Abstract
Sadar Ali Malik, originally from Kashmir, was an early settler in Canning Town, East London. He was interviewed in 1990 about his experiences of work and community organising over the previous thirty years, recalling the harsh working conditions and describing the climate of everyday racism. Apart from becoming an active shop steward at Ford’s, Mr Malik also formed the Canning Town Muslim Welfare Association and played a part in national community groups such as the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and, locally, the Newham Monitoring Project.
When did you come to live in Newham?
On 31 December 1961, I come to Custom House, which is Beckton Road, from Kashmir, from Pakistan. People came here from the Midlands or Yorkshire where they first went, but unemployment there, so they moved from there to London to get jobs in flour mills, rubber company and all that. When I came here, I was unemployed for three months and that time was really very hard … If they see any Asian, young people would say, ‘smell Paks coming, smell Paks coming’.
And then I find a job in building work, it was outside and I work for seven months, that was in the docks. So then I joined Romeo, making office furniture, I work two years and helped a lot of people to get jobs. That was the start.
What was the attitude of the white workers like?
Well at that time, actually, it was very strange what people were feeling about Asians. A good number were co-operative, talked to you, wanted to know why you were here. They were sympathetic.
We had a problem when I went to Romeo. The white workers there were actually not working, like unco-operative with management. They found us a bit obedient, so there was a big confrontation. But there was a Jewish fellow and he was very good and he employed black workers instead of white. The general manager of Romeo was coming round, and apparently he was going to ask them to sack the black workers, but he found the best warehouse and best workers for Romeo in the world was Barking.
It must have been hard to start with in Custom House getting a place to live. How did you begin to get your own houses? And what about council housing?
Well, the Custom House area is very rough for a person walking alone in the street. And there is still the same attitude in young people. There were racists around in the area and I believe there still are … they did beat quite a few youth, any time they find one walking alone, they were attacking.
And, actually, we were living overcrowded, there was no accommodation available as a tenant in white houses at all. So we did co-operate with our fellow friends. We sometimes slept three, four people in one room, and two persons in one bed. Later on, when they were solvent, they bought their own houses. Council houses were not available for blacks at all. First of all, we were not in the picture where to go, how to apply for council accommodation. Secondly, there was no extended hand from the borough, although they were coming to check if black immigrants’ houses were overcrowded. But they never said, ‘All right, you can’t live here, let’s put you in better accommodation.’ Although they were warning, they were fining, giving heavy penalties to the landlord not to keep overcrowded people … [but] they were actually helping their fellow citizens. It was not the intention of any Asian to live so overcrowded, circumstances were so that you have to accommodate yourself – sometimes you have to sleep in dining room, sofa beds and all that, because there’s no place to live and you can’t sleep in the street.
What about social life, what did people do?
People were working five, six days a week, very hard job. There was a chemical factory in Barking, and people I think actually died because of such rough work, the outcome of these chemicals. And very dirty work in William Warne [rubber manufacturers] and dirty work in flour mills. These jobs were not even taken by host community. We people did actually work very hard to establish ourself. I believe that, despite so many difficulties, not any help from local government or local council for accommodation, for social places to go. The only place was on Sunday, we were going to cinemas. It was difficult even to find a cinema where you can see your Asian films – one in Canning Town and one in Walthamstow.
What about the first organisations that were formed, were they religious centres, or what provision was there for worship? Did they help with other issues, say providing language classes?
We formed Canning Town Muslim Welfare Association. This was due to month of Ramadan, when we did not have any place to go to for our worship. We find a room, someone offered, and about ten or fifteen people started praying there. From there, we hire a room in Canning Town Public Centre and we form an organisation, then we bought a house on Dale Road as a community centre. And finally we got a place on Star Lane, a corner shop just opposite the pub. All that time, the mosque stayed there, we were attacked; young people going in were beaten up by people coming drunk from the pub. From 1966 till, I believe, 1979, we had problems. It was difficult to find a place in the area; we didn’t know actually how to use the channels for voluntary sector and all that. Ours was the only welfare organisation helping you, say, to get your passport, take you to social security, interpret for you, try to get a job. There were actually no social services provided by the borough for many years. Young children were actually having religious education and language classes [from the mosques]. At that time, for older people there was good help from many volunteers. Newham Racial Equality had volunteer home tutors who came to your house to teach. But that was not feasible for us, there was not enough accommodation for someone to teach in.
