South Asian Mobilisation in Two Northern Cities: A Comparison of Manchester and Bradford Asian Youth Movements

Abstract

Anti-racist movements develop and maintain their energy through the establishment of local, grass root networks. To date, research on the anti-racist movement in Britain has focussed on the creation of national narratives that highlight the power and infl uence of the movement. This article compares two of the Asian Youth movements that operated in the late 1970s and early 1980s to explore the importance of investigating localised settings when researching the history and impact of the antiracist movement as a whole. Oral histories and documents produced by the Asian Youth Movements are used to refl ect and understand how the organisations operated and developed diff erently, highlighting the infl uence of specifi c urban environments which aff ected local migratory experiences and therefore the makeup and operations of the movements themselves.