Throughout the late 20th century, Bernie Grant and other Black politicians and political organisers, struggled to find a place in traditional British party politics. The Labour Party, perhaps their natural home, was in the 1980’s was re-shaping its stance to the centre ground against the back drop of right wing Thatcher government, within which there were overtly racist and anti-immigrant strands. Such sentiments were also to be found in some parts of the Labour Movement was not exempt from. Grant and other Black activists were faced with the question of how to ensure representative Black presence in politics. Alongside his fierce championing of his constituency community of Tottenham, perhaps the other most indelible aspect of Bernie Grant’s legacy, is that of his tireless efforts to develop a truly anti-racist, equitable and representational political movement, in which Black communities could fully participate in at all levels. As one of the first three Black individuals elected to Parliament, and with a career full of constant battles of racism, Grant understood the climate of British politics as one that was marred with systemic racism, and in urgent need of practical initiatives to support Black people in politics. Throughout his political career, Grant founded, steered, and participated in a number of important Black political initiatives and events that worked to influence the policies of the Labour Party, the British government, and international political bodies, in line with anti-racist and empowering principles. These included the Black Trades Union Solidarity Movement, Labour Party Black Sections, the Parliamentary Black Caucus, the historic election of the first three Black MPs to British Parliament in 1987, the Rainbow Coalition, and more. This section explores efforts by Grant and his peers, to build projects and networks to demand respect and recognition of Black people and communities, and their empowerment in decision making. Through his involvement in these notable projects, Grant displayed his strong sense of responsibility to hold the systems of governance to account in regards to race and diasporan issues and the need to better serve all members of society, the impact of which is still being felt today by the next generation of Black political figures. 

Black Sections

The Labour Party Black Sections was a product of efforts by Black and Asian members of the Labour Party, who argued for the need for better representation of Black and ethnic minority people in the party and British politics more broadly, and an end to the sidelining of issues which affected them. Prior to its establishment  there were various Black and Asian local Labour Party groups who formed organically, but Black Sections provided a way of linking up and advancing these existent initiatives. In 1983, Black Sections was formed with its founding members including Bernie Grant, Diane Abbott, Paul Boateng, Marc Wadsworth (who became chair in 1985), and Sharon Atkin. It operated as a caucus open to African, Caribbean and Asian members, and other ethnic minorities in Britain. Not unusual for the time, it defined ‘Black’ as: “a political concept. It is used to include all racially oppressed minorities. Each geographical area, therefore, is likely to reflect its own ‘Black’ Communities”.

Coordinated by its national committee, local Black Sections chapters quickly sprang up across the country, to represent the  demands of local Black communities and Labour members. Within a year, there were 35 chapters throughout the UK. In a statement entitled ‘What We Stand For’, the Birmingham branch laid out the organisation’s broad aims: “First to get a better representation of Black people in the Labour Party and in British political institutions generally… The second reason for forming Black Sections is to pressurise for the Labour Party to adopt anti-racist policies and to make the Party campaign against racism”.

The ethos of Black Sections sought not only to mobilise Black individuals within party politics, but also in community organisations. In this way, it was more wide-ranging than a party-wide initiative, and was not necessarily preoccupied with bolstering Labour Party support, so much as providing a supportive and encouraging framework for Black-led political organising. The caucus also worked to influence the Trade Union movement, noting in 1986 that 3,000 Black workers had been involved in the Miner’s struggle of 1984-85. Insofar as representation in Trade Unions were concerned, despite a higher comparative proportion of Black workers who were Trade Union members than their white counterparts, only 4% of Black workers had been elected to Trade Union Posts, compared to 11% of white workers.

Black Sections argued that both the Trade Union movement and the Labour Party needed such a project, to continue to safeguard Black support electorally. Historically, Labour had positioned itself as the party representing the disadvantaged and poor of society. Black Sections highlighted that Black people, most often working class, were naturally aligned with Labour but remained neglected and ignored, although often giving Labour their vote. In 1983 for example, the same year as Black Sections’ founding, over 80% of Black and ethnic minority electors voted for Labour in the general election, many of which resided in inner city constituencies. But as Black Sections saw it, the lack of consensus on “the root causes of this national scandal” of racism, “not only bedevils the nation but threatens to erode support for the Labour Party in the Black community”. Black Sections accused the party of years of “indifference, neglect and racism”, which – in the context of the conditions giving rise to disturbances in Brixton, Bristol, Broadwater Farm, Birmingham, Liverpool, and elsewhere across England in 1981 and 1985 – pushed many Black people to conclude there was little point in voting for Labour, and indeed no point in voting at all. As Black Sections’ Marc Wadsworth later noted, these uprisings acted as a “wake up call to a society that was either indifferent or hostile to the demands of disenfranchised and disadvantaged Black people”. 

