The Death of John La Rose

On 28 February 2006 John La Rose died of a heart attack at the Whittington Hospital in London. He was 78.

John had been at the forefront of the struggle for racial equality and social justice since he arrived in Britain in 1961. He drew on the experience he had garnered in Trinidad, where he had been involved from the 1940s in the fight for independence and for workers’ and peoples’ power. Indeed, his affiliation with the Trinidad Oilfield Workers Trade Union was maintained even when he came to London – he remained their European representative until his death.

Many GPI supporters know all about the long list of organisations, movements and campaigns that John co/founded or was at the heart of. From the Caribbean Artists Movement to the Black Parents Movement; from the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books to the Campaign for the Release of Political Prisoners in Kenya; from the Black Education Movement to European Action for Racial Justice and Social Equality. Wherever there was a chance to try and make a change, John was at the helm. And of course, out of his belief of the inextricable link between politics and culture came New Beacon Books – and the George Padmore Institute.

John’s funeral was held in Wood Green on 13 March 2006. Over 1000 friends, family, comrades and colleagues attended. Gus John, one of our Trustees, conducted a beautiful service that was moving in its simplicity. People from all over the world came to listen and some to speak. Comrades such as David Abdulah, Abdul Alkalimat, Kamau Brathwaite, Kole Omotoso… the list is endless. In April a wonderful memorial tribute to John was held in Trinidad, led by the Oilfield Workers Trade Union, to share memories of a man who touched everyone who met him.

To all those who have given support to Sarah, Michael, Keith, Wole and the La Rose family, to all those who have sent messages and attended the funeral, to all those who have sent donations to the Institute in memory of John, we would like to send you our heartfelt thanks. For, while we undoubtedly feel as though the stuffing has been knocked out of all of us, we are more determined than ever to keep doing the work that John started. And we can only do that with the support you have given and continue to give.

Events Celebrating the Life of John La Rose

During this autumn many events have been organised to commemorate John La Rose’s life, including:

• various screenings of Horace Ove’s lively film, Dream to Change the World, about part of John’s life and influences, in Glasgow, at the Black Film Makers International Film Festival (in London and Wolverhampton), the Renoir Cinema in Camden, the 10th Edinburgh Independent Radical Book Fair and for the Institute of Commonwealth Studies seminar series;
• the Glasgow screening was part of a tribute day, with Alasdair Gray, Roxy Harris, Linton Kwesi Johnson, James Kelman, Tom Leonard, Raman Mundair and Horace Ove;
  
• a series of John La Rose talks organised by Autograph ABP and David Bailey. The first talk (of a total of four planned) was held in October at Goldsmiths College London on Photography and the Caribbean Diaspora with Trinidadian artist Chris Cozier;
• a discussion on John’s life and work will be held at the Open University in London on 17 November with Remi Harris, Azim Hajee, Ali Hussein, Ian Macdonald, Ann Phoenix, Akua Rugg and Sarah White.
• Our thanks go to everyone who took the time and trouble to organise and take part in these events.

The GPI is helping to organise two events for early 2007 to commemorate and celebrate the life of John La Rose.

• Saturday 3 February: a day of events at the Purcell Room at the South Bank Centre, London. The three-part event will consist of Kamau Brathwaite reading his seminal poem Rights of Passage; a screening of Dream to Change the World and talk with Horace Ove; and an evening of celebration with Caryl Phillips, Erna Brodber, Susan Craig, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Ngugi wa Thiong’o among others;
• Sunday 4 March 2007: Commemorative concert at the Camden Centre, London with performances by Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze, Jayne Cortez, Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Dennis Bovell Dub Band, Talib Kibwe, Shirley Thompson and Randy Weston among others.

The Changing Britannia Archive Project

The three year Changing Britannia Archive Project which began in October 2002 finally ended in September 2006, having received a time extension from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). Due to the brilliant money management of Sarah White, we only underspent to the tune of £600 – not bad for a total grant of £82,000!
Over the course of this three-and-a-bit-year project, our Project Archivist Sarah Garrod has had a huge mountain of work to conserve, sort, clean and catalogue the five archive collections, but she did an admirable job of dealing with them all and the catalogues are now ready and waiting for researchers to access them. The collections which have been completed are the Caribbean Artists Movement, the early Black Education Movement, the Black Parents Movement, the New Cross Massacre Action Campaign and early newspapers and ephemera (1960s and 1970s) from both the UK and the Caribbean. A few months ago we also purchased the necessary software to enable us to put the archive catalogue online on our website and Sarah has completed the arduous job of proofing and editing all five catalogues, with help from GPI volunteers.

