A famous and far-reaching strike that started in 1976 and featured migrant workers led by the inspirational Jayaben Desai is the subject of We Are The Lions, Mr Manager, coming to Greenwich Theatre for one special performance on Friday, April 13.
The title was coined by Mrs Desai during the mainly South Asian women's two-year dispute at the Grunwick Film Processing factory in Willesden, comparing the plant to a zoo.
She led the walk-out in protest against appalling working conditions, a strike that was eventually lost but changed the way trade unions looked upon migrant workers in this country.
"Many people in Britain, my parents among them, remember 1976 as the hottest summer on record," said James Haddrell, Greenwich Theatre's artistic and executive director, "but it soon became just as famous for Grunwick.
"This was a very particular community of workers from families that had settled in countries in East Africa during British colonial rule but had to flee when Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda gained independence. Many, having British passports, came to the UK in search of work and a life free from persecution."
Now their story has been turned into a stage play by writer Neil Gore and comes to Greenwich after a sell-out run at the Tara Arts Theatre in London. "Jayaben Desai's resolve and courage should be remembered and celebrated," said Neil. "Grunwick raised many wide-ranging questions about trade union rights in the workplace and dignity at work, themes that still resonate and are relevant today."
A former Grunwick worker said: "Wherever you found work you had to take it. It wasn't that you were educated, so you only wanted certain kinds of jobs. We had to work in factories and that's how we brought up our children."
After a few months of picketing by Mrs Desai and her co-workers, the cause of the Grunwick strikers was taken up by the wider trade union movement despite a reputation for disregarding the plight of migrant workers.
By June, 1977, there were marches in support of the strikers, and on some days more than 20,000 people packed themselves into the streets around Dollis Hill tube station to take part in the protest.
"The striker ultimately failed," said James Haddrell, "but the ripples it sent out across the country and down the years were astonishing."
Mrs Desai - who died in 2010 aged 77 - had said: "Because of us, the people who stayed at Grunwick got a much better deal. When the factory moved, a van used to come to their home and pick them up because it was difficult for them to get to the new place. Can you imagine that? And they get a pension today. That was because of us, because of our struggle."
In 2016 she was included in the Radio 4 Woman's Hour Power List that celebrated the seven women who had had the most impact on British women's lives over the last seven decades.
*After the play on April 13, there will be a Q&A session at the theatre led by Jon Lansman, the founder and national chair of Momentum, the campaigning group supporting Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party.
Find out more at
www.greenwichtheatre.org.uk. For tickets call the box office on 020 8858 7755.
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