Black Sections also provided a space for Party members to vocalise their demands that the Labour Party protect its own Black members against racism in its various forms. For example, very shortly before Grant’s election as MP for Tottenham, in April 1987, Black Sections passed a resolution at its National Conference urging the Labour Party to take a stand against the racism experienced by Black Councillors Linda Bellos, Merle Amory, and Grant himself, at the hands of the British Press. These National Conferences and the resolutions produced as a result of them, were a significant part of Black Sections’ advocacy and solidarity work. In 1988, upon Grant’s election to the House of Commons as one of three first Black MPs, Black Sections supported his efforts to press the Labour Party leadership on aspiring to full Black representation at all levels of the party, and asserted this aim at its annual Party Conference. Staying true to its mission as a supportive entity to Black communities in Britain outside of party politics, Black Sections voted to endorse a position paper entitled ‘Positive Action for Cities’, in 1988, a response to Thatcher’s Action for Cities proposal.

Highlighting the fact that 68% of Black households resided in inner city areas, the position paper condemned the rate capping policy which had negatively impacted inner city councils in particular, and asserted the need for more funding and supportive initiatives to sustain positive development in such communities. The paper noted that the Poll Tax would lead to 92% of London’s inner city Black households losing an annual sum of £759, which is equal to £2,019.70 in 2024. Black Sections passed a resolution in 1989, in support of Frank Critchlow, owner of the Mangrove Restaurant, best remembered for its central role in the Notting Hill Black Power demonstration against police harassment in the 1970, which led to the famous Mangrove Nine trial of 1971. Having been marred by constant police harassment and incessant attempts to criminalise him throughout his career as a restauranter, Critchlow was accused of using his premises for drug dealing. Black Sections demanded a full public inquiry into Notting Hill police station and its policies. 

As well as voicing support for victims of racism in Britain, Black Sections often issued resolutions on international issues. A statement from 1986, written by Black Sections candidates standing for roles in the National Executive Committee, affirmed the group’s anti-colonial approach toward the major international issues of the time: “This means stepping up the fight for Black national liberation in Azania (South Africa), support for the demands of the Palestinians and support for British withdrawal from Ireland. Britain must withdraw from NATO”. The statement went into much further detail on its demands for Labour to support the Anti-Apartheid struggle, which the candidates urged was “the most pressing issue” of the time. At the Black Sections ‘87 annual conference, and in the context of the First Intifada (considered to be the first large scale series of uprisings and civil disobedience by Palestinian people against Israeli occupation), Black Sections passed a resolution condemning the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and the Palestinian people. The resolution called on the Labour Party to undertake a number of measures to follow suit, including to recognise the right of the Palestinian people to self determination. Alongside solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, Black Sections took an anti-colonial stance on the Irish struggle for independence and unification, and the South African movement against Apartheid rule.

The organisation’s publications, statements, and Annual Conferences all evidence this. In keeping with its global outlook, Black Sections also maintained focus on immigration and citizenship laws, opposing racist actions of the Home Office. In 1991, then-chair of Black Sections Jatin Haria, wrote on behalf of the caucus condemning Europe’s “most serious rise of racism since World War II”. The letter highlighted the racist rhetoric of Home Secretary Kenneth Baker, and the refugee act of 1991 which narrowed the rights of people seeking asylum in the UK. Kenneth Baker was famously found in contempt of court for deporting a man back to Zaire (modern day Democratic Republic of Congo) whilst his appeal was still pending.

Fuelling Black Sections’ commitment to anti-racism and anti-imperialism was its staunch socialism, and this was also reflected in the caucus’s annual meetings and general activities. Just as Bernie Grant was supportive of the Anti-Poll Tax campaign, and involved with the Socialist Campaign Group which played a leading role in both the Poll Tax rebellion and Miners’ Struggle, Black Sections also supported the Anti-Poll tax campaign and discussed it during their 1988 conference held in Manchester Town Hall. In 1990, the Poll Tax uprising involved 200,000 protestors and was considered one of, if not the most, significant mass uprising since the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, which was similarly sparked by disdain for an unfair poll tax which disproportionately affected poorer people. 

