Film Number

7454

Title

THE STRUGGLE OF BLACK WORKERS, THOMAS BANGBALA [PART ONE]

Producer

WFA

Date

1982

Gauge

U-matic LB

Colour

colour

Sound

sound

Running Time

62 mins 05 secs

Description

Don Henry and Mohsin Zulfiqar interview Mr Tommy (Thomas) Bangbala at his home in Salford. Tommy Bangbala arrived in Liverpool from Ghana on a steamship as a steward boy in 1924, aged 17. Aspiring to get a good education and become an electrical engineer, Mr Bangbala recounts the hardships getting work as a black man, the discrimination he faced in the unions, on ships, in housing, The difficulties setting up family life when he was unable to get a house to live in. He talks about living in Liverpool and Manchester, the communities that black people lived in, the General Strike in 1926, his enlistment in WWII and subsequent exemption due to the essential work he did. Looks at how he finally managed to gain admission to the union as an electrical engineer and his work in Trafford Park, Openshaw and Altrincham. He talks about the Pan African Congress in Manchester in 1945 and how he used his membership in union & representation on the Trades Council to push the cause of black people within the union movement.

[Catalogued as part of 'Revitalising the Regions' - a Screen Heritage UK project, 2011]