‘Dispute’, ‘Battle’, ‘Siege’, ‘Farce’?—Grunwick 30 Years On

Abstract

This article examines the Grunwick Dispute of 1976–1978 as a microcosm of British socio-economic and political life with profound consequences for the 1980s and beyond. It considers the development of the National Association for Freedom, its increasing influence on the Conservative Party, and relations between the Left and the Callaghan Government.

Keywords:

• Callaghan Government
• National Association for Freedom
• Industrial Relations
• Race
• The Left in the 1970s

Acknowledgements

The initial research for this article was undertaken for an MA dissertation in Twentieth-Century British History at Queen Mary, University of London. I am grateful to my MA supervisor Dr Peter Catterall, Professor Peter Hennessy and my PhD supervisor Dr Dan Todman for their encouragement and support in the development of this article.

Notes

  [1] Thatcher, ‘Speech to the Conservative Party Conference, Brighton, 12 October 1984’, Collected Speeches, 215, 219, 223–4.

  [2] Rogaly, Grunwick, 18.

  [3] Scarman, Report, 5.

  [4] Kessler ‘Trade Union Recognition’, 62.

  [5] Morgan, People's Peace, 415.

  [6] Paul Foot, in Timeshift: The Grunwick Strike, BBC Four Television, first broadcast 28 December 2002.

  [7] Dromey and Taylor, Grunwick; Ward, Fort Grunwick. However, Durkin, Bravery and Betrayal, provides an often perceptive self-critique of divisions amongst the Left.

  [8] Rogaly, Grunwick.

  [9] Scarman, Report, 4.

 [10] Durkin, Bravery and Betrayal, 7.

 [11] Scarman, Report, 15–7.

 [12] Dromey and Taylor, Grunwick, 57.

 [13] Benn, Conflict of Interest, 222–3.

 [14] Booth, Memo to PM: ‘Objections to the Idea of an Early Announcement of a Court of Inquiry Under the Industrial Courts Act 1919’, 28 July 1977; The National Archive, LAB 77/83.

 [15] Scarman, Report, 22.

 [16] Durkin, Bravery and Betrayal, 11.

 [17] Rt Hon. Albert Booth, Private correspondence, 27 April 2006.

 [18] Benn, Conflict of Interest, 223.

 [19] Ward, Fort Grunwick, 55.

 [20] Durkin, Bravery and Betrayal, 7.

 [21] The Times, 20 May 1977.

 [22] Timeshift, BBC TV.

 [23] Thatcher, Path to Power, 398.

 [24] Baroness Williams of Crosby, Private correspondence, 26 March 2006.

 [25] In The Grunwick Legacy, written and presented by Melissa Benn, produced by Sally Flatman, BBC Radio Four, first broadcast 1 October 2001.

 [26] Whitehead, Writing on the Wall, 217.

 [27] Grunwick Legacy, BBC R4.

 [28] Private correspondence, 26 March 2006.

 [29] While beyond the scope of this article, allegations of police collusion with management and the use of agents provocateurs—and counter-allegations of intimidation and unprovoked violence by pickets—remain perhaps the most contentious aspects of the Grunwick Dispute. Research undertaken on these issues, and substantial analysis of media coverage of Grunwick, will form the basis for future publications.

 [30] Rogaly, Grunwick, 90.

 [31] Dromey, in Milestones 4: 23 August 1977—the Grunwick Strike, Radio Network International, BBC Radio Four, first broadcast 27 November 1996.

 [32] Taylor, ‘The Party and the Trade Unions’, 499.

 [33] The Times, 17 September 1974.

 [34] Timeshift, BBC TV.

 [35] Wedderburn, ‘The Employment Protection Act 1975’, 169.

 [36] Hawkins, Conflict and Change, 199.

 [37] Brian Walden, Weekend World: Grunwick—Who'll Win?, London Weekend Television, first broadcast 16 October 1977.

 [38] Durkin, Bravery and Betrayal, 10.