Elaine Foster began her speech by offering solidarity to the striking miners both in Britain and South Africa, and demanding answers for the Party’s failures regarding Black political representation, asking “Why has the Labour Party not yet elected the first Black Member of Parliament? Where are the Black Trade Union Leaders?”. Throughout his years as Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, and Deputy leader Roy Hattersley, were, as Marc Wadsworth described “obsessed with defeating a rising Left wing rank”, were vocally disapproving of such an initiative. The Party therefore repeatedly refused to recognise Black Sections as an official Labour affiliate. This was despite the fact that other caucasus designed to represent marginalised groups or specific sections of the Labour movement, were supported, such as the Women’s Committee and Young Socialists. 

Black Sections out of Birmingham

Indicative of the leadership’s attitude toward Black Sections, was the actions of Roy Hattersley. As MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook, which did and still has a large South Asian community, Hattersley was concerned about the impact Black Sections would have on his standing. Birmingham’s Black Sections chapter was also a particularly strong wing of the national caucus. In 1986, Hattersley allegedly orchestrated the expulsion of Birmingham Labour councillor Phillip Murphy. A year later in 1987, in the run up to the general election that year, Grant and Linda Bellos, then Leader of Lambeth Council, were invited to an anti-racism rally scheduled on 7th April in Birmingham, and were “virtually ordered” not to enter the city and attend, by Deputy Leader Roy Hattersley and four other Birmingham-based MPs, who stated to Grant and Bellos that “As Labour MPs in Birmingham, fully committed to racial equality and ending discrimination, we want to make it clear that neither Birmingham District Labour Party nor the city council needs any advice from you or Haringey and Lambeth councils”.

Grant was in fact in hospital on the day of the meeting, but wrote from his hospital bed that the letter from Birmingham MPs was “most arrogant”, asserting that he would “continue to go to such meetings wherever both Black and white wish to hear what I have to say”, and that so far as he knew, there were “no pass laws” yet in the UK – a reference to the apartheid laws in South Africa at that time. The then Leader of Birmingham City Council also wrote saying the meeting would cause an embarrassment to the Party. The rally, organised by the Birmingham Black Sections chapter, was in the event attended by Sharon Atkin who had already been selected as Parliamentary Candidate for Nottingham East. It was here that Atkin, in the context of Labour’s attempts to thwart Black Sections, called the Labour Party racist. As a result of her assertion that the Labour Party was racist, she was suspended from the Labour Party, preventing her from running in the 1987 election. In its role as a supportive network for those few Black individuals in the Labour Party who had managed to gain positions of leadership, Black Sections’ imperative was to expose the Party’s punishment against Sharon Atkin. As a socialist woman, and having been scorned by the Party she argued for the need to “establish a National Organisation that is socialist and that fights for Black and White working class interests and incorporates both Black and white women in membership and decision making on equal terms”. 

The Struggle for Black MPs

Atkin’s suspension and its impact on her ability to seek election to the House of Commons, was part of a wider attack on Black Sections members and left leaning members in the Labour Party during Kinnock’s leadership. Russel Proffitt was almost prevented from standing in the 1987 election despite securing public support as Lewisham’s Labour candidate. His candidacy was at one stage vetoed due to his having worked with others to secure an all-Black shortlist of candidates, in line with Black Sections’ efforts to secure Black representation in Parliament. This controversy no doubt undermined his chances of victory however, and he sadly failed to win the seat in 1987.

The 1987 general election was, however, historic for a number of reasons. It proved to be the third consecutive victory for Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative party, and the second landslide victory against Labour.

