Stand Up to Trump's Racism - and lets bring down May

Join the mass protests erupting across the UK and internationally in solidarity with the Muslim community internationally, and in solidarity with the inspiring protests in the US - including the demonstrations on Saturday 4 February against Trump's Muslim ban and May's support for Trump.  After this weekend the next demos are likely to be on 20 February as that is when Parliament is debating Trump's possible state visit - and then the TUC backed national Stand Up to Racism demonstration on Saturday 18 March for UN Anti-Racism Day.   A new movement is being born - a bit akin to the 1960s civil rights movement - against Trump - and May's support for Trump is currently the Achilles heel of the Tory government - lets keep up the momentum and stop Trump's state visit and bring down May's government! As Gary Younge rightly says, 'We have to show solidarity with people in the US—but we have to bring it home as well'.

Stand Up to Racism national conference - 8 October London

Book your ticket here

Refugees welcome here - Stand Up to Racism national demonstration

Refugees welcome here now! UN Anti-Racism Day national demonstration - Saturday 19 March - London, Glasgow, Cardiff

The internationalist case against the EU

Alex Callinicos on why socialists and trade unionists should support a vote to leave the EU - in the upcoming EU Referendum but obviously not sharing a platform with the likes of 'poundshop Enoch Powell' Nigel Farage while doing so... see also the debates and other pieces collected together at the bottom of this page. As Charlie Kimber of the SWP notes, We hope others will join us in a campaign that is rooted in anti-capitalism, support for workers’ struggles and anti-racism. It is not too late for Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn to shrug off the pressure from the right and launch a left-wing leave campaign. It would condemn Cameron to defeat. Our campaign will say, “No to racism, open the borders, leave the EU”, and “Yes to workers’ unity everywhere, solidarity against neoliberalism and capitalism, leave the EU”. It will also say “No to Ukip and TTIP and the other neoliberal treaties, fight the bosses, leave the EU” and “Yes to real action over climate change, no trust in the bosses’ solutions, leave the EU”.

Refugees are welcome here day of action Saturday 12 September

Refugees are welcome here - National Day of Action Saturday 12 September 2015,

London details - assemble 12pm, Assembly point Marble Arch 2pm Rally,Downing Street

National day of action, Called by Stand up to Racism, BARAC, Stop the War Coalition, Migrant Rights Network  War on Want, Peoples Assembly Against Austerity, Unite Against Fascism, Movement Against Xenophobia, Love Music Hate Racism and Black Out London
 https://www.facebook.com/events/1629390697300657/

Leon Trotsky's relevance today

Leon Trotsky speaking in Copenhagen in 1932 (photo: Robert Capa)

As the Jeremy Corbyn campaign continues to strike fear into the hearts of the Labour Party grandees and bureaucracy, who have in characteristic Stalinist fashion prosecuted what has been dubbed 'Operation Icepick' to purge the lists of those eligible to vote in the Labour Party leadership election of 'Trotskyists', it is perhaps worth revisiting the political thought of the original victim of 'Operation Icepick', Leon Trotsky himself, given this week marks the 75th anniversary of his murder at the hands of a Stalinist agent. Sue Caldwell, who incidentally once wrote a wonderful introductory guide to chess which taught me the little I know about strategy and tactics in that game, has written a timely short piece - online here in this week's Socialist Worker which does just that.  It is important to pay tribute to Trotsky, who was not only the heroic sword of the Russian Revolution and the shield against the Stalinist counter-revolution until his tragic murder, but also a revolutionary whose political and intellectual thought as a Marxist was so original and outstanding it retains relevance in the 21st century.  And as Caldwell rightly notes,
'It’s never easy to get the correct balance right between working with and against reformists and their leaders.
Revolutionaries have to stand with them to defend working class organisation against the bosses and fascists. But it’s also crucial that revolutionaries argue against them sowing illusions in reformism and build a revolutionary alternative. For example, we welcome left reformist parties such as Syriza, Podemos and the momentum around the Jeremy Corbyn campaign.  These can push politics to the left. But only the working class has the power to transform society. '

Some suggested further reading on Trotsky:

A Rebel's Guide to Trotsky - Esme Choonara

Trotsky's Marxism - Duncan Hallas

Tony Cliff's four volume biography of Trotsky is also now online - see here.

