| Description | An interview with Phil BRAITHWAITE, a married man with three sons, who is a Peace activist, born in Liverpool and now living in Birmingham. Phil BRAITHWAITE’s father was a Butcher, born in England and his mother a Comptometer operator born in England. In the interview, he talks about …
'PHIL BRAITHWAITE MS2255/2/084 Logged by Lorraine Blakemore
01
I was in the north of Liverpool in a place called Great Crosby in 1943. Mother was a housewife, father was butcher.
46” Attended two preparatory schools. Passed entrance exam and scholarship to Merchant Taylors.
1.22 Describes the masters at the school.
02
My social background was probably at the lower end of the scale, my father being only a butcher, whereas other boys’ fathers were business executives….
03
Bearing in mind my later interest, or concern I should say, in nuclear weapons…a friend I had at school…was going on CND marches in the period 1957-8, an activity that was completely meaningless to me…he disappeared from the school…
04
Story about his twin brothers organising a mutiny at school and being suspended.
4.00 Became troupe leader of the scouts.
05
Describes entering art competitions with help from his mother.
06
I left school with a small clutch of GCEs owing to the fact that I’d increasingly lost interest in school….Story about applying to art college. Describes course content.
2.00 Bohemian nature of the art college. John Lennon as a fellow student.
07
Continues to describe course work.
41” Describes tutor who was impatient with the students.
1.55 Hospitalised after a motorbike accident.
08
After successfully getting my NDD, I did a years training as an art teacher…
28” Meeting his wife at art college.
1.48 We’d planned to come to Birmingham because….the centre of the silversmithing and jewellery trades….We had a little flat in Gillott Road, Edgbaston….
2.30 In the Summer of 1966….I saw The War Game at the old Scala Cinema….it just absolutely stunned me…After I couldn’t quite focus as closely as I had done….
3.21 Describes teaching at Marsh Hill Technical School.
09
After seeing The War Game….I was the first teacher in Britain to show The War Game in school….We invented this school film club…I made my first public speech…I organised every Thursday evening meetings to do with peace and war….I’d become part of the local peace movement….Lists some of the guest speakers invited to the school.
3.24 One recognised that in schools in those days, politics….should be left at the school gate… Gave a lesson for another teacher which resulted in a discussion about nuclear war.
10
Forced to leave the school after complaints from other teachers.
11
1.10 CND became taken with challenging the American position in Vietnam.
2.44 Students getting involved in making placards for demonstrations.
12
After my sacking…I managed to get some teaching at a local junior school in King’s Heath…At the time I was very active as a peace activist…I was then moved to another school, Park Hill in Moseley…I was determined not to say anything of even a remotely political nature….
1.36 Felt that he would like to work in child care. One of his own children was autistic. Not accepted due to unfavourable reference from former employer.
13
1969 was also a year when CND was very active in parts of Birmingham and the Midlands. The one campaign that stands out was the effort to get as much support for the Fellowship Party in the Ladywood By-election….on the theme of Homes Not Bombs…
14
We plastered posters all over the constituency….We had an enormous city centre event at the Friend’s Meeting House in Bull Street showing The War Game…Describes the atmosphere.
15
In the Christmas of 1969…Anecdote about taking over FE. classes from friend.
Lists colleges taught at.
3.47 In May or June of 1970, the General Election was approaching, and Enoch Powell was on the rampage….
16
According to quite a few of the nursery nurses, the experience in the nursery was that there was no such thing as racial prejudice between one kid and another kid…I thought that these essays were so good that they should have a wider audience, so I rang up….The Birmingham Post…
17
Account of being interviewed.
1.37 On class wanted to know more about homosexuality….Account of organising an informal discussion.
3.33 Popular teacher but blacklisted.
4.06 I applied for a politics degree at Birmingham Poly… Account of interview panel.
18
Continued.
19
I attended the Birmingham Polytechnic degree course from 1974-7….There was a group of us mature students….there was a tiny group of lecturers who were right-wing….At the time the course was ending, the whole question of race hatred and race relations in this country was reaching an absolute peak. The newspapers…would give harrowing accounts of attacks on Afro-Caribbeans and Asians…and the rise and rise of the National Front…Story about fellow student who was racist.
20
Continued.
21
Because of the effect of this race hatred that was being manifested all over the place, after I’d done my degree, I ended up teaching Asian immigrants who were newly arrived in this country English as a Second Language….That carried on through to 1982…daily contact with the immigrant community….
1.27 In 1982 I started as a regular house-husband because…our youngest lad…born very late…I spent about 3 or 4 years looking after Donovan…
2.41 In 1980-82 Chair of Birmingham CND. Describes activities.
4.01 It was also the period when the Thatcher Government set up a special committee…to morally destroy the Greenham Common women….Account of media reports.
22
Continued.
23
Describes super-8 film made about visit to Vietnam.
24
The Birmingham Council for Peace in Vietnam had been active since 1966….I was the Asst. Secretary….Describes setting up of tiger cages in Bull Ring.
Reluctance on the part of the local press to publish material.
25
Continues to discuss Vietnam War.
26
Continues to discuss Vietnam War.
27
The Peace Centre was opened in early October, 1971….Describes festival in Highbury Park.
28
Letters sent regarding Vietnam War.
29
Not a member of the Labour Party.
30
31
On reflection, Sid’s retirement photo in the Evening Mail contrasts in a way the general coverage of the race question in the 70s…The Evening Mail equated racists with anti-racists and I actually monitored the Evening Mail….they gave no moral advantage to the anti-racists.
32
In the 1970s the Evening Mail had not spoken out against the hiring by the Young National Front of Digbeth Civic Hall.
33
With the revival of Birmingham CND in 1980 there was a revival of lots of local CNDs, King’s Heath included….The high point was the big march…There was a lot of educational work…but subject to neo-Nazi attacks….Details incidents.
34
Continued.
35
How area has changed and is unsuitable for children.
3.17 Explains autism and bringing up an autistic child.
36
Continued. (educational provision for autistic children)
37
Continued.
38
Visiting the Radio Birmingham studios for a morning show and being interviewed.
39
Banquet at the council house.
ENDS. |