More significantly it was this election that saw the first Black MPs elected to parliament: Bernie Grant for Tottenham, Diane Abbott for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, Keith Vaz for Leicester East and Paul Boateng for Brent South. However, with Atkin ousted from the Party, the group of the first Black MPs elected to the House of Commons, was four instead of what had been a possible five; a significant victory for Black Sections and their drive from more Black representation in politics. Grant, the first out of this group to be announced on election night, won on a staunchly anti-racist campaign, having stated that: “the only people who can represent Black people are Black people”. His election was celebrated as a win for Black communities in Britain and across the globe, as highlighted in a congratulatory letter from Kingsley Abrams, Black Sections’ National Secretary wrote to Grant shortly after his election. This letter, and the work of Black Sections, indicates the great collective drive that went into achieving this historic election. Although each had widespread support across their constituencies, the ongoing campaigning for representation orchestrated by Black Sections contributed to the election of these first black MP’s of modern times, with many black voters participating in elections for the first time. The election was also recognised as significant internationally, including by the Congressional Black Caucus in the US, the chairman of which wrote to Grant to congratulate him.

There was further hope that there would soon be additional Black representation in Parliament. In 1989 during selection for a parliamentary by-election candidate in Vauxhall, Haringey councillor Martha Osamor emerged as the favourite. Osamor, alongside other Black Sections members Linda Bellos, Marc Wadsworth and Russell Proffitt all vied for the vacancy and were all selected by local wards. Black Sections threw its full weight behind the demand for a black candidate, as the Vauxhall seat, neighbouring Brixton, was a constituency with a large number of Black residents. Diane Abbott, as a Black Sections member and only Black woman MP at this time, was quoted as saying “Black voters will be expecting a Black candidate to be selected, the Labour Party must not let them down”. But despite having obtained the largest amount of support and community backing, Osamor was removed by the Labour leadership, and after a revised selection process, and the seat was given to Kate Hoey, the less popular white candidate. The Labour leadership sought to justify her removal with assaults on Osamor’s character. Deputy leader Hattersley, labelled Osamor as “immature” and presented this as a legitimate reason for her removal. There were also spurious allegations about her misappropriating funds, but no credible evidence was ever provided on this. The entire debacle caused outrage within Black Sections and beyond, as the caucus argued the constituency, with a large Black community, required a representative MP. As Narendra Makanji and Grant outlined in a Press Statement in May of 1989, the Party’s failure to select a Black candidate in Vauxhall was, for Black Sections, “the final insult”. The statement continued: “It is more than clear to us that the Labour Party’s NEC does not want more Black members of Parliament. We cannot allow this situation to continue”. Against the advice of the Labour Party Whips, Grant defied convention by voicing his concerns on the floor of the House of Commons about the Vauxhall debacle, and in his 1989 MP’s Report presented to the Tottenham Labour Party, Grant included the Vauxhall by-election as one of the most pressing matters of that year, lamenting that “The Labour Party NEC acted, in my view, in a very undemocratic manner”. In addition, Grant highlighted the treatment of both Osamor and Atkin as indication that there was “no room for Black women in parliament”. 

The ruling National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, throughout Black Sections’ existence, was quite public in  disparaging Black Sections and those who were involved or affiliated with the caucus, articulated clearly by a statement in March 1987 “deploring” the “separatist action” of Black Sections and outlined that endorsement of the caucus by party members would result in action being taken against them. After the fourth ‘no’ vote to recognise Black Sections during the Labour Party conference in Autumn 1989, Makanji, then Black Sections chair, stated that the caucus would continue their fight for recognition, despite the leaderships’ insistence against it. Noting that “there is all to play for between now and next year”, Makanji, Grant and other senior leaders began a focus on Scotland and its notable Asian population, in an effort to mobilise these communities in time for the next Labour Conference. After many years of resistance to what it viewed as racial ‘Separatism’ and hard left politics, the Labour Party facilitated the creation of the Black Socialist Society as an alternative, which provided white members the ability to vote and influence the group. It was included in the Party’s constitution in 1993 and lasted up until 2007 when it was reformed into the BAME Society. Although there is not yet a comparative caucus to Black Sections, its work and indeed the pioneering role of Grant, helped to inspire the creation of the Bernie Grant Leadership Programme. Launched by Dawn Butler MP in 2019, the Programme seeks to address the ongoing underrepresentation of Black, Asian and other ethnic minority members at all levels of the Labour Party. 

Parliamentary Black Caucus and Rainbow Coalition

Britain’s new Black MPs, bolstered by Bernie Grant’s international connections, took pointers from their counterparts in the United States and established the Parliamentary Black Caucus (PBC) in 1988. Modelled on the US Congressional Black Caucus, the PBC was founded at the behest of Grant, with the involvement of new Black MPs, Keith Vaz, Diane Abbott and longstanding Labour and Civil Rights figurehead Lord David Pitt. Paul Boateng declined to join. Lord Pitt, originally from Grenada and only the second Black peer in the House of Lords. He had been involved in anti-racist movements, and the Labour movement in Britain, since the 1940s, and belonged to the generation which preceded Grant and his comrades in Black Sections.