Edited to add: Speaking of Trotsky and today, what would he have made of the contemporary Black Lives Matter' in the US?  Well, we know he was a more profound thinker about race in the US than he is often given credit for, but Paul Buhle (for a recent interview with Buhle by the way, see here) has also recently suggested that, via the writings of the then Trotskyist C.L.R. James and with the help of the Harlem lawyer and also then a Trotskyist Conrade Lynn Malcolm X read and studied 'The Revolutionary Answer to the Negro Problem in the United States' (1948) which represented the best analysis of the American Trotskyist movement on race at that time,while Malcolm was in prison in the early 1950s.  So not only would Trotsky have welcomed the new Black Lives Matter movement, but perhaps the intellectual origins of the Black Lives Matter movement - via Malcolm X and C.L.R. James - may owe something to the inspiring life and work of Trotsky...

Marxism 2015 - Ideas for Revolution

Marxism 2015: Ideas for revolution

A five day political festival: 9-13 July 2015, Central London

www.marxismfestival.org.uk

Book up - Just over one week to go!

New meeting: Tackling the Racist Offensive

Sat 11^th July, 7pm

Marxism Festival is very pleased to announce that Diane Abbott MP will speak alongside Sabby Dhalu and Weyman Bennett (Joint Secretaries of Unite Against Fascism, pc) at this new meeting at Marxism.

Meetings on Greece at Marxism 2015

The crisis in Greece poses sharp questions for the left.

Don’t miss our special debate:

Syriza in power: Whither Greece?

With Stathis Kouvelakis (Syriza Central Committee) and Alex Callinicos (SWP)

Sat 11^th July, 2pm 

Plus

• Greece: keeping the hope for change alive

With Panos Garganas (SEK)

Sunday 12 July, 2pm

• The fight against Golden Dawn in Greece

With Petros Constantinou (Athens Councillor and co-ordinator of the Movement Against Racism and the Fascist Threat) and Kostas Papadakis (part of the legal team representing the victims of Nazi attacks at the trial of Golden Dawn)

Saturday 11^th July, 11.45am

• Fighting the Troika and austerity across Europe

Maria Styllou from Greece will peak alongside Richard Boyd Barrett from Ireland and Christine Buccholz from Germany

Sunday 12^th July, 3.45pm

Plus Panos Garganas will join the Marxism opening rally on Thurs 9^th July at 7pm

Other meetings at Marxism 2015

• After Kobane and the general election: where now for Turkey and the Kurds

 Ron Marguilies will be joined by HDP MP Sebahat Tuncel

Sat 11^th July, 7pm (the time of this meeting may change – please check our website)

• Orgreave: the search for the truth

Gareth Peirce and Mike McColgan from the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign

Sun 12^th July, 3.45pm

• The story behind Pride

With Nicola Field and Gethin Roberts, original members of LGSM

Sun 12^th July, 7pm.

And if you missed Pride at the cinemas there is chance to watch the film afterwards.

• Darcus Howe, broadcaster and civil liberties campaigner discusses his political life with his biographers Robin Bunce and Paul Field

The final timetable for Marxism 2015 will be on line from tomorrow . . . to book tickets and for more information go to www.marxismfestival.org.uk or call us on 020 7819 1190

Migrant Lives Matter protest

Protest at the EU London HQ:

The death of 950 African migrants in the latest loss of a ship crossing from Libya to Europe has exposed the appalling human cost of the 'Fortress Europe' immigration policy imposed by European Union and the British government.

Anti-migrant rhetoric of the establishment politicians, UKIP and the Katie Hopkins obsessed media has lead to thousands of people, many of whom are fleeing nations torn apart by Western intervention, drowning
in the sea.

In the first quarter of 2015, approximately 1,700 migrants have already drowned, 30 times as many as in the same period of 2014, leading to fears of a record death rate this year. Last year nearly four thousand bodies were recovered from the Med, and that figure is just those that were found. The EU needs to change it's policy to stop this and restart the rescue.

