Black Star

Tells the history of Britain's Asian Youth Movements from the 1970s and 1980s and shows their importance in creating today's multiracial Britain.

Black Star documents the vibrant Asian Youth Movements in 1970s and 80s Britain who struggled against the racism of the street and the state. Anandi Ramamurthy shows how they drew inspiration from Black Power movements as well as anti-imperialist and workers' struggles across the globe.

This book is populated by landmark events in anti-racist struggle, from the Grunwick strike, to the Handsworth riots, and the acquittal of the Bradford 12. Ramamurthy writes of the evolution of a politicised Asian youth in Britain, focussing particularly on how the struggle to make Britain 'home' led to the conception of a broad-based identity inspiring unity amongst all those struggling against racism: 'political blackness'.

Ramamurthy documents how by the late 1980s this broad based black identity disintegrated as Islamophobia became a new form of racism and how in the process the legacy of the Asian Youth Movements has been largely hidden. Black Star retrieves this history and demonstrates its importance for political struggles today.

Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
1. Introduction
2. The Birth of the Youth Movements
3. The Movement Spreads
4. A Heterogenous Collectivity
5. Campaigning against the Immigration Laws
6. Self Defence is no Offence: The Bradford 12
7. The Later Youth Movements
8. New Organisations and New Identities
9. The Asian Youth Movements and Politics Today
Bibliography
Notes
Index