REMEMBER MANCHESTER’S ALI

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2023 :: RMTnews 28 Thousands of football fans turned out in honour of the Black boxing legend and trade unionist once dubbed ‘Manchester’s Muhammad Ali’. Over 1,200 people braved the Bank Holiday Saturday weather at Broadhurst Park, the grounds of fan-owned ‘rebel club’ FC United of Manchester, to watch a charity game between former FC United players and local luminaries from the worlds of sport, television, music and politics. The match was organised by the Len Johnson Memorial Campaign, a group of community activists and trade unionists campaigning to raise funds to build a statue to Len Johnson in his home city. A legendary boxing figure in British boxing, Johnson was born in 1902 in north Manchester to a Sierra Leonian father and an Irish-Mancunian mother. After getting into a fight in a factory as a teenager, Len realised he was good with his fists and was taken to local boxing clubs by his dad. From there, he soon rose through the local boxing circuit to national renown, and his record –127 matches fought, 92 won, 29 lost and 6 drawn - saw him seeing off British and European legends like Ted ‘Kid’ Lewis and Leone Jacovacci. Boxing historians would later compare him to Muhammad Ali, who himself has spoken of his admiration for Len. But Johnson was stopped from competing for the British middleweight title, as well as other serious major matches, because of his skin colour. The British Boxing Board of Control, which was Britain’s national boxing authority, upheld a law passed by a Tory government prohibiting Black boxers from competing for titles – a ‘colour bar’ which deprived him of his shot at the top. Disillusioned, he dropped out of boxing in 1933. But he carried on the fight in different ways. During World War Two, he joined the Communist Party and became active in anti- colonial freedom movements, being a key organiser of the Fifth Pan-African Congress, which was held in Manchester in 1945. With two friends he set up the New International Club, one of Manchester’s first Black- ran establishments. From there, he organised protests against Jim Crow rule in America’s deep south, apartheid in South Africa and poor conditions for Black immigrant workers here – as well as holding Manchester’s first calypso nights. He also wrote for the Daily Worker about a wide array of boxers’ issues and was an REMEMBER MANCHESTER’S ALI The Len Johnson Memorial Campaign g p C a a n i m a p a g i organised a football a b t o o ll f a b o o match to fund a statue for the the black c a b k la b k boxing o b nix o b g i legend g d e e n l d ge e LEGEND: The Len Johnson All Stars FC