Protest called by the Movement Against Xenophobia, supported by:
Stop the War Coalition
BARAC UK (Black Activists Rising Against Cuts)
Global Justice Now Global Justice London
Stand Up To Racism

Time: 1pm.

Date: Saturday 25th April

Place: European Commission, 32 Smith Square, Westminster London, SW1P 3EU (nearest tubes Westminster or St James')

Gary Younge on the killing of Walter Scott

The cold-blooded killing of Walter Scott, who was shot eight times in the back as he ran away from a policeman in North Charleston, South Carolina, is not news in the conventional sense. Such shootings are neither rare nor, to those who have been paying attention, surprising. Sadly, they are all too common. It is news because, thanks to the video footage, we have incontrovertible evidence at a moment when public consciousness has been heightened and focused on this very issue. While in this case the policeman involved has been fired and charged, such a degree of proof is no guarantee of justice. There was video evidence of police choking Eric Garner to death in Staten Island while he protested “I can’t breathe”, and his killers were acquitted; there was video of evidence of Rodney King’s beating in Los Angeles, and his assailants walked free. But in an era of 24-hour news and social media, video guarantees attention.  Black people have been dying for this kind of attention for years...
Full article here

Stand Up to UKIP national day of action 11 April

Don't believe Farage's racist healthcare lies - Support the Stand Up to UKIP day of action on 11 April!

Reasons to vote TUSC # 94

New Labour's racist campaign mug - vote Trade Union and Socialist Coalition - a party that stands for working class solidarity and unity against the 'divide and rule' agenda of our ruling class...

Remembering Malcolm X - Black Power, Anti-Capitalism and Revolution

Rosa Parks with a poster of Malcolm X


Malcolm X paying tribute to Claudia Jones

'Anytime you live in a society supposedly based upon law and it doesn’t enforce its own laws because the color of a man’s skin happens to be wrong, then I say those people are justified to resort to any means necessary to bring about justice when the government can’t give them justice.’
Malcolm X at the Oxford Union

Malcolm X’s legacy on the 50th anniversary of his assassination is to recognise that the fight against racism must be a fight against the system that produces it. 
Anthony Hamilton on Malcolm's X's Road to Revolution 

See also Mike Davis on America's black shining prince, Lee Sustar on Malcolm's revolutionary politics, Brian Richardson on Manning Marable's biography of Malcolm X, Saladin Ambar on Malcolm X at the Oxford Union and Ken Olende and Avtar Singh Jouhl of the Indian Workers Association on when Malcolm X came to Smethwick just nine days before his assassination in February 1965.  For more on Malcolm X in Britain, see Marika Sherwood's study Malcolm X: Visits Abroad.

Tim Sanders on Charlie Hebdo

The point of satire is to attack the powerful, to expose their hypocrisy and absurdity, and of course to be funny. If satire is directed downwards it is not satire, it’s bullying.
British socialist cartoonist Tim Sanders on satire on the latest Socialist Review

C.L.R. James on Winston Churchill - Tory War-dog

Winston Churchill - a reactionary prize-fighter for the British ruling class

...Long before 1939, when the outbreak of war saved his career, Winston Churchill had established himself as the most discredited, the most untrustworthy, and the most irresponsible of all the senior politicians in England. The rulers of Britain did not take him seriously on the politics of war because, except for his capabilities as a war minister, they did not take him seriously on anything except his capacity to make a serious nuisance of himself.

Churchill was born the son of Lord Randolph Churchill, a brilliant young nobleman who reached the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer and seemed headed for the premiership but wrecked his career by his erratic political behavior. His character was adequately summed up in the phrase “the boy who would not grow up.” It was the kind of heritage that a careful politician would take care to live down. It is characteristic of Winston Churchill that he lived up to it.

He joined the army as a cavalry officer and thus began his lifelong and passionate interest in war. He became a war correspondent, was captured by the Boers and escaped. When he lectured in New York in 1906, at the age of twenty-six, he was billed as “the hero of five wars.” He was already actively interested in politics. In the early years of the century, liberalism seemed in the ascendancy in Britain. Churchill made a spectacular break with the Tory Party and joined the Liberals.

