THE GRUNWICK strike of 1976-78, a seminal moment in labour history, began with the righteous courage of one small woman who stood up to the Establishment and fought for justice.

It’s the story that Townsend Theatre Productions tells in the online version of their stage play We Are the Lions, Mr Manager!

Its main protagonist Jayaben Desai, Indian by birth, flees hostile conditions in East Africa to England where she takes a menial job at the Grunwick film processing plant in north-west London, only to find that conditions in the factory are draconian.

The workers, all mostly immigrant women, are not allowed to talk to each other or use the toilet without permission and all are required to work overtime without warning. The wages are paltry and, to cap it all, the plant is owned by ardent Anglo-Indian capitalist George Ward and managed by a jumped-up, sexist and racist little autocrat.

Desai has a strong sense of justice and tries to unionise the workforce for proper legal negotiation with the bosses but Ward resists.

A reforming and inspirational figurehead, Desai shines a blazing light on the inhuman conditions of oppressed workers. Not a typical revolutionary — she's an obedient follower of her own cultural traditions — she nevertheless turns the two-year strike into a national struggle.

“The slave labour factory” is what the Daily Mirror called Grunwick, a timely reminder today of the dark side of capitalism and the enormous solidarity required to defeat it.  

Medhavi Patel makes for a convincing Ms Desai and Neil Gore who wrote the play has fun with a range of characters, from Mr Alden the manager and Jack Dromey — now an MP, then a member of Brent Trades Council who played a leading role in supporting the Grunwick strike committee — to a policeman and sinister right-wing activist.

Strumming the guitar, Gore delivers songs by the likes of John Warshaw and Leon Rosselson and this, together with immersive elements of the show, make it a lively and engaging production.

Yet a longer and more incisive play might have added depth and it would have been good to see a less continuously strident Ms Desai. And, stylistically, the piece may have benefited from a less-agitprop and more atmospheric rendering of this truly extraordinary historical event.

But director Louise Townsend deserves thanks for keeping this story alive and promoting the struggle which it portrays. It has huge contemporary resonance.

To view the film, visit; https://mstar.link/grunwick