Uneasy Alliances: British Muslims and Socialists since the 1950s

Abstract

The recent coalition between British Muslims and socialists, formed by the Respect Party in 2004, has provoked fierce debate about the extent to which the two ideologies of Islam and communism can actually work together. Yet since the 1950s, and even before this, Muslims, initially as part of a wider Asian struggle, worked closely with socialists to campaign against social exclusion, poor working and housing conditions, racist immigration laws and violent racist attacks. These earlier alliances, involving trade unionists and Asian workers in the 1960s and 1970s and youth movement activists and socialist groups in the 1970s and 1980s, were built on a secular basis, but were also often fractious with deep-rooted racism penetrating and undermining them. Recent economic, political and social conditions have brought Islamic identities to the fore and have also created the basis for a new and controversial alliance between British Muslims and the Left.

Notes

Sarah Glynn, ‘Marxism and Multiculturalism’, 2006, p.39; online papers archived by the Institute of Geography, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, available at <http://www.geos.ed.ac.uk/homes/sglynn/Multiculturalism.pdf>, accessed 24 Nov. 2008.

Peter Fryer, Staying Power (London: Pluto Press, 1984).

M. Anwar, Race and Politics: Ethnic Minorities and the British Political System (London: Tavistock Publications, 1986); Zig Layton-Henry, The Politics of Immigration: Immigration, Race and Race Relations in Post-War Britain (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992).

Later (in 1964) the Pakistani Welfare Association was formed followed by others such as the Bangladeshi and Kashmiri Workers' Associations. These were non-sectarian organizations that often worked together to confront racist immigration laws, trade unions, and cultural racism.

Dilip Hiro, cited in Hassan Mahamdallie, ‘Muslim Working Class Struggles’, International Socialism, Issue 113 (2007), p.9, available at <http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=288&issue=113>, accessed 21 April 2008.

Chris Wrigley, British Trade Unions, 1945–1995 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997), pp.157–8.

Mahamdallie, ‘Muslim Working Class Struggles’, p.12.

Ibid., p.11.

Jack Dromey and Graham Taylor, Grunwick: The Workers' Story (London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1978), p.103.

John Solomos, ‘The Politics of Immigration Since 1945’, in Peter Braham, Ali Rattansi and Richard Skellington (eds.), Racism and Anti-Racism (London: Sage and Open University Press, 1992), pp.7–29 (p.15); Zig Layton-Henry, The Politics of Immigration: Immigration, Race and Race Relations in Post-War Britain (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992).

For a more detailed account of the BHAG movement and why the Left failed to gain a foothold with Bengali Muslims in the East End of London, see Sarah Glynn, ‘Playing the Ethnic Card: Politics and Ghettoization in London's East End’, 2006; online papers archived by the Institute of Geography, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, available at <http://www.geos.ed.uk/homes/sglynn/Ghettoisation.pdf>, accessed 24 Nov. 2008.

Geoff Dench, Minorities in the Open Society: Prisoners of Ambivalence (1986), pp.172–3, cited in Ian Grosvenor, Assimilating Identities: Racism and Education Policy in Post-1945 Britain (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1997), p.150; see also James L. Watson, Between Two Cultures: Migrants and Minorities in Britain (Oxford: Blackwell, 1977).

Dench, Minorities in the Open Society (1986), cited in Grosvenor, Assimilating Identities, pp.172–3.

Ibid.

Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, The Empire Strikes Back (London: Hutchinson, 1982); Susie Daniel, Pat Doyle and Pete McGuire (eds.), The Paint House: Words from an East End Gang (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972); Geoffrey Pearson, Hooligan: A History of Respectable Fears (London: Macmillan, 1983).

However, Anandi Ramamurthy has argued that there was a class and gender dimension to the youth movements, with female movements being predominantly occupied (for example, in Birmingham) by middle-class women and the male movements being largely working-class.

Muhammad Anwar, The Myth of Return: Pakistanis in Britain (London: Heinemann, 1979).

