Responding to systemic, as well as everyday, racism is exhausting and soul destroying. According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) there has been a 49% rise in unemployment for young Britain’s black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people, 82% of hate crimes are because of race and BAME people are twice as likely to live in poverty. These statistics, from last month’s EHRC report on the extent of race discrimination in the UK, puts forward the case for a race equality strategy. It confirmed what my organisation, Barac, had been saying for years: that in all aspects of life, BAME people face discrimination and disadvantage. The urgent need for a strategic approach to eradicate racism is nothing new to the black community, but what support and help can we expect from the rejuvenated labour movement?
Over the past six years of austerity, we have seen amplified racism and deepening poverty for BAME communities. The EHRC is itself facing further cuts, meaning that there could be only three case workers nationally to support those who experience racism. Its budget has already been cut by 69% since 2010. Given the rise in hate crime post-Brexit, this is deeply worrying.
John McDonnell MP, shadow chancellor, has said that a Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn would repeal the divisive Immigration Act. Last week a motion was passed at the annual Trades Union Congress, where I spoke, opposing the act.
But the Labour movement has not always stood up for migrants to the UK. The TUC failed to oppose the Commonwealth Immigrants Act in 1968 and the Immigration Act in 1971, which further restricted immigration from Commonwealth countries. Black organisations, including the Indian Workers Association (IWA), led the campaign against the growing imposition of immigration controls, in particular the 1962 commonwealth immigrants bill, which sought to restrict the entry into Britain of black migrants from Commonwealth countries. The IWA, in conjunction with other bodies such as the West Indian Standing Conference and the Standing Conference of Pakistan, joined to fight this legislation.
And then there was the colour bar imposed in 1963 by the Bristol Omnibus Company, endorsed by the then TGWU union. In 1955 the Passenger Group of the TGWU had passed a resolution that “coloured” workers should not be employed on the buses. The TGWU said that “if one black man steps on the platform as a conductor, every wheel will stop”. Community activists, part of the West Indian Development Council, came together with civil rights campaigner Paul Stephenson and led the Bristol bus boycott, inspired by Rosa Parks and the successful bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. They were subsequently supported by students and the local MP, Tony Benn. The boycott is considered to have greatly influenced the introduction of the first race relations legislation in the UK.
More than 50 years after the Race Relations Act was passed, we are now in danger of passing on a worse future to the next generation of young BAME people than that inherited by their parents.
Historically, grassroots black campaigners have had to organise outside the labour movement to challenge racism. This only changed following the Grunwick strike, when in 1976 a group of Asian and Caribbean women walked out to protest against their working conditions. The year-long strike was historically significant as the first dispute of black workers that attracted mass support from the trade union movement. This eventually led to the establishment of black sections and structures within several trade unions, and in the Labour party, which were seen as highly controversial. Despite opposition from the Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, the black sections motion was passed by the 1983 Labour party conference and the party, alongside several public sector unions, established black caucuses or sections as part of their internal structures. However, black activists had to fight for self-organised structures in unions, with the initial response being to form race equality advisory committees. Those black structures, together with the TUC race relations committee and via the annual TUC Black Workers Conference, have done a lot to keep race on the trade union agenda.
Since then trade unions and communities have not naturally come together to campaign against racism. However, the economic crisis and the establishment of anti-austerity coalitions concerned with the combined impact of cuts on workers, service users and communities, has seen more cooperation between equality organisations seeking to have a voice in broader movements. An example was the successful campaign to keep Mary Seacole and other black historical figures on the national curriculum in 2013, led by a small group of grassroots and trade union activists, supported by many Labour MPs.
Under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, who has a track record of supporting campaigns against racism and race injustice over decades, we have a real chance of strengthening the links between the black grassroots movements and the wider labour movement.
Barac has produced a strategy document proposing how this could work which was launched at the Labour party fringe conference The World Transformed.
It calls on signatories to declare their commitment to equality of opportunity and freedom from discrimination on the grounds of race, religion and ethnicity, and for all citizens to be able live without fear. It further asks the government to work with black and ethnic minority communities, organisations, faith groups and the wider civil society to develop a race equality strategy focused on the elimination of race inequality and discrimination by 2025, with substantial reduction targets before then.
On Wednesday in his conference speech, Corbyn gave a commitment to challenging racism and the scapegoating of migrants, calling for zero tolerance of hatred. Key to achieving this will be working with us: those most affected by inequality and discrimination. I look forward to it.
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