Defiance documentary: Race & Class not identity politics

JVL Introduction

Kenan Malik reflects on the excellent Channel 4 three part documentary “Defiance: Fighting the Far Right” and acknowledges the huge contribution, courage and class based approach to the Asian Youth Movements (AYM) that developed in many towns and cities in the late 1970s but also rather laments the loss of focus on class and power and the dive into identity politics.  As he says: “AYM activists had sought to challenge not just racism but also institutional power within minority communities, confronting traditionalists on issues such as the role of women and the dominance of the mosque. Now, many of those same traditionalists were receiving backing from the state as the “good guys” and “moderates”.” He notes that AYM activists in the movement saw themselves as “black” – a political rather than an ethnic label that transcended religious, ethnic and cultural differences…the story that Defiance tells is, paradoxically, one of class as well as of race. As one Bradford activist put it: “Most of us were workers and sons of workers. For us race and class were inseparable.”

LL

This article was originally published by The Guardian on Sun 14 Apr 2024. Read the original here.