Sikh Matron
- Kinver
- 1985-10-13
The radical activist discusses anti-Vietnam protests, violence and the true nature of international power
At the height of protests against the Vietnam War, the Pakistani-born radical discusses activism, militancy and direct action in this filmed interview with Bernard Braden's for the unbroadcast TV series Now and Then. In terms that will be familiar to many today, Ali talks of growing disillusion with mainstream party politics, blaming economic decline and a failure to change economic direction, as well as a Labour party that has betrayed the Left. Real power, he argues, rests with international bankers.
Ali was interviewed on 17 April 1968, exactly a month after one of the largest anti-Vietnam demonstrations in London. The march and assembly in Trafalgar Square were largely peaceful, but a later protest outside the US embassy in Grosvenor Square saw violent clashes with police, and some 200 arrested. Ali denies that he supports individual violent protest, but insists that real political change is all-but impossible without the use of force.
From local news to feature film, through home movies and TV documentaries, this collection showcases South Asian Britons in front of and behind the camera. The contribution of colonial troops is illuminated through the earliest newsreels, while hardhitting current affairs programmes highlight the struggles faced in the 1960s, 1970s and beyond. Public information films produced for South Asian audiences feature alongside Hindi-language films made in Britain and interviews with prominent Asian-British figures. A bold wave of British Asian filmmaking in the 1990s is represented through early works by the likes of Gurinder Chadha and Asif Kapadia.