'The Great Divide' / 'Prince Edward Island & Atlantic Migration'

These recordings primarily concern interviews made for research and actuality purposes by Banner with Jagmohan Joshi. However, they also include unrelated recordings (possibly pre-dating the Joshi interviews) of Charles Parker coaching speakers reading scripted material about Prince Edward Island and 19th Century Atlantic migrations.

Arranged in date order

See related files at MS 4000/2/154 [CPA], MS 1611 [Banner] and MS 2141 [Indian Workers' Association]

'The Great Divide' was a show by Banner Theatre that addressed racism within British society. It was developed in response to severe audience criticism of a previous Banner production 'The Race Show' which had been compiled largely from documentary sources. Black audiences were particularly critical of the resulting performance, as not sufficiently addressing racism within the white working class nor recognising the developing Black consciousness and concern for Black history.

Banner returned to its original research and performance development techniques grounded in actuality to develop 'The Great Divide'. This show handled racism within a framework of a wider political analysis of capitalist society. Actuality recordings from black and white workers in Birmingham and the West Midlands provided a contemporary insight to working class attitudes and experiences and a dispute at the Coneygre Foundry was examined, charting its development from a racist matter to a class solidarity issue.

Recordings in this sub series consist of interviews of Jagmahon Joshi conducted by Charles Parker and Dave Rogers of Banner Theatre. These formed part of the 'actuality' process for 'The Great Divide'.

Joshi was born in Hoshiapur in Punjab, his family were Hindus and he came to England in 1958 where he studied economics & accountancy. Joshi began to participate actively in the Birmingham branch of the Indian Workers Association, and in other working class struggles. He was a member of several communist groups, including The Communist Party of Great Britain and the Association of Indian Communists. He was a founder member of the Co-ordinating Committee Against Racial Discrimination and the Black People's Alliance, established during the 1960s, and in the 1970s ran a bookshop called 'Progressive Books and Asian Arts' on the Bristol Road in Birmingham.