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The making of the Black working class in Britain
A classic history of the role of Black working-class struggles throughout the twentieth century In this pioneering history, Ron Ramdin traces the roots of Britain’s disadvantaged black working class. From the development of a small black presence in the sixteenth century, through the colonial labour institutions of slavery, indentureship, and trade unionism, Ramdin expertly guides us through the stages of creation for a UK minority whose origins are often overlooked. He examines the emergence of a black radical ideology underpinning twentieth-century struggles against unemployment, racial attacks and workplace inequality, and delves into the murky realms of employer and trade union racism. First published in 1987, this revised edition includes a new introduction reflecting on events over the past four decades.
626 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 11, 2018
A book that should be in Every Political Science/British Political History/Political Philosophy lectures compulsory reading list.
Compulsory Reading
Compulsory Reading
August 20, 2024
This feels like quite an important book which I am glad I have had an opportunity to read but all the same it's a bit of a slog. There are moments where the book absolutely shines and at other times it feels very dry and it's hard to engage with the subject matter.
'The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain' was likely the first academic history of the black working class in Britain. Originally published in 1987 it attempts to document the history of the black working class from Elizabethan times to the late 20th Century. The book has informed further academic research in the 30+ years since it was published so this is a cornerstone of black British historical research.
At times the book is a little dry focusing on the biographies and histories of early black thinkers and activists. Their histories are important but it isn't the most engaging at times. What's evident is that in the early 20th Century there are multiple perspectives as to what it means to be black, British or a subject of the Empire. Reading it through a 21st Century lens one is struck by the tensions between black middle class leaders not representing the interests of the working class and the conflicts of appeals to 'white people's sense of good nature and objectivity' to articulate and campaign for black representation and views.
One thing Ramdin does well throughout is capture the political tensions between different black workers and peoples, based on geography, race, culture etc. For the purposes of his work, when he refers to black he means asians from the Indian subcontinent, black people from Africa and black people from the Caribbean. He never treats the people as a homogenous entity and articulates well the conflicts and commonalities between such groups.
Once one gets past the various personalities and groups in the early 20th century his coverage of the wider political and racial aspects of Britain is excellent. His coverage of the race riots in Cardiff and Liverpool and other places after the first world war is excellent, and it is a subject I knew little of. It is the same story repeated often - black merchant seaman based in port cities accused of undercutting white people's wages and competing for resources. The owners of the shipping companies are never blamed of course. I was reading this at a time when right wing racial violence erupted in the UK and some of the parallels were stark. It was hard to read some commentators express that this explosion of white racist violence was a new thing, when really it seems like it is something which never goes away and reoccurs. I am sure one could map economic concerns and political scaremongering over this and almost predict when racist rioting will occur. I didn't think this, but reading this was an important reminder that racism is not 'consigned to history' nor is what we are seeing right now 'new' to Britain. An element of British society has always been racist. It is the conditions that cause this racism to spur into violence that is different.
It was really hard to read the account of the Cardiff riots, and what was weird was although this was new to me, because of the political climate I started seeing people online sharing accounts of this time too. Whilst one would prefer it dead, this felt like an instance not only of living history but history brought to life too.
The book picks up a little when it reaches the post-war period and the impact of large scale immigration from British 'colonies' - largely needed to rebuild the country after the war. Race riots by white people occur again in the 1950's. What's also interesting is that it was the Conservative Party who were more pro-immigration than the Labour Party. The rationale given that, to deny the 'subjects of the Crown' the right to live in Britain would threaten the Commonwealth. This was in a period of national liberation movements, so I can certainly see why the Conservatives would take this position. It was the Labour Party who brought in stricter immigration rules, where one's Britishness depended as much on the colour of one's skin - ostensibly to protect white British workers salaries and jobs.
Whilst the Labour Party was founded on socialist principles (even today some laughably claim it is left-wing), any serious study of the party would find that it has always been a party of Imperialism and racism. Similarly, this book exposes how hard it was for the trade union movement to back black British workers. An undercurrent of racism pervades the trade union movement for decades - again, the perspective being that the trade union is for 'white working class people', not for all working class people.
This is something that British commentary still struggles with. Although black and asian people are overrepresented in the working class, when working class is mentioned here, it is often with the erasure of people who are not white. This book traces that history in the trade union movement and shows how rather than leading the fight against racism, it needed to be dragged along with racist attitudes in the trade union movement continuing up to the point of publication.