He became Home Secretary and distinguished himself by what is derisively known as the Battle of Sidney Street.  A group of foreign anarchists well supplied with arms refused to give themselves up to the police. Churchill converted a police operation into a battle. He went down himself to take charge of the “struggle” (or as privileged observer), was nearly killed and created a scandal among his colleagues and the sober-minded British people. In 1911 he went over to the Admiralty and there did his best work, preparing the fleet for 1914.

But the war of 1914 had no sooner begun than Churchill was at it again. A critical situation at Antwerp found Churchill, still head of the Admiralty, persuading the reluctant Sir Edward Grey to let him go to Belgium in person. He found himself as usual under fire. The battle stimulated him to offer, from Antwerp, his resignation from the Admiralty to take command of the British land forces at Antwerp. The transfer was not made but as one of his biographers (Philip Guedalla) says of the unsatisfactory outcome: “There was a vague feeling that Mr. Churchill’s restlessness might be to blame ... that it was Sidney Street over again ...”

By 1915, despite his competence, he had lost his post at the Admiralty. He held other posts, but it is related of him that at one time while a minister in London he did most of the work in a chateau in France so as to be near the firing line. After World War I he was the moving spirit in the military intervention against Russia. It is known that in 1944 to keep Churchill from joining the cross-channel expedition the present king had to threaten that he would also join it if Churchill insisted on going; baffled here, nevertheless Churchill turned up with the invading army in the last stages of the victory against Germany.

That is the man. Every British politician knew him and his Napoleonic complex, his preoccupation with war and war preparations, his extraordinary capacity for making a fool of himself on critical occasions. Asquith, Prime Minister in 1914, wrote of him “Winston, who has got on all his war-paint, is longing for a sea-fight in the early hours of the morning to result in the sinking of the Goeben.” Someone who saw him at the beginning of the 1914 war remarked on his “happy face”...

In the cabinet reshuffle of 1936, everyone expected him to be included because of his audacity as a war minister. Baldwin left him out. Churchill writes: "He thought no doubt, that he had given me a politically fatal stroke, and I felt he might well be right.” He says too, “There was much mockery in the press about my exclusion.” Exactly. His career was always in danger. His adventures were the subject of perpetual mockery. We can now judge with a little more sense of proportion Churchill’s claim that on a question vital to the world he was the purveyor of wisdom to fatuous idiots and fouls. If the words idiot and fatuity, etc., were to be applied up to 1936, the chief candidate would have been Churchill himself.

Never at any time did he behave like a man who had a serious point of view, knew what was at stake and fought seriously for it. These erratic habits of his were intimately connected with the failure of his supposedly correct policy on the war. It was precisely during the time that he was supposed to be fighting this life-and-death struggle to prevent the unnecessary war, that Churchill showed that age had not withered nor custom staled the infinite variety of what the novelist, Arnold Bennett, called his “incurable foolishness” ... it is clear that to this day he is not fully aware of the folly of his procedure in relation to his war policy...

In 1931, British imperialism began the colossal, and as it has proved, the impossible task of reconciling India to British rule by binding the Indian bourgeoisie and the feudal lords to the British system. After Hitler’s accession to power in Germany this was an urgent task precisely because of the uncertain world situation. Churchill, however, for years rallied the worst of the Daily Mail type of Conservatives and led a struggle against Baldwin which for intemperance and unscrupulousness even he has rarely surpassed. He was ignominiously defeated as he was bound to be ... any level-headed capitalist politician could not but see that some sort of settlement and pacification of India was necessary for any British government that contemplated war.

 By the end of his battle of India, the Conservative Party had no use whatever for him. However by 1936 he had built around himself a little group around a policy he called “Arms and the Covenant,” the Covenant being the League of Nations. The sharpening international situation was giving weight to their attacks upon the policy of the Baldwin government. Nothing is more illuminating of what Britain’s rulers thought of Churchill than his account of how, all through his years of political exile, every British Prime Minister saw to it that he was well informed of the latest military and scientific developments; he was even placed on some of the most secret war committees. This explains his place in British politics. He was a kind of national strong-arm man who was kept well trained and in shape, for the day when blows were needed. Until then nobody wanted to have anything to do with him. And this book shows that no one had worked more assiduously to build this reputation than himself.

