| Description | These papers largely consist of invoices and receipts for the payment of ground rent, building repairs and utility bills for 54 Montague Road, Smethwick 1966-1967, and for furnishing the property. This house was owned by Avtar Jouhl, and is likely to have been used as a base for activities of the Indian Workers Association during this period. There is also an invoice for the purchase of information booklets produced by the National Council for Civil Liberties, 1971.
The file also contains copy letters in English and Punjabi form Avtar Jouhl, concerning meetings of the Accounts sub-committee of the Indian Workers Association 1966, and details of letting charges for Holyhead Community Centre, Handsworth, Birmingham, dated 1986
Other papers in the file consist of photocopies of statements of accounts of the Handsworth 28 Defence Committee to 1 June 1977, together with a covering letter to Avtar Jouhl from John Plummer. The Handsworth 28 Defence Committee was formed in 1976 to help organise the legal defence and pay the costs of people arrested during a demonstration against the National Front in Winson Green and Handsworth that took place in May that year. Funds raised by the Committee were also used to help other people arrested while attending demonstrations against the National Front in Birmingham, and to assist individuals on their release from detention. The Committee was made up of representatives of many black and left-wing organisations, possibly including the Indian Workers Association. [Source: Birmingham Broadside, October 1977]
The accounts comprise records of the income, expenditure and balance of funds of the committee fund, including an analysis of the income received from named groups and individuals, and the amount donated, and an analysis of the expenditure of the Committee, with details of the verdicts returned on individuals arrested at the demonstration, and the fines and costs involved. |