Hackney People's Press: Black Solidarity Day - Strike Against Racism
Object
Newspaper
Production date
August 1978
Object number
2026.19
Physical Description
Hackney People's Press newspaper (Black Solidarity Day - Strike Against Racism) August 1978 No. 35
Object history
Hackney People's Press was a local left wing newspaper published between 1973 and 1985. Hackney People's Press was formed through a merger between two radical newspapers, Hackney Gutter Press and Hackney Action, which were published in the early 1970s. The paper was known for covering both social and political topics, such as anti-racism, women's rights, council housing and policing.
Associated Organisation
Hackney People's Press (Publisher)
Material
Paper
Dimension
Height (Cover): 419mm
Width (Cover): 294mm
Width (Cover): 294mm
On display?
No
Inscription
Black Solidarity Day
Strike Against Racism
On Monday 17 July there was a day of strikes and demonstrations in protest against racial violence and discrimination in east London. The Black Solidarity Day, organised by the Tower Hamlets and Hackney Defence Committee, culminated in a large sit-down demonstration outside Bethnal Green police station as 2,000 Asians protested against the arrest of three people during the day.
There was a meeting at 10 am at the Naz Cinema in Brick Lane, attended by about 1500 people from surrounding areas. During the day all the Bengali shops and factories in and around Brick Lane were shut and about 70 per cent of the Asian shops in Hackney were closed also.
Factories in Commercial Road and New Road also closed as Asian workers responded to the strike call. The body plant at the Forde Dagenham closed as the Asians there also went on strike.
Local schools were also affected, especially the Robert Montefiore School in Spitalfields which has a high percentage of Asian pupils.
About 300 children stayed away, and in South Hackney School there was an assembly dedicated to the opposition of racism.
At 1pm there was a meeting outside Hackney Town Hall attended by black community leaders, local trade unionists, councillors and local people, including a contingent of school children, mainly from Clapton School.
Patrick Kodikara, chairman of the Hackney Council for Racial Equality, and member of the strike committee, announced that most of the working Bengali members of the Brick Lane community had responded to the strike call and he called for action against racism in all walks of life: employment, housing etc and especially in the attitude of the police force.
Dudley Dryden of the Association of Jamaicans in the UK remind-- audience of past racial murders leading up to the recent murder of Altab Ali in the East End. He said that forming self-defence groups was the last thing the black community wanted to do, but the present climate of violence was calling for such action.
Strike Against Racism
On Monday 17 July there was a day of strikes and demonstrations in protest against racial violence and discrimination in east London. The Black Solidarity Day, organised by the Tower Hamlets and Hackney Defence Committee, culminated in a large sit-down demonstration outside Bethnal Green police station as 2,000 Asians protested against the arrest of three people during the day.
There was a meeting at 10 am at the Naz Cinema in Brick Lane, attended by about 1500 people from surrounding areas. During the day all the Bengali shops and factories in and around Brick Lane were shut and about 70 per cent of the Asian shops in Hackney were closed also.
Factories in Commercial Road and New Road also closed as Asian workers responded to the strike call. The body plant at the Forde Dagenham closed as the Asians there also went on strike.
Local schools were also affected, especially the Robert Montefiore School in Spitalfields which has a high percentage of Asian pupils.
About 300 children stayed away, and in South Hackney School there was an assembly dedicated to the opposition of racism.
At 1pm there was a meeting outside Hackney Town Hall attended by black community leaders, local trade unionists, councillors and local people, including a contingent of school children, mainly from Clapton School.
Patrick Kodikara, chairman of the Hackney Council for Racial Equality, and member of the strike committee, announced that most of the working Bengali members of the Brick Lane community had responded to the strike call and he called for action against racism in all walks of life: employment, housing etc and especially in the attitude of the police force.
Dudley Dryden of the Association of Jamaicans in the UK remind-- audience of past racial murders leading up to the recent murder of Altab Ali in the East End. He said that forming self-defence groups was the last thing the black community wanted to do, but the present climate of violence was calling for such action.