Their collaboration in the form of PBC was a nod to the continual and intergenerational struggle for Black representation in British politics. Grant acted as chairperson for the PBC, and the group’s work reflected his political outlook. As an MP, Grant took a deep interest in the situation in Europe, and the state of racism throughout the continent. He was concerned, as others were in the international socialist movement, with the role of the European Union in immigration, customs and trading policies, and the potential for adverse effects for African, Caribbean, and South American countries. For instance, a PBC meeting held on 7th March 1989, welcomed Sir Julian Hunte as the group’s special guest.

Hunte, then leader of the opposition Labour Party in St Lucia, addressed the PBC on the issue of the Windward Islands’ banana exports. Banana exports constituted 90% of St Lucia’s overall exports trades, and the European Union’s Single European Act of 1986 threatened the Caribbean region with a 40% unemployment rate as a result. The PBC were therefore concerned with the fate of the Caribbean in this instance.

In October 1989, Grant, Vaz, Abbott and Lord Pitt were invited to the 19th annual conference of the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington D.C. which was attended by over 20,000 people. This event led Grant to aspire to an international umbrella organisation for Black governmental members across the globe: “I think an international caucus could be set up”, he stated to The Voice newspaper, “Individual members can work for their countries, while together we can work for global issues”. 

Alongside its internationalist focus, PBC also spoke out about issues related to Britain’s Black Community. Students from the London School of Economics voted to make Winston Silcott of the ‘Tottenham Three’, their Honorary President, in solidarity with his and other Broadwater Farm Residents’ ongoing battle for justice in the aftermath of the 1985 Uprising. The students were subsequently attacked in the Press and by Conservative politicians. The PBC, in defence of the students, released a statement in April 1989: “The London School of Economics students have selected Winston Silcott as their honorary president, because they believe that he is not guilty and that a grave injustice took place, many international organisations including Amnesty support this view”.

Alongside its campaigning and special interests, the PBC also published a magazine called The Black Parliamentarian, from Grant’s Tottenham office This was an attempt to bring an understanding of Parliament and its potential to a community to date unfamiliar with such issues. A first issue of this, published in Autumn 1989, can be found in the Bernie Grant Archive collection, this particular copy having been signed by various supporters. The Black Parliamentarian has contributions from Diane Abbott, Lord Gifford, Dorothy Kuya, Bill Morris, Narendra Makanji, Ansel Wong, Sean O’Donovan, Peter Herbert, Sam Ramsamy, Keith Vaz, Manny Cotter, B.R.O.T.H.E.R, Mickey Leland, and other such community organisers, political figures and activists. The magazine folded however when a major donor hit financial problems. The PBC itself was, however, disbanded in 1991, as members had varying levels of commitment to the project. Similarly to the Parliamentary Black Caucus, the idea of formation of the Rainbow Coalition UK was connected to Grant’s ties with Black political figures across the pond. Throughout the late 1980s into the 1990s, Grant maintained a rapport with US congressman and Civil Rights icon Jesse Jackson and held out hope of building international links between black politicians – despite having little by way of resources to develop a suitable infrastructure for such a considerable undertaking. He did however set up an Organisation for Africans in Europe, and a Standing Conference on Race Equality in Europe (see elsewhere) but from 1993, his efforts to build the African Reparations Movement took precedence.

In 1971, Jesse Jackson had founded the National Rainbow Coalition with its headquarters in Chicago, and branches across the US. It was based on the idea of coalition, allyship and collaboration between social justice movements. It was, perhaps, an ode to the Rainbow Coalition concept being developed by Black Panther Chicago branch leader Fred Hampon, before his assassination. Grant therefore considered the potential for establishing a Rainbow Coalition in the UK that would facilitate unity and collaboration between different established political movements advocating for oppressed and marginalised sections of society. This included anti-racist, gay, disabled, women’s, workers, prisoners, refugees, young people’s movements, and more. Despite its ambitious aims, it was a dream was displaced by other priorities and was short-lived initiative.