Two plays here by Suhayla El-Bushra feature the journey made by Anjali Lakani, an Asian woman who was made homeless by the Asians in East Africa being dispossessed by the African governments of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in the 1960s.   Many of them were business owners but had to live in reduced circumstances on arrival in the UK.  This play takes place in 1976. 

Deepak Lakani (Ronny Jhutti) is the conventional, controlling father figure of the family with much of his pontificating about life being humorous.  Anjali’s friend and work colleague Susheela Parekh (Rina Fatania) visits and describes how the conditions at work are getting worse for the women workers.  Susheela too is a figure of fun asking for a tea and no biscuits and then taking three.  Deepak as usual defends the bosses describing the jobs the woman had in Africa, “Back home you women had your little typing jobs or whatever, you didn’t know the meaning of hard labour.”   Deepak has to be top of the list to be “cancelled”. 

The irony here is that Deepak wants to be the sole bread winner but employment is too precarious for him with racism in the workplace.  Where Anjali is forced to work is at the Grunwick Factory, owned by an Anglo Indian called George Ward.  His plant processed photographic film more cheaply than local chemists.  Under brand names like Tru Print, people would be encouraged to send in their films to be developed and turned into photographs returned by post.  Later Ward links up with the McWhirter Brothers promoting his interests as being about Freedom.

The strike at Grunwick started in 1976 but by 1978, other trade unions had mobilised pickets to harang at the factory gates to intimidate those still turning up for work. The average pay at Grunwick was £28 a week whereas the national average was £72.  In August 1976 a woman was sacked for not working fast enough.  Three others walked out with her.   An Asian woman Jayaben Desai put her coat on to leave and was sacked.  The union APEX got involved and management sacked all the workers who had joined the union. 

The dispute rumbled on with the Postal Workers Union refusing to deliver mail to the factory but Grunwick stayed in business by collecting it from the Sorting Office.  In 1978 doing a project on this strike as part of a PGCE, I went several times to join the Grunwick Picket Line and watched the police being heavy handed with the protesters.  The mining unions then a force to be reckoned with, came by the coachload from Yorkshire, and Durham and Wales to join the picket line.  They called it the “Ascot of the Left” because so many in the trade union movement were there.  It was the last dispute that allowed secondary picketing, people on the picket line from unions other than in this case APEX, a comparatively moderate and weak union, as Margaret Thatcher ended that in 1979.  

In fairness due to time constraints, Suhayla El-Bushra’s play rather skips over the dispute but concentrates on the impact on Anjali.  Some months earlier she had lost a baby and the Asian women in the community had rallied round helping her recover and caring for her, her house and family.  In Walking set in 1977, in a monologue Anjali reflects on her situation and observes the picket line from inside the factory where she is still working.  What we are clear about is that the prospects for Meera, Deepak and Anjali’s daughter will be improved through education.  Meera has a white friend Niamh and Anjali expresses how proud she is that they went on an anti-racism march.  An interesting outcome was  that white working class men learnt what they had in common with the Asian women workers of Grunwick led by Mrs Desai.