But perhaps, it may be said, that despite all his follies Churchill was right in his consistent opposition on the war issue. His book explodes that fable. Churchill’s opposition on the actual issue of the war was no different from his shrill opposition on other issues. He spoke with more authority perhaps on this, and he certainly impressed outsiders and the general public. But he did not impress the politicians and for one very good reason. They knew that they could have shut up his mouth at any time by giving him office. The measure of their contempt for him can be judged by the fact that eloquent and active as he was they refused to do this.

History is full of men who felt that a certain policy was essential to the life of their country or their class and fought for it to the end, reckless of victory, defeat or their personal fate. Such for instance was the uncompromising struggle of Clemenceau for leadership of France in the days of 1914-18 when the government was in such a crisis that at one lime his attacks upon the government sounded like treason to the bourgeoisie. No such mantle can be hung on Winston Churchill despite all the assiduous tailoring of Henry Luce. Churchill knows better than to make any great claims for himself on this matter. There are too many men alive who could tear him to bits if he tried to do this. It was not principled opposition which kept him out of the ministry in 1936 and thus saved him from getting himself as thoroughly compromised as Baldwin and Chamberlain. It was his bad reputation and habits...

Until the war came Churchill was nobody, played no heroic role, opposed the government but was always ready to enter it...But maybe Churchill did have the correct policy, if even he did not make any heroic battle for it. Now this is precisely what was in dispute all the time and is still in dispute. And here, above all, Churchill’s policy, in so far as he had a policy, seemed to his colleagues the quintessence and crown of his irresponsibility.

Let us try to get clear exactly what Churchill’s policy was not. First of all Churchill was not and today is no enemy of either dictatorship or fascism. He is an enemy of all who threaten the British Empire and the “pleasant life” he leads and refers to so often. That is all.

On January 30, 1939, this stern opponent of Chamberlain’s policy of appeasing the dictators wrote as follows:

“Up till a few years ago many people in Britain admired the work which the extraordinary man Signor Mussolini had done for his country. He had brought it out of incipient anarchy into a position of dignity and order which was admired even by those who regretted the suspension of Italian freedom.” (Step by Step, 1936-1939, by Winston Churchill, p. 285.)

On February 23, 1939 he wrote of Franco:

 “He now has the opportunity of becoming a great Spaniard of whom it may be written a hundred years hence: ‘He united his country and rebuilt its greatness. Apart from that he reconciled the past with the present, and broadened the life of the working people while preserving the faith and structure of the Spanish nation.’ Such an achievement would rank in history with the work of Ferdinand and Isabella and the glories of Charles V.”(Ibid, p.285.)

As far as the record goes in this book he makes an extraordinarily good case for himself on the question of the air-race with Germany. But that is not enough to build the pedestal for his statue. And beyond this it is difficult to find out exactly what at any precise moment, he concretely stood for....

From all this it must not be considered that Churchill is a negligible person. That would be stupidity. Put him in a war department, or give him a war to lead, and from all the evidence he is far above his colleagues, in energy, in knowledge, in attention to business and curiously enough, in tempering his audacity with sobriety of judgment. He has also developed another valuable gift. His famous sense of history is famous nonsense. He has none, as I shall show in a moment. What he does have in his head is the writings of the great British historians and the speeches of the great British orators. This and his single-mindedness, his operatic consciousness of playing a great role in historic conflicts, enable him at times to rise to great heights of rhetoric.

At times his words can be singularly effective, especially when people are frightened and bewildered by the complex class, national and international currents of modern war. Churchill has no doubts, as a bull in a China shop has no doubts. He has a great gift of phrase, and long training as a journalist gives him an eye for the salient facts in a military or political situation. At all points he is equipped for war, to shout for war, to glamorize past wars, to explain a war that is going on, to make new ones look like a defense of civilization.

