Find out more: Asian Youth Movements

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.

March to support Anwar Ditta

This is the penultimate ‘find out more’ resource list (booo, hisss!) and it’s a biggie - the Asian Youth Movements, including Southall 1979, the trial of the Bradford 12 and Anwar Ditta’s fight to bring her children over from Pakistan. Here we go:

To start with, BBC Radio 4 has a great 30 minute programme on the AYMs.

Journalist Taj Ali has interviewed a few former AYM activists including Mukhtar Dar for Tribune magazine in this insightful and detailed article.

For the Institute of Race Relations, former AYM member Jasbir Singh discusses his experiences of the AYMs in the 1970s, including Newham AYM and reflections on the Bradford 12 and Anwar Ditta campaigns.

This hour long documentary about the Southall Youth Movement called ‘Young Rebels’ interviews people who were involved and others from the community. Well worth your time.

And the BFI has a 25 minute programme on what happened in Southall in 1979, when the National Front came to town and there was a protest which turned violent when the police attacked the crowds.

And this article by Balwinder Rana published by Morning Star Online is an incredible first-hand account of what it was like in Southall that day in 1979.

Check out these incredible photos from this era, specifically looking at Southall.

This interview of one of the Bradford 12, Tariq Mehmood, in Ebb Magazine is fantastically detailed and insightful, ranging from the trial to what happened in the rest of the 1980s.

libcom.org has reproduced a wonderful pamphlet from 1982, a collaboration between Leeds Other Paper and the Bradford 12 Campaign, to tell the story of the trial. It’s an invaluable primary resource.

Working Class History have a couple of fantastic podcast episodes on the AYMs in Bradford.

On Anwar Ditta, who had to fight with the Home Office to prove her children in Pakistan were indeed hers, the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Centre has material related to her case, and has produced a lovely booklet about her story. And you can hear some extracts from an interview they conducted with Ditta.

You can also hear Anwar Ditta speak about her case and see some footage from the time.

If you want to know more about women and the AYMs in general, academic Anandi Ramamurthy has a great article in libcom.org, and you can see all of libcom’s material on the AYMs here.

A paid resource on this week’s list is the phenomenal book by Anandi Ramamurthy called ‘Black Star’, telling the stories of the AYMs. Ramamurthy also created a phenomenal archive collection alongside researching for the book which is housed at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Centre in Manchester Central Library.

Next week is the last ‘find out more’ resource list!

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.