The coverage of industrial disputes in the 60's and 70's is brilliant and I wish there was more of it. There was a good section about a strike in my home town which I have read about before where black workers (who made up 2/3 of the workforce) were given ostensibly huge paycuts and walked out. One feature of all the major strikes by black workers in the period was that they had no or limited support of the trade union movement. It's notable today that migrant workers have needed to organise outside of the 'big' remaining unions.
I also read for the first time about a 'working men's Labour club' in my own city which instituted a colour bar in the mid-70's. The case was taken to the House of Lords where it was found that as it was a private members club it could still discriminate against black workers. It took another decade or so for these places to let women in too but my town and the Labour movement don't cover themselves in glory here. This led me down a rabbit hole of research learning more about this dispute where I recalled retired professional wrestlers who worked as gentle taxi drivers and the accounts of Windrush immigrants - one of whom I recall growing up with two of their grandchildren (I don't have happy memories at all here but again, this dry book did help make some history relevant).
The later section covering black consciousness as a liberating force is slim, and the book is crying out for more on the riots in Brixton, Toxteth and other places. I liked the book trying to map the difference in community and activist groups and the relative nature of their ability to work together - or not. Ramdin never uses the word 'intersectional' but his work on black feminism, gendered discrimination intersecting with class and racial discrimination is very good. You can see the touchpoints in the book which perhaps influenced later theory.
At times the book is discussing individual figures and organisations which detracts from it's purpose of articulating the black working class. At times there is an absence of working class voices in here, and it doesn't quite work as an ethnographical study of the black working class. Without being explicit, it feels at times a history book written for Marxists by a Marxist, albeit with a critical eye, with it's strong focus on organisations - rather than activity.
Throughout I was wondering what the author would consider if he wrote additional chapters today and of the changes in black consciousness. In many respects the challenges remain the same, even if one can point to potential improvements. I wonder how he would view the black middle class, the influence of race on the trade union movement and modern political parties. How would he view the influence of Black Lives Matter? The difference between how people of the Islamic faiths are treated compared to others. How would he reflect on the more recent wave of immigration from Africa and the Indian subcontinent - largely to fill care roles following Brexit? The perceptions of refugees and the impact of Imperial wars around the world?
Perhaps these topics are for other scholars and historians, but Ramdin does a decent enough job of laying the groundwork for others to pick these topics up with a reference point to the history that came before it.
'The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain' was likely the first academic history of the black working class in Britain. Originally published in 1987 it attempts to document the history of the black working class from Elizabethan times to the late 20th Century. The book has informed further academic research in the 30+ years since it was published so this is a cornerstone of black British historical research.
At times the book is a little dry focusing on the biographies and histories of early black thinkers and activists. Their histories are important but it isn't the most engaging at times. What's evident is that in the early 20th Century there are multiple perspectives as to what it means to be black, British or a subject of the Empire. Reading it through a 21st Century lens one is struck by the tensions between black middle class leaders not representing the interests of the working class and the conflicts of appeals to 'white people's sense of good nature and objectivity' to articulate and campaign for black representation and views.
One thing Ramdin does well throughout is capture the political tensions between different black workers and peoples, based on geography, race, culture etc. For the purposes of his work, when he refers to black he means asians from the Indian subcontinent, black people from Africa and black people from the Caribbean. He never treats the people as a homogenous entity and articulates well the conflicts and commonalities between such groups.
Once one gets past the various personalities and groups in the early 20th century his coverage of the wider political and racial aspects of Britain is excellent. His coverage of the race riots in Cardiff and Liverpool and other places after the first world war is excellent, and it is a subject I knew little of. It is the same story repeated often - black merchant seaman based in port cities accused of undercutting white people's wages and competing for resources. The owners of the shipping companies are never blamed of course. I was reading this at a time when right wing racial violence erupted in the UK and some of the parallels were stark. It was hard to read some commentators express that this explosion of white racist violence was a new thing, when really it seems like it is something which never goes away and reoccurs. I am sure one could map economic concerns and political scaremongering over this and almost predict when racist rioting will occur. I didn't think this, but reading this was an important reminder that racism is not 'consigned to history' nor is what we are seeing right now 'new' to Britain. An element of British society has always been racist. It is the conditions that cause this racism to spur into violence that is different.
