Meeting Martha Osamor

As part of our Month March of Action we welcomed local legend Baroness Martha Osamor, who lived on Campsbourne East in the 1970s and campaigned tirelessly against racism and for better living conditions. She was also one of the group responsible for getting a community centre (the building that is currently our Kurdish Advice Centre.) Martha told us about her life and responded to our questions. Here is a summary of the discussion chaired by Aiyesha Deterville.

Q. What were your (positive) memories about living on Campsbourne?

What you have to know is that I lived in Nigeria under British rule.

It was a colony and we were fed dreams and lies about the UK. My upbringing created a divided reality. You have a dream of who you are. Religion colonises your mind but then you arrive in the UK and find it is not the ‘Golden Fleece’ you were promised and things back home may even be better.

 My husband came first to study. It was meant to be for just 3yrs and then he would return. But instead, after 5 years I came to join him. It was 1963 and when I got here I found it was not golden, not welcoming. The English weather was definitely not golden! The housing conditions, the racism. I had never heard the ‘N’ word before coming to the UK.

We had a room in Tottenham where he’d lived with some fellow students. There was no indoor bathroom. We used the old public baths in Tottenham Town Hall. We arrived in winter and it was so cold. When we tried to find a better place to live we were met by racism – ‘No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs’. I worked in a factory even though back home I had been a qualified teacher. Then we managed to find a place but it wasn’t great. We would have returned to Nigeria, but the situation was unstable. It was hard but I coped because I had good neighbours and friends. I was part of the union and found support there. My husband went back to Nigeria and we were going to join him but he died in an accident so we couldn’t return.

So I moved with our 4 children to Chacewater House on Campsbourne Estate. It was 1974 and I lived here until 1980, when I moved to Tottenham. I’m giving you this background because that history made, me but Campsbourne Estate gave me the strength to commit to staying in this country. And when you make the decision to stay, you find your activism must be grounded here, in the UK. It is always hard to make change, but if you can see the problems clearly you can start to find solutions. The people who lived in the estate gave me my foundations. Conditions were hard but there were good things too. The school, parks and fields, no fast cars, our children could play on the streets. 

Q. What was your association with the building that we’re sitting in (now the Kurdish Advice Centre)?

As a black person from the colonies, you met other people from other colonies. There were challenges with childcare. There was overcrowding. We were living in small 2-bedroom flats and we needed space to come together. We needed a community space. So we discussed with others on the estate about what different people would need and want. Those who knew the system better helped us to find some empty land and we built this centre. It was tenant led, by older residents. Some wanted an old style Men’s Club. Some wanted a community space for everyone. You had to make a nuisance of yourself to get stuff done. We had to decide how to use the building, for example, they wanted to put in just one toilet but we argued for more than one. How many are there now? (A. Three – including disabled!) The original residents wanted a quiet pub but the new residents wanted a space where children were allowed. The building has changed a lot from how it looked back then.

During that time we were also learning how to make change for our children and the next generation. It was important that centre was open to all. So many people had been made to feel so unwelcome. But the authorities will respect you or even fear you when you are united.

We were always learning. And we were using that learning to further our activism in the community. We started attending council committee meetings. That forced them to take our issues seriously. Issues like discrimination and racism. There were National Front headquarters on Middle Lane. They would put up signs and give out leaflets targeting migrants. You couldn’t just shut the door and pretend it wasn’t happening. We had to use the experience to come together and help each other resist. We formed a residents group and would turn up at meetings.

But it was hard. Sometimes we felt like we weren’t getting anywhere. And on those occasions it was important to step back and celebrate the wins that we had achieved. My son was 4 when we moved to Campsbourne and he has very positive memories of living there.

