This article will explore one of the most significant strikes by migrant workers in Britain during the 1970s and the subsequent company closure the year after their victory. In May 1974, a predominantly South Asian workforce at the Imperial Typewriter Company in Leicester went on strike over unequal bonus payments and discrimination in promotion. The shop stewards committee and Transport & General Workers Union branch refused their support and the workforce split partly on racial lines. The strikers stayed on strike for almost 14 weeks until they emerged victorious. Though it appears as a central reference point in histories of migrant experience in Britain, the strike and closure has garnered little systematic, primary research. This article will fill this gap through the use of published sources and extensive unused archival deposits. During the strike part of the largely South Asian workforce sought to break with the racialized division of the workforce between different groups, skill levels, and work-types. Almost immediately after the strike ended in victory the company announced its intention to close down the vast majority of its British production. In Hull 1400 jobs were lost and in Leicester over 1600 were to go. This article shows that whilst the strike might have been the start of a politically, culturally, and intellectually significant period of significant protagonism by Britain's first-generation black and racialized working class, it also marked the beginning of the end of an industrial model dependent on the hyper-exploitation and racialized subordination of their labor. The closure was framed by contemporaries and subsequent historical accounts as a dispute marked more by the end of empire than worker obsolescence. As an article in the Guardian on the closure of the plants was put it in January 1975, it was ‘The day that Imperial&s empire fell'. Yet it might be more accurate to understand the strike as an early premonition of the globalisation of manufacturing production which was to emerge strongly in the 1980s and 1990s. The experience of Imperial Typewriters highlights the central importance of racialized labour hierarchies and immigrant counter-militancy in post-war Britain. The Imperial Typewriter Company provides a case study of how worker resistance to labour intensive modes of capital accumulation, in relatively low capital intensive industries, during a global crisis of capitalist profitability, was followed by the decision of a multinational corporation to immediately transfer its production overseas. The closure of Imperial Typewriters therefore offers a means to reconceptualize how we understand the 1970s as a period of interlocking crises, as well as the major shift of power from labour to multinational capital which emerged in its wake. The findings of this article indicate that British workers were significantly disempowered before the electoral victory of Margaret Thatcher in 1979. Recentering labor conflict in the history of technological obsolescence can offer alternative perspectives on why the British left and trade unions were unable to resist the rise of neoliberalism.

本文将探讨 1970 年代英国农民工最重大的罢工之一，以及随后公司在罢工胜利后的第二年倒闭。1974 年 5 月，莱斯特帝国打字机公司的主要南亚员工因不平等的奖金支付和晋升歧视而举行罢工。店员委员会和运输与普通工人工会分会拒绝了他们的支持，劳动力部分因种族而分裂。罢工者坚持罢工将近 14 周，直到他们取得胜利。尽管罢工和关闭似乎是英国移民经历历史上的一个中心参考点，但几乎没有系统的、初步的研究。本文将通过使用已发布的资源和大量未使用的档案存款来填补这一空白。在罢工期间，大部分南亚劳动力试图打破不同群体、技能水平和工作类型之间的劳动力种族化划分。在罢工胜利结束后，该公司几乎立即宣布打算关闭其在英国的绝大部分生产。赫尔市有 1400 人失业，莱斯特市有 1600 多人失业。这篇文章表明，虽然罢工可能是英国第一代黑人和种族化工人阶级在政治、文化和思想上扮演重要角色的重要时期的开始，但它也标志着依赖于工业模式的工业模式终结的开始他们劳动的过度剥削和种族化的从属地位。关闭被同时代人和后来的历史记录框定为一场争论，其标志更多的是帝国的终结，而不是工人的过时。正如 1975 年 1 月《卫报》上一篇关于工厂关闭的文章所说，那一天是“帝国没落的日子”。然而，将罢工理解为制造业生产全球化的早期预兆可能更准确，这种全球化将在 1980 年代和 90 年代强烈出现。帝国打字机的经历凸显了战后英国种族化的劳工等级制度和移民反武装的核心重要性。帝国打字机公司提供了一个案例研究，说明在全球资本主义盈利危机期间，工人如何抵制资本积累的劳动密集型模式，在资本密集度相对较低的行业，随后一家跨国公司决定立即将其生产转移到海外。因此，关闭 Imperial Typewriters 提供了一种方法，可以重新定义我们如何将 1970 年代理解为一个危机四伏的时期，以及随后出现的权力从劳动力向跨国资本的重大转移。本文的研究结果表明，在 1979 年玛格丽特·撒切尔 (Margaret Thatcher) 的选举胜利之前，英国工人的权力明显被剥夺。在技术过时的历史上重新审视劳资冲突可以提供另一种观点，说明为什么英国左翼和工会无法抵制工业的崛起新自由主义。因此，关闭 Imperial Typewriters 提供了一种方法，可以重新定义我们如何将 1970 年代理解为一个危机四伏的时期，以及随后出现的权力从劳动力向跨国资本的重大转移。本文的研究结果表明，在 1979 年玛格丽特·撒切尔 (Margaret Thatcher) 的选举胜利之前，英国工人的权力明显被剥夺。在技术过时的历史上重新审视劳资冲突可以提供另一种观点，说明为什么英国左翼和工会无法抵制工业的崛起新自由主义。因此，关闭 Imperial Typewriters 提供了一种方法，可以重新定义我们如何将 1970 年代理解为一个危机四伏的时期，以及随后出现的权力从劳动力向跨国资本的重大转移。本文的研究结果表明，在 1979 年玛格丽特·撒切尔 (Margaret Thatcher) 的选举胜利之前，英国工人的权力明显被剥夺。在技术过时的历史上重新审视劳资冲突可以提供另一种观点，说明为什么英国左翼和工会无法抵制工业的崛起新自由主义。