Black Shack Alley tells the story of a boy growing up in Martinique, a Caribbean island ruled by France. His childhood mischief is played among the black shacks', built of planks Socialist Action 18 April 1986 and packing cases by face was that nothing had will black the fight for black self-organisation follows over four years of struggle for a long time.
Moreover ed on when discussing race.
In May the branches.
Unfortunately differences among organisation of black members.
gressive layers.
members as the situation. UNIONS ON 31 MAY 1986 a national black NALGO organised black members in Leeds. More than 200 delegates and observers are expected. The meeting has been prepared by a national steering group of caucuses from branches throughout the UK, facilitated by an NEC decision earlier this year. This is a tremendous step forward in Black NALGO members have been excluded from union structures, and their interests ignored, In 1982 some black NAIGO members gathered to campaign for a conference motion reflecting their demands, and to tackle The NEC prevented a vote on it. Instead, it set up a Race Equality Working Party (REWP). The REWP was almost all white and its members were In February 1983 the REWP tried to organise a national conference, but was picketed heavily and later black NALGO members held their own national meeting before the NALGO national conference, attended by over 100 delegates and branch observers. They decided to boycott the REWP and campaign against its report. They also backed the Mohammed Idrish But the 1983 conference supported the REWP and voted down the black members' motion. The tense debate was the best attended of the conference. The NEC opposed the motion without NANO Broad Let especially from Scotland, large sections nalgo also opposed it. Black members discovered that the "traditional' left in NALGO cannot be depend1984 a second meeting of black members set up a national committee for black NALGO members, and elected a coordinator. This meeting, however, revealed differences of strategy on accountability and how best to build groups in The 1984 NALGO conference took the same course as in 1983 but the black members' motion was now backed by a majority of city branches the black members deepened, paralysing the national coordination, so that the 1985 conference saw no real development in coordination of black members However, we saw more black delegates from areas we were not aware of. The grass root development of black caucuses in branches had expanded and built the material basis for a further jump in the The 1985 conference called on the NEC to. set up an equal opportunities committee to implement the policies agreed last year. It also saw a deepen.
ing alliance between black members and other proThe next few months saw a real development of black groups and the NEC finally agreed to facilitate the meeting of a national steering group.
This was a vital step forward. However, further struggle is expected around the implementation of the policies agreed at the 1984 conference and the struggle for affirmative action is seen by black only way out in the present