The Grunwick exhibition will run from 19 October 2016 – 2 April 2017 at Willesden green Library
On 20th August 1976, one of the hottest days of the year, a group of South Asian workers walked out of a factory in protest at their working conditions and the way they were treated. Little did they know that this act would lead to a two-year strike and one of the largest mobilisations of support the UK had ever seen by trade unions, anti-racist campaigners and feminist groups. Led by Jayaben Desai, the striking workers demanded their right to be treated with dignity and to be represented by a union.
I am very pleased that I have been chosen to curate the "We are the Lions - the story of the Grunwick strike”, a commemorative exhibition about solidarity that opens on 19th October 2016 at Brent Museum. The work involves a huge amount of research; exploring archives, listening to interviews, rummaging in boxes of press cuttings and hunting down photographers and their photographs. I am also responsible for creating the conceptual elements of the exhibition and the sound design of the space. It is a gargantuan task that I am embracing with enthusiasm as the many layered perspectives on this particular moment of British industrial history reveal themselves in my research. I have found many photographs that have not been seen before, been submerged in the sounds of up to 20,000 people protesting in a narrow residential street, been engrossed in recently released special branch files, perplexed by the different perspectives on the ownership and psychology of protest, and overwhelmed by the plethora of press from the time that resonates today in terms of their screaming racist headlines of migrants etc. It is an ambitious task and the first comprehensive exhibition on the strike with the strikers in the centre of the historical analysis.
The Grunwick strike gained media attention and political prominence. It helped to change the perception of South Asian women in wider society and challenged trade unions to recognise the rights of minority and women workers. Today, it is remembered as an iconic struggle in trade union history and beyond.
‘We are the lions’ introduces the context and events of the Grunwick strike to stimulate a conversation about solidarity and collective organising. It illustrates the struggles of challenging power, the role of the police in industrial disputes, the part journalism and photography play in defining society, and how histories are created and remembered.
As the first workers left the factory, one – Jayaben Desai – offered a parting shot to the management - “What you are running here is not a factory, it is a zoo. But in a zoo there are many types of animals. Some are monkeys who dance on your fingertips, others are lions who can bite your head off. We are the lions, Mr Manager.”
Grunwick 40 aims to remember those lions.