Politically he is as stupid a reactionary as ever. The war was no sooner over than he aroused universal execration in Britain by saying on the radio that the victory of the Labour Party would mean a Gestapo for Britain. He himself lost thousands of votes in his own constituency.... It is a measure of the degeneration of our society that such a man should be its most notable spokesman; above all it is a scandal that he should be represented ... as a defender of democracy and civilization. In reality the evidence is thick ... that Churchill is not merely a conservative, but is today as ever a vicious reactionary.

A few examples will suffice... writing about Hitler in 1932 he uses these sentences: “I admire men who stand up for their country in defeat, even though I am on the other side. He had a perfect right, to be a patriotic German if he chose. I always wanted England, Germany, and France to be friends.” Hitler attacked Britain. That is all that concerned Churchill. But for that he would have admired him to this day... 

Admiration for dictatorship and military and feudal elements, racial arrogance, anti-Semitism, these and much more stare you in the face as soon as you shake yourself free of bourgeois propaganda ... It is one of the urgent tasks of the struggle against war to expose ... the pretensions of this reactionary prize-fighter to be a defender of democracy and civilization.

C.L.R. James, 'Winston Churchill - Tory war-dog', Fourth International, 10, no. 2 (February 1949), pp.41-46



See also this poem, Great Britain's Greatest Beast by Heathcote Williams and this piece - Winston Churchill: The Imperial Monster  

France: The Republic of Islamophobia

The persistent targeting of Muslims is preventing the effective management of diversity in French society. It is exacerbating tensions and obscuring the fundamental social and economic problems besetting France. It is encouraging the growth of the Front National. The only way to escape this vicious circle is to target and isolate the very real threat posed by the FN. The principal obstacle to this remains Islamophobia, in all its guises.
Jim Wolfreys, 'The Republic of Islamophobia', Critical Muslim, 13.

Edited to add: Tariq Ali on Charlie Hebdo, see also this and this - two good responses to an unconvincing attempt to defend the publication from the charge of racism.

Resist the racist offensive against Muslims

As well as Hassan Mahamdallie on levels of Islamophobia before the horrific Paris attacks (in this month's Socialist Review), see this week's  Socialist Worker for the anti-racist arguments more necessary now than ever to challenge the rising racist backlash underway - while there is also some useful commentary on Charlie Hebdo itself here, here and for some essential historical background see Robert Fisk - while on a related point Jim House and Neil MacMaster's work, Paris 1961: Algerians, State Terror and Memory recovers some of hidden history of another Paris massacre - one which saw 200 Algerian protesters killed by the police in Paris.

Conference - Unite against racism and fascism

Unite against racism and fascism - UAF national conference

9.30 – 4pm Saturday 21 Feb 2014, TUC Congress House, Great Russell St, London
Nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road

Speakers announced:
Diane Abbott MP,
Emily Thornberry MP,
Ken Livingstone,
Shahrar Ali Deputy Leader Green Party,
Lutfur Rahman, Mayor of Tower Hamlets
Dr. Shuja Shafi Secretary General MCB,
Billy Hayes General Secretary CWU,
Mark Serwotka General Secretary PCS
Sabby Dhalu and Weyman Bennett, Joint National Secretaries, Unite Against Fascism (UAF)

This year far right and fascist groups advanced across Europe. The whipping up of racism against immigrants, black communities, increased Islamophobia and Antisemitism has been its cutting edge. The racism of UKIP has been mainstreamed and looks set to worsen with major parties launching a war to outbid each other on attacking immigrant rights. The recent cuts to search and rescue operations for refugees in the Mediteranean epitomise how chilling this agenda has become. The revelations of spying on families of those murdered in racist attacks correlates with the injustice felt around the world following the deaths at the hands of the police of Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and other black people in the US.

UAF played a leading role in electorally defeating Nick Griffin in his MEP seat this year but we cannot be complacent. The far right violent EDL continue to target the Muslim community and are mobilising around the country. This conference is a timely opportunity to discuss the way forward for challenging racism and fascism, bringing together the trade unions, faith and black communities, anti-racist and anti-fascist activists, LGBT representatives, students and young people for this major anti racist and anti fascist annual conference.