Q. Some people feel very jaded with the current Labour Party. How do we find the strength to carry on?

I joined the Socialist Workers Party before the Labour Party. It was about getting the word out, We printed all the leaflets by hand. It gave us some good experience. But then we had to do the work that our councillors were not doing so you had to become a councillor yourself. So for example, our young people were getting harassed by the police. Stopped and searched. Jeremy Corbyn, Narendra Makanji and others encouraged people to get together to share their experiences about police brutality. It was about collecting evidence and then taking that evidence to local MPs, asking them to raise questions in the Houses of Parliament so we could find out the stats for police harassment of black people. We linked up with other groups and demanded that the Vagrancy Act from 1824 was repelled. We fought and won the scrap SUS (stop and search) campaign. If you don’t continue to fight, if you take your eyes off the ball then they will take it from you.

You must make a noise to be noticed. You need to learn how to work the system from the inside – work with the rules of the system here. Work with your MP, your councillors and make sure that you are in the room, however you get there.

When I moved here the Tories, the National Front were everywhere. We got rid of the Tories in Tottenham and Haringey. We got rid of the National Front. In April 1977 there was The Battle of Wood Green [the anti-fascist counter demonstration again the National Front, which contributed to the marginalisation of the NF]. I was working at the Tottenham Law Centre by then.

My position to the Labour Party hasn’t changed much. I think this comes from my father. My dad suffered a lot but maintained his socialist beliefs and didn’t give up. I still believe that the Labour Party is ours, the party that should represent us. You must be in it and you can’t give up on it. We have to keep our strength, so go against the Labour Party but from within it. Don’t leave.

Q. What gave you the optimism to fight the NF around the corner?

It was the wins. You live in fear because of the colour of your skin and the discrimination against black people. But then we decide we’re not going anywhere. If they march then we march. If they tell you to go home then we show them we belong. That is a decision, like voting. If you decide not to vote, then don’t complain. We must vote. Vote for socialists, for anyone, but do it. And get your voice out. The media, local papers. Get journalists on your side. An example was the Black Boy pub and their offensive sign. You walked past it every day and felt so uncomfortable. The United Black Women Action Group got that sign removed. Hornsey Journal had a feature on the local pubs, recommending the Black Boy pub. We wrote to them about the sign and the journal asked the pub to take it down. When they refused we threatened a protest. We said we would chain ourselves to the pub until they removed it and it worked. It was a small change but it was a win.

Q. What do you think about new policies like ‘British Homes for British Workers’ and the suggestion that people who are ‘not British’ or ‘antisocial’ should not be eligible for council housing?

We must resist this and bring it out into the open. We must continue to speak the truth and for those with less voice. But we have tools now that we didn’t have before. We have more access to information. We have social media and leaflets. We can’t be lazy. The Tories have no shame. They will take everything, sell all the council housing.

Q. Which issues should local people be campaigning on with elections coming up?

There are so many issues, a lot of the same as back then. Education, anti-racism, housing, wages. Everything has been broken by the Tories. There is so much to fight for but there is only one you, so you must fight together. Share the struggle and support each other so that you don’t burn out.

Forget the past, forget the recent past. Focus on your children, the next generation. Myself, I didn’t want to join the Labour Party initially. My campaigning and my socialism, my experience has shown that the parliamentary process doesn’t always work. But this is all you have. Before I joined I made sure that I wasn’t alone. There was a strong group of us. We knew we were not going to last long so we agreed to prepare our plans for just a month. When we achieved those we planned for two months. At that time the GLC was Tory. We took over and got rid of them, we got rid of them on the council. We punished Haringey for allowing the NF to have space. We resisted. We councillors were targets. I was deselected but I don’t regret it. I don’t regret trying.

Q. How did you navigate tensions and differences in the community?

The different black communities had inherited prejudice about each other. Those from Africa, East and West, from the Caribbean, from the big islands and the small islands. We overcome these differences to work together on collective issues like racism. We taught each other to cook food like yams in different ways from our different cultures. Then you have some white friends who are also struggling, so you take them with you. You learn that what divides you is less than what you think. That is what keeps us going, keeps us strong, keeps us in the movement. Don’t give up! No one would have believed that I would be sitting in the House of Lords. I was always for abolishing that house, but it is useful to be there, to make life uncomfortable for them. Sit it out, don’t give up!