pay. Brent Trades Council was instrumental in helping them set up a strike committee and contacting and involving the wider trade union movement. TC: When the postal workers called off their boycott of Grunwick's mail after huge pressure from their union executive in November 1976 how did this impact on morale? TvG: Undoubtedly, the Union of Postal Worker's (UPW) boycott of Grunwick's mail was a decisive factor in the early days of the strike. Firstly because a mail order business relied mainly on the postal workers' service and secondly because it gave such inspiration to the whole labour movement as to what solidarity in action really meant.
So the ending of the UPW's action was a double blow, not least because the postal workers themselves were mumidated ano brow beaten into calling off their action by their trade union leadership. And it came at a time when APEX leadership was also wilnarawing Is support and the TUC was being mealy mouthed about solidarity action. TC: Although the postal workers solidarity action was widely disit was only with the beginning of the mass pickets from February 1977 after the dispute had been going on for more than five months that broader layers of activists from outside the area became involved.
How did the Trades Council offer solidarity before this point and how much did your involvement change after the mass pickets started and especially when they became more regular? TvG: The mass picketing was the key to getting wider secnons or the labour movement involved. It said: here is a small group of workers, traditionally not active trade unionists never mind militant and they are taking on an employer backed by right wing influential forces such as National Association for Freedom (NAFF, later the Freedom Association) as well as their own trade union leadership.
And such forms of action could also have very practical implications e.g. stopping the bus carrying Grunwick workforce or other services. But remember, Brent Trades Council threw open its doors right from the beginning offering its services and facilities, establishing a democratic strike committee and so on.
That doesn't mean that we all agreed with everything the Trades Council did. In the early days some of us had argued for mass picketing but there was a tendency to go along with the trade union leadership at that time.
Before the mass picketing started, local trade unionists had been regular attenders on the picket line. Afterwards, it seemed like we were there most of the time but, of course, delegations came from all over the country to boost the picket line and offer support. TC: I know you were heavily involved in the Working Women's Charter campaign at the time. What relationship did the Charter campaign have with the strikers and what particular role was it able to play TvG: In all honesty very little. The local Working Women's Charter Campaign did have a meeting with the women strikers but it was not the role of the left to impose any form of organisation or on them. That was something that needed to develop organically.
The Campaign itself met and organised support for the strikers. With hindsight it is probably the case that we got more out the strike than the strikers got from the Working Women's Charter Campaign.
That's not to say that the WWWC did not play a role in such disputes, just that these issues are complex. If you believe in the self-organisation of women and ethnic minorities, then the last thing is for any group (including women's organisations) to impose such a strucTC: One of the more significant things about the strike when it took place was clearly that it was that the majority of the strikers were Asian, and that it was one of the first major strikes where this had been the case - although the Imperial Typewriters dispute in Leicester in 1974 was also hugely important. What impact do you think the strike had on debates about the rights of black workers to TC: What do you think are the key lessons of the strike for today? TvG: Without appearing to be syndicalist, rank and file trade unionists do have to work together against a leadership that at the end of the day will become merged into the fabric of the establishment.
But even more important is the fact that trade unionists, no matter how sincere, courageous and determined cannot achieve fundamental changes. When push comes to shove, on the whole, when the trade union leaders are faced with such a threat from the members, they will force the members to back down. Ordinary workers, faced with vicious employers often cannot face dealing with their trade unions' attack at the same time.
So the left has to be in a position to raise the stakes beyond basic questions around trade union leadership betrayal which we all know will happen in one form or another. We need to be able show that it is political organisation that will transform such disputes.
Of course, not all such disputes end in defeat or betrayal like Grunwick did. But even successes must be encompassed into a wider political solution. That's what is needed if workers throughout the world are finally going to achieve real power.