 [39] Taylor, ‘The Party and the Trade Unions’, 528; Wood and Goddard ‘Statutory Union Recognition Procedure in the Employment Relations Bill’, 212.

 [40] Taylor, Trade Union Question, 241.

 [41] Taylor, ‘The Party and the Trade Unions’, 531.

 [42] Robert Moss, Time Out, 8–14 July 1977.

 [43] Unattributed, Thatcher, Path to Power, 398.

 [44] Private correspondence, 26 March 2006.

 [45] McNee, Report, 25.

 [46] Trades Union Congress Archive, London Metropolitan University, HD 5366.

 [47] Spare Rib, no. 61, August 1977.

 [48] Phizaclea and Miles, ‘The Strike at Grunwick’, 275.

 [49] Ramdin, Making of the Black Working Class, 271–80; Wilson, Finding a Voice.

 [50] ‘UK Commentary: Race, Class and the State (2) A—Grunwick’, Race & Class, XIX, no. 1, (1977), 71.

 [51] Grunwick Legacy, BBC R4; Benn, ‘The Heroine of Dollis Hill’, The Guardian, 31 October 2001.

 [52] Phizaclea and Miles, ‘The Strike at Grunwick’, 275.

 [53] Grunwick Legacy, BBC R4.

 [54] Milestones, BBC R4.

 [55] Coe, Rotter's Club, 242. Coe acknowledges drawing upon Dromey and Taylor, Grunwick.

 [56] Dromey and Taylor, Grunwick, 40.

 [57] Baroness Williams of Crosby, conversation with the author, 29 March 2006.

 [58] Ward, Fort Grunwick, 48; Apex, 14, no. 12, August/September 1976.

 [59] 1997 interview, Milestones, BBC R4.

 [60] ‘Freedom Association—the Political Connection’, Labour Research, March 1989; ‘National Association for Freedom’, Labour Party Research Department Information Paper No. 9, December 1977, 9, TUC Archive, JN1129 LAB; Gordon and Klug, New Right, 28.

 [61] The Free Nation, 2–15 February 1979.

 [62] McNee, McNee's Law, 100–1.

 [63] Milestones, BBC R4.

 [64] Durkin, Bravery and Betrayal, 11.

 [65] TNA, LAB 77/83.

 [66] Scarman, Report, 6.

 [67] Private correspondence, 26 March 2006.

 [68] Durkin, Bravery and Betrayal, 7.

 [69] Clutterbuck, Media and Political Violence, 23.

 [70] Socialist Worker, 2 July 77.

 [71] William Rodgers, Milestones, BBC R4.

 [72] Timeshift, BBC TV.

 [73] Undated Minutes of Rees Committee on Grunwick, TNA, LAB 77/83.

 [74] PM's Private Secretary to Home, Employment, Industry and Attorney General's Departments, 6 and 15 July 1977, TNA, LAB 77/83.

 [75] The Times, 24 June 1977.

 [76] Morgan, People's Peace, 414.

 [77] Durkin, Bravery and Betrayal, 14.

 [78] Telephone Call to Booth from the Royal Yacht, 24 June 1977, TNA, LAB 77/83.

 [79] Milestones, BBC R4.

 [80] Letter to Joseph, 28 June 1977, TNA, LAB 77/83.

 [81] New Statesman, July 1977, 840.

 [82] The Times, 17 December 1975.

 [83] McWhirter, Ross, 218.

 [84] McWhirter, A Brief History, http://www.tfa.net/pdfs/his01.pdf

 [85] Oxford undergraduate Margaret Roberts' opinions on the 1945 Yalta Agreement were ‘transformed into opposition on hearing a powerful speech by Lord De L'Isle and Dudley to OUCA’; Thatcher, Path to Power, 57.

 [86] Undated NAFF pamphlet, TUC Archive, JN329.P7.

 [87] Labour Research Department Information Paper No. 9, December 1977, TUC Archive, JN1129 LAB.

 [88] Jennings, Enemy Within, 4, 8.

 [89] Freedom Today, October 1983, 4.

