The 1970s
Life Before Thatcher
Grunwick: The End Of An Era?
Date: Monday 22nd November
Venue: Room 5A1 Hamilton House, 80 Stokes Croft, BS1 3QY.
Time: 7:30pm
Price: Donations
Speaker: Chris Thomas
The two-year strike (1976–1978) over trade union recognition at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in Willesden, North London is iconic in left wing history. During a decade of industrial unrest, the Grunwick dispute became a cause célèbre of trade unionism and labour relations law, and at its height involved thousands of trade unionists and police in confrontations. The total of 550 arrests made during the strike was at the time the highest such figure in any industrial dispute since the General Strike of 1926. This meeting includes excerpts from the films Stand Together (1977) and The Great Grunwick Strike a History (2007) introduced by film director Chris Thomas, as well as eye witness accounts of the pickets by supporters of the strike.