After Romeo, where did you work? What were conditions like?
I joined Standard Telephones & Cables in Silvertown, you worked six days, sometimes seven days, on shifts, perhaps twelve hours a day and I could not adjust to that. I gave up and joined London Transport and worked for two and a half years. Very unsocial hours. You start 3 o’clock in the morning. First job was on Number 25 bus. It was 3.49, we were taking bus out of garage. By the time you finish it was quarter to two in the afternoon. I was feeling despair as I could not see any friend to chat with or just have a meal with anyone. I left and joined the Ford foundry. I was there for thirteen years. It was very rough, especially the foremen there. When black people started getting in, the working class, mainly Irish, became sort of upset that these blacks are coming in and throwing out whites. It was difficult, first six months. The foremen were hard and swearing at you. And I learned you had to swear back, you had to be rough and that brought some result in the end.
Sadar Ali Malik (image courtesy of Iberar Ali)
All the time there were complaints. There was a sort of gang thing – Irish foreman, superintendent was Irish, perhaps manager is also Irish and then the shop steward is also Irish. So they were keeping blacks under pressure. When you made a general complaint, even the shop steward would be threatening, saying things like, ‘you are here to work, and you know if you don’t work you will be sacked’. It was all ganging up. But then later on, the black workers realised they must change things in the union and they actively participated. We changed the complete union system and got black stewards and all that. Some of the whites were good, too, we have progressive people there, we have good ties, defeated rightwing people. But there has never been a successful move for the workers in Ford’s, although there were a good number people struggling, ‘they’ were also planting people that suited management and they sell the workers out.
1980, when TUC declared a day of action, we asked the workers to join in, or, if not, at least not go to work. 1 It was a great defeat for the union movement and I believe from there on, the working class lost its grip. In Ford’s, especially the foundry, the union said all the time, ‘we’ll defend jobs’, but on the other hand they were helping management – to reduce workforce, one by one, moving them to other plants. Now you can see the workforce in Dagenham, which was 47,000 is now about 14–16,000 people.
What were conditions like in the foundry? Did the experience of working in that environment help unite people from different backgrounds, different religions?
It was very, very dirty. All the time you wore a respirator, mask and then a screen and shield, especially in the core shop where there was gas, a bad smell and sand. Tools were filthy and coming for cleaning, and in the area where they were pouring metal, it spilt and was getting on your clothes, people got burned, lost their sight. It was frightening, the foundry was like a different world.
There was no division on the basis of religion, though people, when they had a little time, were sitting with their own religious people, but they were very friendly to each other group. There were no divisions between blacks or Asians at all, West Indians or Africans might say things like ‘Oh you coolie’ but never any sort of fight on the basis of race. Some people said some racist things, but mainly they were Irish. And after a little while people learn that the Irish are like us, so people were treating them the same as us – if someone swear at you, you swear back – that was the formula applied in the foundry. The only matter was when the foreman or superintendent used force to get more work out of you. That was done to all races, even to Irish who were good, polite and quiet.
I believe you worked there for thirteen years, then what happened?
I was made redundant in 1983. What was the early slogan of the trade union movement ‘defend the job’ and all that? … and the union were asking people not to take redundancy. But Ford were transferring people from plant to plant, person like me who worked there for ten or twelve years in one settled job, they send me one night to one plant, the other night to another, and I don’t know people. So people like me decided to get out of the mess. And the union could do nothing. They said, ‘Oh well, it’s your choice, if you want to go, you go.’ It was not my intent early on to leave Ford’s, I was shop steward. But then I learnt that there was no defence from the union at all.
What did you do after you left?
I was unemployed for about six months and then I started on my own, Never been on dole and I struggled to set up my own business – milk it was. That was really hard to establish the customers. We leave milk and the Co-op milkman comes and takes it away, steal the milk because we take over his customers. I had to be very rough in the end and make some understanding. I said, ‘look you are worker and I am worker. I am working for myself so there should be no quarrel between you and me because your dairy won’t employ me. So I found this and I have a good number of friends and can make them my customers.’ It was very hard and I did it four or five years, then finally gave it up because it was damaging my health to get up 2 o’clock in the morning.
