The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain by Ron Ramdin

Author:Ron Ramdin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Verso Books

In his balancing act, on the other hand, Scarman also criticised the mass picketing and the unofficial boycott. Overall then, the Scarman Report findings, broadly in favour of the union, were welcomed by APEX, but a harder line was taken by the Strike Committee and the Trades Council. Indeed, it was hoped it would provide the basis for a negotiated settlement, that the question of recognition would not be allowed to drag on.104 Ahmed, Desai, Gandhi and Dromey were all pleased at the vindication of their stand, but were acutely aware that the strike was not yet over. Furthermore they were concerned that Scarman’s recommendation concerning a government review of the law on picketing might lead to further legal restriction on the right to picket. At that moment, Ward was the only real threat to a quick and peaceful settlement. Wary of the NAFF and Ward’s response, the strikers in a letter to the union Executive Committee warned: ‘We are firmly convinced that it would be a major mistake to lose this golden opportunity and to allow Ward to think that, in our anxiety for a negotiated settlement, we might be weakening.’105 Dromey supported this view.

As many had predicted on 31 August, Grunwick rejected the Scarman Report. The NAFF dismissed it as having ‘no legal force’ and after APEX’s ‘olive branch’ Ward responded on 1 September with his ‘Counter Scarman Report’ which was published in The Times and the Telegraph.

Never under any circumstances will the company reinstate those who were, very properly, dismissed. The suggestion is completely impracticable as the existing reinstatement would be a surrender to rampant illegality, brute force, and the coercive power of a mighty vested interest that seeks not to reason but to compel.106

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