Asian youth movement member, cited in Kala Tara: A History of the Asian Youth Movements in Britain, Tandana-Glowworm archive at <http://www.tandana.org>, accessed 15 Aug. 2008.

Tariq Mehmood, cited in Anandi Ramamurthy, ‘The Politics of Asian Youth Movements’, Race and Class, Vol.48, No.2 (2006), pp.38–60 (pp.43–4).

John Rose, ‘The Southall Asian Youth Movement’, Notes of the Month, International Socialism, No.91 (Sept. 1976), pp.5–6, available at <http://marxists.architexturez.net/history/etol/newspape/isj/1976/no091/rose.htm>, accessed 24 Nov. 2008.

Mukhtar Dar of the Asian youth movement, Sheffield and Birmingham, in Kala Tara, 2007, p.28, available at <http://www.tandana.org>, accessed 21 April 2008.

Nilofer Shaikh, cited in Ramamurthy, ‘The Politics of Britain's Asian Youth Movements’, p.56.

Yunas Samad, ‘Book Burning and Race Relations: Political Mobilization of Bradford Muslims’, New Community, Vol.18, No.4 (1992), pp.507–19.

Sarah Glynn, ‘Bengali Youth: The New East End Radicals?’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol.25, No.6 (2002), pp.969–88.

John Eade and David Garbin, ‘Competing Visions of Identity and Space: Bangladeshi Muslims in Britain’, Contemporary South Asia, Vol.15, No.2 (2006), pp.181–93.

General Synod of the Church of England, Faith in the City (London: Church House Publishing, 1987).

Salma Yaqoob, quoted from the Qur‘an when speaking at the SWP's Marxism event in London a few days after the London bombings on 7 July 2005, available at <http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/article.php3?id_article=892>, accessed 24 Nov. 2008.

The MAB, originating in an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, advocates a fundamentalist variety of Islam and enjoys minimal support in Britain.

Tariq Ali, ‘The Anti-Imperialist Left Confronted with Islam’, International Viewpoint, March 2006, at <http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/article.php3?id_article=1012>, accessed 24 Nov. 2008.

Alan Thornett, ‘The significance of Respect’, frontline 13 (Oct. 2008), at <http://www.redflag.org.uk/frontline/13/13respectat.html>, accessed 24 Nov. 2008.

Andy Newman, ‘Respect's Salma Yaqoob: “Determined campaigning and a radical agenda” ’, Green Left, 18 Oct. 2007, at <http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/728/37728>, accessed 24 Nov. 2008.

In Eran Benedek, ‘Britain's Respect Party: The Leftist–Islamist Alliance and Its Attitude toward Israel’, Jewish Political Studies Review, Vol.19, Nos.3–4 (2007), available at <http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=5&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=625&PID=0&IID=1911&TTL=Britain%E2%80%99s_Respect_Party:_The_Leftist-Islamist_Alliance_and_Its_Attitude_toward_Israel>, accessed 24 Nov. 2008.

Lindsey German, ‘A Badge of Honour. The Left Doesn't Have to Compromise Any Principle to Defend and Work with Muslims – On the Contrary’, The Guardian, 13 July 2004, available at <http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2004/jul/13/religion.world>, accessed 24 Nov. 2008.

Given in ‘Respect where it's due?’, Red Pepper, Nov. 2008, available at <http://www.redpepper.org.uk/Respect-where-it-s-due>, accessed 24 Nov. 2008.

‘Oona King Denounces Intimidation’, 11 May 2005, at <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4535885.stm>, accessed 24 Nov. 2008.

In ‘SWP's Respect Gambit’, Dec. 2005, available at <http://www.bolshevik.org/1917/no28/no28RespectArticle.html>, accessed 24 Nov. 2008; the constituencies referred to are located in East London.

‘The Founding Declaration of Respect – the Unity Coalition’, International Viewpoint, March 2004, available at <http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article90>, accessed 24 Nov. 2008.

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Farzana Shain

Farzana Shain is Senior Lecturer in Education at Keele University