Throughout 2006 Sarah organised the digitisation of 830 images from the archive collections, which we hope to put onto our website very soon. We also received a grant from Museums Libraries Archives London (MLA) allowing 40 tapes in our archive collections to be digitised onto CD.

One of the ‘extra curricular’ archive activities that the GPI was involved with during 2006 was the MLA London’s History and Citizenship Exploring Archives Project. The MLA produced four teachers’ resource packs based on the archives of the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Free Hospital, the Institute of Education and the GPI. The research for and writing of the packs was done by consultant Roshi Naidoo working closely with all the organisations. On 8 June a launch dedicated to John La Rose was held at the Institute of Education in London. The teachers’ packs have been distributed to secondary schools across London.

So, the George Padmore Institute has to say a huge thank you to Sarah Garrod for all the work she has put in over the three-year-plus term of her contract. She has organised the archives impeccably, taught us all a lot about the world of archiving, and has been a real asset to the Institute. We have also relied on our raft of volunteers: Brian Alleyne, Margaret Chevis, Zuleika Dobson, Janice Durham, Remi Harris, Roxy Harris, Wole La Rose, Daphne Rawson-Jones, Milverton Wallace and Sarah White. Thanks to these people, to David Govier who worked with us as Archives Assistant for one year of the project, to our project consultants Janet Foster and Amelia Rampton - and to everyone else who has pitched in.

The Crossing Borders Archive Project

Just when you thought we were safe… the George Padmore Institute grant-fillers-in have been at it again. We are extremely pleased to announce that we have been awarded a new grant of £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a two-year project to conserve the archives of the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books (1982-95) and of European Action for Racial Equality and Social Justice. The new project, entitled the Crossing Borders Archive Project, started in November 2006 and will entail the usual conservation and sorting, as well as digitisation and outreach programmes to make the archives in the project known to a wider audience. As a precursor of this, GPI administrator Sharmilla Beezmohun presented a paper on the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books at the AfroEuropes conference in Leon, Spain this October. But you know what all this means – please please carry on supporting us as you have done over the past years.

Publishing

During 2006 our publishing programme was forestalled, but we are happy to announce that the final work on Changing Britannia Two is now underway and we hope that this publication will finally see the light of day in 2007. It will (even more hopefully) soon be followed by the third book in the series. Watch this space! The Trustees of the George Padmore Institute also hope to be able to put out a publication of Tributes to John La Rose sometime in 2007.

Public Events

The GPI held a small but successful Summer Programme this year. In July we were treated to the understated and gentle humour of Mervyn Morris’s poetry and in August Linton Kwesi Johnson gave a lecture on ‘Writing Reggae: Poetry, Politics and Popular Culture’ (originally given as the Arthur Ravenscroft Lecture at the University of Leeds). There were also screenings of Dream to Change the World, one in particular for the ‘Young Friends of John La Rose’.

Website

2006 continued to see the George Padmore Institute website being developed, with regular news and events updates. However, we have also had a few glitches which we have been working on before the online Archives catalogue and other more substantial changes are added to the site. Since the death of John La Rose, a group of GPI Trustees have set up the ‘Friends of John La Rose’ newsgroup to share interesting and relevant political and cultural developments.

Finance

With our new archive project grant the Institute’s finances are in a healthy position. We were also overwhelmed with donations of £3551.01 in memory of John La Rose, and we have been trying to make the most of all the donations received by claiming Gift Aid. Of course we are always delighted to receive donations, so please do keep sending them in, and if you are a UK taxpayer, please ask for a Gift Aid form to make your money go even further.

Fundraising Lunch

The delicious 2005 Fundraising lunch, organised by Janice Durham and Jeffrey and Joyce Simon, raised just over £1000. We hope to see you all again at this year’s lunch on Sunday 3 December to eat, drink and be merry!

Other News

Thanks and congratulations to Camberwell College of Arts student Pilar Jaime Gonzalez, who received her MA this summer for her conservation work on Karl ‘Jerry’ Craig’s painting Night Landscape, held in the GPI archive. Congratulations to Trustees Roxy Harris, Gus John, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Michael La Rose, who have all had books published in 2006. Also to Ian Macdonald for organising a petition of 150 lawyers for Mumia Abu-Jamal’s court appeal in the USA.