FIGHTING RACISM

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2020 :: RMTnews 22 RMT general secretary Mick Cash joined representatives of Network Rail and Southeastern in unveiling a plaque last month dedicated to the memory of Asquith Xavier at Chatham station in Kent, where Xavier lived. The ceremony, supported and attended by Xavier’s family, commemorated the railwayman who, in 1966, successfully fought the racist colour bar preventing black guards entering service at Euston Station. The incident marked a turning point in race relations not only in our industry, but in the country at large, and soon afterwards the Labour government would bring in the 1968 Race Relations Act. Xavier campaigned with the support of his local union branch in Marylebone, alongside his representative, the Irish communist and Spanish Civil War veteran Jimmy Prendergast. Despite having the support of his comrades locally, he was not simply fighting a racist policy within British Rail, but facing an uphill struggle against the ingrained racism within society, including within the union. What this shows is the crucial importance that individual RMT members and reps can have in driving forward the collective struggle for a more equal and just society. Although Xavier’s struggle was a watershed for equality on the railway, any BAME worker will tell you it was just the start, not the end of that struggle. In the late 1960s, while black migrant workers were asserting their right to fair treatment, and demanding the support of their unions to achieve that, Indian citizens of the commonwealth were arriving in Britain in increasingly large numbers. These workers represented a generation of Indians born in the dying age of colonialism and raised to new horizons by the era of independence. Like many Indians of their generation, they were highly aspirational. The greatly improved access to education and unprecedented opportunities for social mobility brought about by a newly independent India shaped their lives. And while the Indian diaspora thrives across the world, many Indians of their generation particularly wished to experience life in the country which had once claimed them as subjects of its Empire, and for which their parents had fought in two world wars. Despite the cruelties of the British Raj, there was (and remains, to some degree) a popular conception among Indians that England is a country defined by its sophistication and opportunities. However, the country which these Indian workers arrived in was the country of Asquith Xavier, not the country of the imperial high society. Nirmal “Nellie” Singh Sandhu was a train driver at Paddington Station and a leadership figure among a group of Asian railway workers who fought their own struggle for racial equality on the railways. Nellie was a school teacher in his native Punjab, with two degrees in human biology and zoology under his belt. However, when he arrived in England in 1977 he realised that career opportunities in education were closed to him so instead opted for a career in industry, as a freight guard on British Rail. When his Southall depot closed in 1986, Nellie and a group of other Asian guards were made redundant. But unlike in today’s world of casualised workplaces, assertive trade unions operated a system of national collective bargaining with British Rail, who were pressured into creating redeployment opportunities for laid-off workers. For example, the retirement of Britain’s steam locomotives in the 1960s created a surfeit of redundant firemen, who – thanks to union efforts – were redeployed as guards, and formed the recruitment pool for the new generation of diesel train drivers. In 1982, British Rail FIGHTING RACISM RMT station grades rep and Paddington branch member Robert Maisey recounts the struggle for equality for Asian members against racism SOLIDARITY:(left to right) RMT general secretary Mick Cash, Nirmal “Nellie” Singh Sandhu and Sheik Kharas on the march