 [90] Moss, Collapse of Democracy, 21, 23, 28.

 [91] Moss, Collapse of Democracy, 9–10.

 [92] Whitehead, Writing on the Wall, 212.

 [93] Rogaly, Grunwick, 76.

 [94] TUC Archive, JN329.P7.

 [95] Hall, ‘The Great Moving Right Show’, 17.

 [96] TUC Archive, JN329.P7.

 [97] McWhirter, Ross, 180.

 [98] Gordon and Klug, New Right, 2, 5.

 [99] The Times, 12 October 1974; 8, 9 September 1975; 20 January, 13 February 1976.

[100] Whitehead, Writing on the Wall, 211–2.

[101] Labour Research, February 1984, 37–40.

[102] ‘Aims’ advertised in The Times every two weeks between the General Elections of 1974. The climactic full page on 3 October declared: ‘The moment of truth is approaching for Britain. Will it be unemployment, catastrophic inflation and redundancies?…Say “NO” to Labour's plans for wrecking British Industry’.

[103] Whitehead, Writing on the Wall, 214.

[104] Writing on the Wall, 215–6.

[105] Bell, Labour Party, 54–5, 70, 71, 88.

[106] Thatcher, Path to Power, 288.

[107] Young, One of Us, 110.

[108] Lord Prior, Private correspondence, 10 March 2006.

[109] The Free Nation, 1, no. 1, 19 March 1976.

[110] The Times, 6 September 1977.

[111] The Free Nation, 2, no. 21, 14–27 October 1977.

[112] Tebbit, Upwardly Mobile, 152.

[113] Prior, Balance of Power, 155.

[114] Tebbit, Upwardly Mobile, 154.

[115] McWhirter, Ross, 7.

[116] Prior, Balance of Power, 155.

[117] The Sun, 30 June 1977.

[118] Private correspondence, 10 March 2006.

[119] ‘Telephone Conversation Between Secretary of State and Mr Prior’ 2 September 1977, TNA, LAB 77/83.

[120] Speech at Hove, 1 September 1977, TNA, LAB 77/83.

[121] The Daily Mail, 28 June 1977.

[122] 14 September 1977.

[123] Conservative Central Office Press Release, 20 July 1977, TNA, LAB 77/83.

[124] Rodgers, Milestones, BBC R4.

[125] The Times, 3 September 1977.

[126] Thatcher, Path to Power, 402. On Joseph's central role in incremental changes to Conservative policy on Trades Unions in this period, see also Taylor, ‘The Conservative Party and the Unions’.

[127] Milestones, BBC R4.

[128] 1997 interview, Grunwick Legacy, BBC R4.

[129] BBC TV News, 27 June 1977.

[130] 1997 interview, Grunwick Legacy, BBC R4.

[131] Whitehead, Writing on the Wall, 202.

[132] McWhirter, Brief History, www.tfa.net

[133] Scarman, Report, 16.

[134] Whitehead, Writing on the Wall, 216.

[135] Lady Denning and Lady Diplock had attended Ross McWhirter's Memorial Service; The Times, 17 December 1975.

[136] Marsh and Ryan, The Clerks, 162.

[137] The Times, 15 December 1977.

[138] Clutterbuck, Britain in Agony, 209.

[139] Timeshift, BBC TV.

[140] ‘Grunwick: A judge for the workers’, The Economist, 264, no. 6985, 16 July 1977.

[141] Morgan, People's Peace, 432.

[142] Young, One of Us, 111.

[143] Freedom Today, March–April 2005.

[144] Durkin, Bravery and Betrayal, 19.

[145] Timeshift, BBC TV.

[146] Tebbit, Upwardly Mobile, 152.

[147] Taylor, Fifth Estate, 352.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jack McGowan

Jack McGowan is researching for an MPhil/PhD at QMUL on ‘Harmony and discord between the political and cultural aims of the English “Counter-Culture”, 1965–1974, with particular reference to “Rock Operas” Hair, Tommy, Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar’.