Open Space — Season 1, Episode 4: Chingari - The Spark

Episode synopsis

The recently ended 15-week strike by Asian textile workers at Aire Valley Yarns in West Yorkshire was hardly reported outside Bradford. Yet today, against a background of increasing racial hostility, this Asian community often faces the grim choice of working in sweat shop conditions, or not working at all. This programme made by the Strikers Support Committee demonstrates the growing spirit of resistance within the Asian community.

About Open Space

Open Space was a programme produced by the BBC's Community Programme Unit. It was an evolution of the earlier Open Door series of programmes allowing minority points of view to make a television programme about issues of concern to them. The programmes were transmitted on BBC 2 in a mid-evening slot and would attract audiences between 500,000 and 1,500,000. In a typical year there would be two or three groups of up to eight Open Space programmes each usually half an hour long. A producer, an assistant and a budget of up to £25,000 would be allocated to each programme.

More episodes from Season 1

• E1Power in Your Hands
• E2Time and Other Thieves
• E3Christine's Children
• E5National Health Service: 1: the Consultant's Tale
• E6National Health Service: 2: Mission of Mersey
• E7National Health Service: 3: On Whose Authority?
• E8A Day Off the Buses
• E9Ducking the Rocks - A Social Worker's Life
• E10Downtown Video
• E11Health Care: Your Money or Your Life
• E12A Healthy Future?
• E13A Midsummer Night’s Belfast