Black and white on the buses

The 1963 colour bar dispute in Bristol

Madge Dresser, Bookmarks, 63 pages, pamphlet, £3

While the civil rights marches and bus boycotts took place in the southern states of the US, black workers in Bristol in 1963 had to fight their own campaign for equal rights to employment on the buses.

This is the story of a small group of workers whose fight in the face of outright opposition, disinterest and misunderstanding of the bus company, the union, churches and the city council was to make national headlines.

The boycott was the first black-led campaign against racial discrimination in post-war Britain. It also saw workers take on some well established racist ideas within their own trade union, and win.

It was written in 1986 in an attempt to bear witness to events two decades earlier. Madge Dresser interviewed key protagonists and tried to show how the events in 1960s Bristol were grounded in fears about economic security at a time of great social and cultural change.

To mark the 50th anniversary of the boycott, local trade unions in the South West funded a new edition of this pamphlet. It was launched at a packed public meeting in Bristol in October and is being distributed widely via unions and schools.

The pamphlet’s launch is supported by the Bristol branches of the UNISON, Unite, NUJ, NUT and RMT unions and by Unite Against Fascism.

Reviews contributed by the Bookmarks socialist bookshop. Order online at www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk