Find out more: 1981
Over the next ten weeks I will share resources to find out more about each of the movements I discuss in The Shoulders We Stand On: How Black and Brown people fought for change in the UK.
The resources will mostly be free, and will cover a range of mediums including articles, videos, podcasts and radio programmes. Follow me on Twitter to be the first to know when a new list has been posted.
Poster advertising the Black People’s Day of Action
This is the LAST of the 10 resource lists related to the movements in The Shoulders We Stand On. It is about 1981 - the New Cross Fire, Black People’s Day of Action, and the uprisings which took place all over the country.
Share, bookmark, enjoy.
Journalist Nadine White has a wonderful article in the Huffington Post about the Black People’s Day of Action, which usually doesn’t get the column inches it deserves: Black People's Day Of Action: Inside The 1981 New Cross Fire March That Brought Britain To A Standstill and it includes plenty of fantastic photos and interviews with participants. White also has a great article about the Brixton uprising - Brixton Was Set Alight By Inequality In 1981. But How Much Has Truly Changed? - looking at what has changed all these years later. Spoiler: not enough.
Academic Kehinde Andrews has also written a detailed article for the Guardian about what has changed since 1981 - Forty years on from the New Cross fire, what has changed for black Britons? He quotes Cecil Gutzmore, academic and activist who says: If we take one lesson… it must be that “black people united, will never be defeated”.
For more photos from the Black People’s Day of Action, and from the era in general, Vron Ware has spectacular ones as does Kim Aldis.
Linton Kwesi Johnson, poet and activist who was very active in the era I discuss, pulls no punches about what he thinks about Margaret Thatcher in this piece for the Huffington Post - Thatcher and the Inner City Riots.
Esteemed filmmaker Menelik Shabazz made a 20 minute documentary - Blood Ah Go Run - about the epic Black People’s Day of Action, where 20,000 people turned out to protest the handling of the New Cross Fire and he made it available on YouTube. Shabazz sadly died in 2021.
For the audio inclined amongst you, the Guardian has a 25 podcast episode about the Brixton uprisings 40 years on: Remembering the Brixton riots 40 years on
And BBC Radio 4 has a 45 minute programme about the Brixton uprisings. And @bignarstie has an eight part series - Flames on the Frontline - looking at what happened in Brixton in 1981 with BBC 5.
The Museum of London has a great oral history reflection on Black uprisings in the UK, including an interview with participant Alex Wheatle: From Brixton 1981 to BLM: reflections on Black uprisings
And this is a wonderfully insightful pamphlet published a year after the uprisings by the Riot Not to Work Collective and available on LibCom.org.
There is a LOT of focus on Brixton as it was the first of 1981 uprisings, for more on uprisings in other places see… academic and activist Gus John reflecting on Manchester and the Moss Side uprising: ‘A violent eruption of protest’: Reflections on the 1981 Moss Side ‘riots’
And gal-dem looks at Toxteth in Liverpool then and now and the Guardian has an article too.
There is some information on what happened in Southall in this blog and it links to this short video.
Because this is the last list, here’s a BONUS treat, a song for y’all, 13 Dead (Nothing Said) by Johnny Osbourne.
If you are seeing this but haven’t read the book I’m referring to, then what are you waiting for?! Get your copy of The Shoulders We Stand On now. It’s a beautiful hardback which makes a great Christmas gift, hint hint.
And if you’ve enjoyed these ‘find out more’ resource lists then do share them with anyone you think might benefit. Knowledge is power.