It was really hard to read the account of the Cardiff riots, and what was weird was although this was new to me, because of the political climate I started seeing people online sharing accounts of this time too. Whilst one would prefer it dead, this felt like an instance not only of living history but history brought to life too.
The book picks up a little when it reaches the post-war period and the impact of large scale immigration from British 'colonies' - largely needed to rebuild the country after the war. Race riots by white people occur again in the 1950's. What's also interesting is that it was the Conservative Party who were more pro-immigration than the Labour Party. The rationale given that, to deny the 'subjects of the Crown' the right to live in Britain would threaten the Commonwealth. This was in a period of national liberation movements, so I can certainly see why the Conservatives would take this position. It was the Labour Party who brought in stricter immigration rules, where one's Britishness depended as much on the colour of one's skin - ostensibly to protect white British workers salaries and jobs.
Whilst the Labour Party was founded on socialist principles (even today some laughably claim it is left-wing), any serious study of the party would find that it has always been a party of Imperialism and racism. Similarly, this book exposes how hard it was for the trade union movement to back black British workers. An undercurrent of racism pervades the trade union movement for decades - again, the perspective being that the trade union is for 'white working class people', not for all working class people.
This is something that British commentary still struggles with. Although black and asian people are overrepresented in the working class, when working class is mentioned here, it is often with the erasure of people who are not white. This book traces that history in the trade union movement and shows how rather than leading the fight against racism, it needed to be dragged along with racist attitudes in the trade union movement continuing up to the point of publication.
The coverage of industrial disputes in the 60's and 70's is brilliant and I wish there was more of it. There was a good section about a strike in my home town which I have read about before where black workers (who made up 2/3 of the workforce) were given ostensibly huge paycuts and walked out. One feature of all the major strikes by black workers in the period was that they had no or limited support of the trade union movement. It's notable today that migrant workers have needed to organise outside of the 'big' remaining unions.
I also read for the first time about a 'working men's Labour club' in my own city which instituted a colour bar in the mid-70's. The case was taken to the House of Lords where it was found that as it was a private members club it could still discriminate against black workers. It took another decade or so for these places to let women in too but my town and the Labour movement don't cover themselves in glory here. This led me down a rabbit hole of research learning more about this dispute where I recalled retired professional wrestlers who worked as gentle taxi drivers and the accounts of Windrush immigrants - one of whom I recall growing up with two of their grandchildren (I don't have happy memories at all here but again, this dry book did help make some history relevant).
The later section covering black consciousness as a liberating force is slim, and the book is crying out for more on the riots in Brixton, Toxteth and other places. I liked the book trying to map the difference in community and activist groups and the relative nature of their ability to work together - or not. Ramdin never uses the word 'intersectional' but his work on black feminism, gendered discrimination intersecting with class and racial discrimination is very good. You can see the touchpoints in the book which perhaps influenced later theory.
At times the book is discussing individual figures and organisations which detracts from it's purpose of articulating the black working class. At times there is an absence of working class voices in here, and it doesn't quite work as an ethnographical study of the black working class. Without being explicit, it feels at times a history book written for Marxists by a Marxist, albeit with a critical eye, with it's strong focus on organisations - rather than activity.
Throughout I was wondering what the author would consider if he wrote additional chapters today and of the changes in black consciousness. In many respects the challenges remain the same, even if one can point to potential improvements. I wonder how he would view the black middle class, the influence of race on the trade union movement and modern political parties. How would he view the influence of Black Lives Matter? The difference between how people of the Islamic faiths are treated compared to others. How would he reflect on the more recent wave of immigration from Africa and the Indian subcontinent - largely to fill care roles following Brexit? The perceptions of refugees and the impact of Imperial wars around the world?
Perhaps these topics are for other scholars and historians, but Ramdin does a decent enough job of laying the groundwork for others to pick these topics up with a reference point to the history that came before it.
November 1, 2022
this is an absolute monster of a book - i made the mistake of not realising ramdin’s 600+ page tome was essentially (well sourced, well written and comprehensive) textbook. fascinating and well laid out but dear god don’t try to tackle the whole thing at once like i did
December 20, 2024
An excellent read, and genuinely eye-opening, especially regarding trade unions and their involvement in perpetuating white supremacist attitudes, to their own detriment. Somewhat boring and tediously written during some chapters, but overall engaging and well-written. Funny, too.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews