August 1976 saw the start of one of the most important struggles in British working-class history: the two-year strike by Grunwick film-processing workers in North West London. Below we republish an overview of the strike and its significance written by Jean Lane in 1998, with a short introduction from 2012. The kind of lessons Jean highlighted in 1998, both the strike's magnificence and its defeat, were still relevant in 2012, as they still are today.