he shouted back at us, "Go and read some books."

The issue of the Civic Centre has come to the fore as a result of the press and TV coverage and the Conservatives on the Council, despite being part of the previous Council Coalition that initiated the project, are now more vocal in their opposition. When all the political parties on the council voted unanimously for the Civic Centre, the Greens were the only voice of opposition.  Cllr Reg Colwill can bee seen on the London ITN News criticising the project:



Interestingly even the Wall Street Journal LINK suggests that Brent Council could move into cheap office space:

......instead of constructing what it aims to be "the greenest building in the U.K." Forgoing the new center's wedding garden, winter garden, terrace, and charging points for electric cars might also leave a little more cash for libraries.

My colleague Shahrar Ali has posted a report on the Executive Meeting HERE

The question for me remains, 'What price local democracy?' The Willesden and Brent Times last week in a editorial echoed my warnings about the impact of poor consultation procedures, decisions made in advance of consultations and the rubbishing of active citizenship on the electorate's long-term relationship with the Council. The Council may express concern that only 20% of residents use the public libraries - those same 20% are probably a much bigger proportion of those people who actually vote at local elections (only just over half of those on the electoral roll last May).

I'll be missing all the action on Monday

I will not be posting for a week as I am taking a week's holiday.  Many thanks for all those who at various meetings, demonstrations etc have made positive comments on Wembley Matters and encouraged me to 'keep on blogging'. I look forward to hearing how things went at Monday's Executive Meeting when I return.

Tribute to Jayaben Desai, Sunday April 17th

Click on image to enlarge

LOBBY EXECUTIVE MEETING FROM 6.00 PM ON MONDAY TO SAVE OUR LIBRARIES

Brent Fightback along with library campaigners will be lobbying the Executive Meeting on Monday outside the Town Hall from 6pm. The Executive is the decision making body on library closures. The Extraordinary Council Meeting later in the week is not empowered to change Executive decisions. 

Public attendance arrangements for Monday's Executive meeting are the same as for the recent budget setting Council meeting. Admittance will be by ticket on a first come - first served basis.  Tickets will be distributed at the Town Hall door from around 6pm.  There will be 48 tickets only for the public gallery.

There is a notice on the door of the Town Hall Library saying that the library, which usually closes at 8pm on a Monday, will be closed at 5pm 'Due to the Executive Meeting'. This presumably is to avoid any repeat of the Council Meeting when protesters,  frustrated at the limitation on attendance,  circumvented security and the police by entering the Town Hall through the adjoining library.  Certainly 48 is a very small number of the public compared with the more than 9,000 who have signed petitions to keep the libraries open..

Both The Willesden and Brent Times and Wembley and Willesden Observer have editorials critical of Brent Council this week. The WBT says Labour councillors have 'steam-rollered' their original plans through and ignored the results of consultation. They state along similar lines that I have argued here:

As one activist said, the impression is that the council is just going through the motions rather than taking people's views into account. If the council are not careful residents will just stop engaging with them or, in their eyes, worse, take their votes elsewhere.

 The WWO says residents have never been so vocal as on the libraries issue and say it has left campaigners wondering what the point of consulting was if their views were always intended to be ignored:

It seems the protesters were unfortunately always doomed to fail in this sham of a process which has now been deemed a farce by campaign groups. Brent Council had already made up its mind when it set the budget back in February - before the consultation finished.

They call on the Executive to look beyond the closure report and:

consider the overwhelming community spirit which has united the borough in the crusade to save their beloved reading rooms...

 It is rare for our local newspapers to criticise the council in such harsh terms and great to see them making a firm stand alongside local people in the best tradition of a strong local press holding the council to account.  A huge turn-out on Monday is essential to reinforce the message: The fight for our libraries and our other services is not yet lost. The ConDem government is doing a u-turn on the NHS, Brent Council should think again.

Brent Library Closures Hit Evening Standard

Follow this link for today's story LINK  The story contrasts the library closures with the £3m to be spent on a mega library at the new Civic Centre

The Future Under Carbon-rationing as Climate Change Hits Crisis Point

Author Saci Lloyd will visit the Willesden Green Library Centre on Saturday 9^th April  to read from her acclaimed teenage novels “The Carbon Diaries 2015” and “The Carbon Diaries 2017”. Following the readings there will be discussion with a teenage audience about the prospect of carbon rationing in the UK and feelings about the threat of Climate Change.

This event is the first in a series of “Green Writers” at the Willesden Green Library Centre, where authors will read from their books about an environmental aspect and discuss them with the audience. The series is organised by the Brent Campaign against Climate Change in liaison with the Willesden Green Library.

Saci Lloyd's first novel “The Carbon Diaries 2015” was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards in 2008.  Its heroine is Laura Brown, a teenager who struggles to cope with her family, dreams of a breakthrough with her punk band and fancies the boy next door. When on 1^st January 2015, the UK is the first nation to introduce carbon dioxide rationing, Laura chronicles the events of  this drastic bid to combat climate change and illustrates how carbon rationing is threatening to turn her family, her local environment and the whole country out of control.

In the sequel “The Carbon Diaries 2017” Laura tours Europe with her punk band and becomes involved with an increasingly dramatic sequence of climate change-related events that include drought in Europe and Africa, a tidal-wave of desperate immigrants, a water war in the Middle East and clashes between Londoners and the army in the town centre.

Ken Montague, Secretary of the Brent Campaign against Climate Change says, “After the failure of the Copenhagen Climate Summit and the limited outcome of the recent climate talks it is easy to forget that if we don’t act now climate change will be a far worse threat to our future than the economic crisis. It will be the generation of Laura Brown's children who will see the fight over natural resources. ”

The reading and discussion is from 2- 4pm on Saturday, 9^th April 2011 at the Willesden Green Library Centre, 95 High Road, Willesden, NW10 2SF. All are welcome. Please bring your copy of the “Carbon Diaries” along if you would like it to be signed by the author.