Black Star: Britain's Asian Youth Movements

Abstract

Black Star documents the Asian Youth Movements that emerged in 1970s and 1980s Britain. These organisations, established by the children of early migrants, were determined to struggle against both the racism of the street and the state. Anandi Ramamurthy shows how they drew inspiration from black power movements as well as antiimperialist and workers' struggles across the globe.

Ramamurthy traces how they were part of a wider collective struggling for social justice and national liberation. In their struggle to make Britain their home they identified with a broad-based black unity where black was a political colour inspiring unity amongst all those struggling against racism.

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