Category Archives: Civic matters

BG/P/4/2/4

File maintained by Bernie Grant in capacity as Councillor and as a member of Task Force’s Board. Includes correspondence; memos; notes and minutes of meeting; press releases; reports and papers re the structure and purpose of the organisation. Relates to issues such as pensioners, voluntary organisations, community development, advocacy, ethnic elderly, aged care.

BG/P/4/2/5

File includes Racism Awareness Programme Unit meeting agenda for 18 Jun 1984; handwritten notes; press clippings eg return of foreign antiquities. Note that Bernie Grant acted in capacity as Trustee and Treasurer of the Racism Awareness Programme Unit.

BG/P/4/2/1

File includes published material relating to Tottenham such as the Tottenham Community Project Fact Pack (ie community work reports and the 1980 Annual Report of the Tottenham Community Project); Tottenham Law Centre Annual Report 1976-1978; ‘Story of the Tottenham Marshes’, produced by the Tottenham Community Project. Note Bernie Grant’s role on the Management Committee of the Tottenham Community Project.

BG/P/4/2/2

File comprises papers re details of ‘The Elders in Ethnic Minorities: continuing developments seminar’ sponsored by the Department of Adult Education, University of Keele, in association with the Commission for Racial Equality. Also includes paper re ‘Elderly Asian Day Centre, Southall; and associated reference material re racial harassment and local authority housing estates; Brixton Neighbourhood Community Association Annual Reports 1978, 1978 – 1979; ‘The Elders in Ethnic Minorities’ [report of a seminar held at Keele 20 – 22 April 1979] edited by Frank Glendenning; and publication entitled ‘Housing in Multi-Racial Areas – report of a Working Party of Housing Directors’, published July 1976.

BG/P/4/2/3

A draft photocopy of the final report of the April 23rd Defence Committee, compiled by the Haringey Trades Council and reproduced with the permission of the Hornsey Journal. The report documents the actions of the Defence Committee in response to the arrests that ensued following the demonstration organised by the National Front through the centre of Haringey (Wood Green), North London on 23rd April 1977. The confrontation that day between right wing groups and the defence campaign led by anti-racist and anti-fascist protestors (as part of the ‘Rally Against Racism’ on Ducketts Common) resulted in 81 people being arrested, 74 of whom were anti-racist demonstrators. The Haringey Trades Council immediately became involved in the work of the Defence Committee to assist in raising funds for those arrested and to help set up an Inquiry into the police action which they believed had been instrumental in the violence that resulted. The report contains background details re the 23rd April demonstration, the activities undertaken by the Defence Committee and the various groups represented within the Committee, photographs of the protest and anonymised details of the arrests and subsequent convictions and dismissals which followed. index eg anti-racist groups; National Front; Wood Green; Haringey; Ducketts Common; demonstrations/protests; civil rights; racism; fascism; freedom of speech; Lewisham; Ladywood; racial violence. Note that Bernie Grant was Chief Organiser of the Anti-National Front Demonstration held on 23rd April at Ducketts Common, a member of the April 23rd Defence Committee, and a founder member of the Haringey Labour Movement Anti-Racist and Anti-Fascist Campaign whose beginnings are documented in this report.