Asad Rehman

This clip is from a series of 100 life history interviews with environmental campaigners in the UK, 1970-2020. It will feature in a book published by UCL Press in 2026. The full interview, along with the rest of the collection will be searchable on the British Library’s Sound and Moving Image catalogue and the interviews will be accessible onsite at the British Library in St Pancras from February 2026. For more information visit www.royalholloway.ac.uk/ohemQuotation:I think the one thing about the tradition of politics that I come from in that sort of race/class internationalism, we really believed what we said and we lived it. I think people saw that we were authentic and also saw that our interest wasn’t being sectarian and point scoring. It was always about how do we build better, strengthen and build. I do a lot of talks, I do a lot. I think we were always about joining dots and so going into those spaces and always joining the dots. Yes, that’s great but if we join the dot here, that’s even better because look at who we can bring in. We were beginning to demonstrate. I think even the movement at that time was beginning to recognise it was hideously middle class, hideously white, even from a simple power analysis, negating the fact that a quarter of London is from Black and minority communities. Wait a minute, you just wiped out a potential power base and the very issues that you’re talking about here are lots of people who have got lived experience of that, that would both strengthen, bring new perspective and make it more likely we’re going to win. So whether you’re from a simple how do we win or from a simple actually, it matters from our values and our principles that we have a movement that is diverse and reflects that.British Library catalogue number: C2037/02 Project clip number: 149