Moving on from work, did things like immigration acts cause problems for people settling their families? Were there campaigns on these issues?
Yes and it is still, with people separated from children for years. Their case was submitted rightly, perhaps there is a little fault in date of birth of wife or of his child and they [authorities] refuse to recognise them as their children. So now genetic tests and still they do not recognise them as genuine. So many things we went through – virginity tests, then X-raying children under 16, how many teeth they had. Really the immigration officials at the airport are a big shame the way they treat people who may not speak English; though people are genuine and honest, they cannot understand.
Actually, there was an organisation called Joint Council for Welfare of Immigrants 2 and our organisation was a member. And they really done marvellous work, and are still doing it. I was on the Executive Committee of JCWI for some time and one of the secretaries of our organisation was treasurer and I think still a trustee. He was like a founder member of the JCWI.
What about larger politics, did people get involved with the Labour Party? And was your politics a continuation of your politics in Pakistan, before you came here?
Well here I actually became a member of the Labour Party. Then I find that it’s very difficult to have your say in Labour Party – though I am no Tory. There are a good number of councillors with whom I have a good understanding. But when you look deep, you see it is the Labour Party who introduced the immigration acts and so many things against immigrants came from the Labour camp. What they preach, they don’t act on. And as I said the trade union movement failed too, and the Labour Party is more or less a programme the Tories would be happy with. Still there are people who feel that ‘We are Labour’ but they don’t know the true face of the Labour Party. The majority who call themselves leftists are not in the real sense; they fail to fulfil what they are meant to do for the working class.
For me, I was socialist from age of 5 or 6, I always support the victim. I never knew that I would face such things in this country. Our Pakistani people, many of them come from Kashmir. We were a very poor community on the sub-continent of India, because we were suffering for centuries. Our homeland was sold by the British in 1845 for 7.5 million rupees to a Maharajah. Pakistan and India were better off economically and also re: education. Partition was the gift of the British because they divided us into Hindus and Muslims and then the idea of Pakistan came into being. Mistrust was created by the foreign rule. But still we people from Kashmir remain unsettled because it was divided into two and one part is still occupied by India, the other by Pakistan. The majority of people, say 70 per cent, in Barking, Walthamstow are Kashmiris. That occupation [back home] is what has been dividing the Kashmiri and Pakistani people for some time, but personally I think there’s no division, only division of class.
To get back to Newham, what are your memories of when Akhtar Ali Baig was murdered in 1980 3 and how the community organised?
It was a cold-blooded murder in High Street North, Newham, of an innocent young fellow and that’s a black mark on the people of Newham. But when you go to court the excuse is, ‘Oh, he’s a juvenile.’ But why did that juvenile attack? It is because we’re black. The law does not give same rights to black people, if I’m attacked because I am black, then that is a crime.
A Home Office minister came here and went to Barking and so we came from Ford’s to have a demonstration. We don’t want to see a minister who is still not protecting the black community. We should not be puppets of any government, Tory or Labour. In time of Jim Callaghan, there were skinheads. I think it was during Wilson’s government in 1969 that there were many attacks. 4 Either there is weakness in the Labour system or the Tories flare it up – like Enoch Powell.
They use propaganda against us through the media as well, saying we take jobs. I think we built this country. When I came in ’61, there was hardly one car seen on the street. Immigrants worked hard and brought stability in the industry. They should be honoured – instead of stabbing and killing black workers – because we have injected our blood into the British economy. I personally think we have a share in the British economy, not out of charity, our countries were destabilised by the British imperialists. India was one time called the Golden Sparrow and now the same India is called ‘hungry’, ’poor’ – why? British were there in the name of East India Company, the trader, and through the trade Golden Sparrow was left a starving nation. And we made a contribution to build this Great Britain by the way our forefathers fought wars, gave their life for the British Raj. This is not an Englishman’s country, this is a country of all people who are citizens of the Commonwealth and have been colonised.