There will also be a workshop organised by Stand Up to UKIP at this conference, while see also the national Stand Up to Racism and Fascism demonstrations on UN Anti-Racism Day, Saturday 21 March  - in London, Cardiff and Glasgow.

Justice for Mike Brown - US Embassy Emergency Protest

Justice for Mike Brown – US Embassy Emergency Protest 
5.30pm Wed 26 Nov
called by Stand up to racism 

Wed 26 November 5.30pm 24 Grosvenor Square, London W1A 2LQ

 We condemn the decision of the Grand Jury not to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson for killing 18-year-old Michael Brown in St Louis. This comes on the same day that Tamir Rice, a 12 year old boy, was shot dead by the police after carrying a toy gun. We call on all those who oppose this injustice to join us at the US Embassy tomorrow for an emergency protest.

 Speakers will include Carol Duggan, aunt of Mark Duggan and Marcia Rigg of the Sean Rigg Justice and Change campaign, anti-racist campaigners and others.

 Diane Abbott MP said:
 “My deepest sympathies go out to the family of Mike Brown. Not only have they lost a loved one but following the Grand Jury’s decision they no doubt feel the strongest sense of injustice, which can only make their pain worse. The anger and disruption that has already followed this decision extends beyond the killing of Mike right to the root of long standing issues with the criminal justice system. Just as in Britain, the Black community in the US has a fraught history with the police. It is one of the reasons I have always been against the arming of police. A recent report has shown that in recent years young black males in the US were 21 times more likely to be shot dead by police than their white counterparts. This is shocking, but inequality in policing is not a new phenomenon. Therefore how can it ever be reasonable to allow police to use deadly force against an unarmed young man? And just this week-end A 12-year-old boy has been shot dead by police in the US as he played with a fake gun in a park. And time and time again no one is held accountable. When yet another unarmed young black man is killed and it is “lawful”, it can be no surprise that black people are questioning how much value these same laws place on their lives"

 Carol Duggan, aunt of Mark Duggan who will be speaking at the event said:
 “Murder is not legitimate. No one should lose their child. Michael Brown has not got justice and neither has Mark Duggan. The Police are there to protect, not to kill our children”

 Marcia Rigg of the Sean Rigg Justice and Change campaign said:
 “My heart goes out to Michael Brown’s family and the community in Ferguson. No Justice No Peace.”

 Zita Holbourne National Co-Chair BARAC UK said:
 "Until there is a balance of powers there will be no balance of the scales of justice. Oppression, institutional racism, inequality, poverty & injustice occur because of a division of rights where black people are treated like third class citizens. As Martin Luther King said, a riot is the voice of the unheard. When will the powers that contribute to injustice be prepared to hear?"

 Aaron Kiely NUS NEC said:
 "We join the family of Mike Brown in calling for an indictment of the officer who shot their son dead. We currently live in a world where young black people can be shot dead on the street with impunity. This has got to stop. No justice, no peace."

 Sabby Dhalu for Stand up to racism said:
 “We fully support the family of Mike Brown. Having seen at first hand the pain of his family in Ferguson. We fully support the family’s call for the indictment. This comes within a day of Tamir Rice, a 12 year old boy, being shot dead by US police carrying a toy gun. The cheapness of black lives in the US is a reflection of racism that black communities face at the hands of the police that must be stopped.”

 Weyman Bennett of Stand up to racism said:
 “I went to Ferguson and met Mike Brown’s family. They have our full support justice must be served.”

 for more information contact info@standuptoracism.org.uk https://www.facebook.com/events/742965182457535/

Copycat Crime - A UKIP Calypso response by Alexander D Great

1,000 Stand Up to UKIP in Doncaster

One bit of good news on an otherwise quite depressing weekend - the importance of building anti-racist organisations like Stand Up to UKIP cannot be overstated as the UKIP bandwagon continues to roll on, taking the rest of mainstream official politics in Britain even further to the right...