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The summer of 1976 was one of the hottest on record.

In the sweltering conditions of the Grunwick film processing plants in Willesden, the predominantly newly arrived Gujarati workers sweated under the yoke of company boss George Ward, seething with anger and humiliation.

'My Asians’, as George Ward called them, received poverty pay for long hours - but he had reckoned without Jayaben Desai.

4'10 tall, she led the first walkout on 23rd August 1976.

Born in Gujarat, a proud Hindu woman in her traditional sari, she had been schooled in the Indian independence movement and was inspired by Gandhi as she came in turn to inspire millions.

"What you are running here is not a factory" she told Ward, "it is a zoo. But in a zoo there are many types of animals. Some are monkeys who dance on your fingertips. Others are lions who can bite your head off. We are the lions, Mr Manager."

Thus began a strike that would make history, a walkout by initially fewer than 100 workers.

(Image: Mirrorpix)

As they went out the gate, she told the predominantly Gujarati women strikers "this man would not speak to white workers like he speaks to us."

Such, sadly, was the cold welcome to Britain of successive waves who came to our shores.

"Mr Jack" Jayaben would often tell me "my English not good". Yet she talked the language of Gandhi, with a burning sense of injustice, indeed at times she was almost Shakespearean.

She had a way with words that captured the very essence of the human spirit. She inspired a mass movement that led to one of the most remarkable acts of solidarity in Trade Union history.

At the local sorting office, the Crickelwood Post Office workers took unofficial action to block the mail to Grunwick. All 100 were white men, bar one West Indian. They were suspended and threatened with the sack. Yet for 44 days they stood firm.

(Image: PA)

Grunwick truly made history; the biggest mobilisation in history around a local dispute, with 20,000 workers descending on Chapter Road on July 11th 1977; the brave stand taken by the Cricklewood post office workers; it put centre-stage the issue of the exploitation of immigrant workers; and it was a defining moment in the lives of tens of thousands who came to the streets of Brent to back the Grunwick workers.

Ultimately we did not win, but you never lose a struggle like Grunwick.

The legal right to union recognition was ultimately won under a Labour government in a historic lasting legacy of the dispute.

The history of Grunwick is remarkable but Grunwick is not just history. Once again the tensions of the 1970s are scarring our country.

To their eternal shame, mainstream politicians put the politics of race and immigration centre-stage in the Referendum on the European Union. Legitimate concerns arising out of the exploitation of immigrant workers and undercutting of those here for generations are being exploited.

(Image: Mirrorpix)

One of the few pillars left of social solidarity is the trade union movement, like her union, the GMB.

For they have captured what Jayaben said to me when we last met before she died.

"Mr Jack", she said "people will always want their freedom. As we have fought, others will fight.

"If we have inspired, I will die a happy woman’."

Jack Dromey MP was on the Grunwick Strike Committee during the famous dispute.

A new play about the strike, We Are The Lions Mr Manager, is currently on a UK tour. See local dates and buy tickets here.