[we do not know why YouTube age-restricted our video, 9 months after it was uploaded]
The TUC have launched a new report about racism at work, called Dying on the job . This reflects the real life experience of Black workers during the pandemic.
BME communities are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic https://www.tuc.org.uk/blogs/bme-communities-are-bearing-brunt-coronavirus-pandemic
As a result of discussions of our delegates we launched three campaigns
- use of police Body Worn cameras and Stop & Search https://wolvestuc.org.uk/should-police-body-cams-be-compulsory/
- funded Research project into Wolverhampton slavery links https://wolvestuc.org.uk/researcher
- Providing copies of 100 Great Black Britons book into all local schools and libraries https://wolvestuc.org.uk/black-history-in-schools/
Wolves TUC discussion (from minutes delgate meeting June 2020)
The Black Lives Matter campaign started 6 years ago as a hashtag set up by women in America in in response to vigilante and police attacks on black people. It is a movement of individuals without leaders. #BLM is about empowering people and seeking equality in all spheres . The response to the video of George Floyd’s death has brought BLM to international prominence.
In America main demands are around de- funding police where police violence is disproportionately aimed at black people .
in UK, BLM needs a program of demands locally and nationally.
- Wolverhampton TUC discussion of possible campaign directed at police and crime commissioner and candidates – police officers should have working body cams and that they be kept switched on and not just at the officers discretion.
- increase voter registration to stop Tory changes
- changes to education curriculum
- Currently in West Midlands all police have access to body cams, but this is not the same as them using the cams.
Marcus Rashford showed that free school meals could be extended this cost just £110 million.
Institutional racism in Britain in many organisations including the NHS, when there is evidence that the BAME front line workers have been disproportionately affected recovered by Covid-19.
Wolverhampton council where they are systemic discrimination in the grievance and disciplinary policies against black workers.
More key workers are BAME so have less time to home-school their children.
3 years after Grenfell Tower there is still no accountability.
All anti-discriminatory legislation excluding disability has been introduced by labour government.
1 in 5 Labour MPs are BAME which is higher than national average. Tories only have 6% and in England only.
Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis where he was to support trade union sanitation workers. he was killed in fear of uniting trade unions and black equality this threatened the establishment.
Campaigns for over 40 years have existed to remove slavery linked statues in Britain. now in a few months many have been taken down forcibly or voluntarily. Others are in discussion as to whether locations demonstrating civic pride are appropriate.
TUC Midlands statement:
The brutal murder of George Floyd by the police adds to the long history of the murder of African Americans following centuries of exploitation, repression and violence. We express our solidarity with and send a message of support to our sister centre AFL-CIO, and to all black workers in the US protesting systemic racism and facing state violence in their fight for justice.
The violence experienced by Black communities in the US is not unique. There is a need to urgently address Black deaths in custody in Britain and the growing inequality that Black communities face as a result of institutional racism in our workplaces and communities.
We condemn the attempt of President Trump to portray the fight against racism and fascism as terrorism. Under his presidency, far right ideas and white supremacy have been allowed to flourish, as part of a growth of far-right ideas being mainstreamed internationally.
Unions have a key role to play in fighting exploitation, oppression, inequality and state violence. Only through unity and solidarity can we rid the world of the scourge of racism and build a better future.
link to independent family justice campaigns’ websites https://www.inquest.org.uk/family-campaigns
Women Chainmakers Festival – slavery statement
During the planning of this event, the issue of Birmingham and the Black Country’s relationship with the transatlantic slave trade was raised.
This statement is not to take away from the hard working Black Country women of the time, the trades diminished the lives of the Black Country nascent working class as well as the commodified lives of those transported from Africa, in the most horrific manner.
Recent world events have highlighted what many of us have recognised and campaigned for for many years, the need for honest reflection about our history. The version of history that we are taught and is often portrayed is one that under-represents, the African, African Caribbean and Asian community, women, disabled people, LGBT+ people and the working class. It also hides the truth of the wealth accumulated by Britain and the sheer scale and brutality of the slave trade.
The question of the Birmingham and Black Country’s metalworks relationship with transatlantic slave trade is one that has been raised before and the truth is – we do not have a complete answer, however there is research out there that highlights how the British industrial sector made huge profits from the slave trade.
We have consulted people who have researched the women chainmakers’ story and they are unable to give a conclusive answer about slave chain.
At the time of the Women Chainmakers’ dispute in 1910, slavery in the UK and Europe had been abolished for over 70 years, slaves in the colonies becoming free after a period of forced apprenticeship following the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. Slavery in America continued until 1865.
It is a devastating realisation that our ancestors may have produced shackles and chain that enslaved the ancestors of our friends and colleagues.
We acknowledge that chains, cuffs, shackles or locks used in the abhorrent slave trade were made in the Black Country, there is evidence of this in the Slavery Museum in Liverpool.
It would be wrong and short-sighted to blame one industry alone for a history which connected so many Birmingham and Black Country trades. A more collective acknowledgement and learning about this aspect of British past would be a worthier response to injustices perpetuated by their role within the development of a bloodstained empire.
The women we commemorate made small gauge chain from metal rods to the specification of middle men. It is doubtful they knew what that chain was for.
They were uneducated, oppressed women with no rights who, once organised by Mary Macarthur and the National Federation of Women Workers, went on strike for a living wage.
We celebrate the success of those working-class women winning a living wage in 1910, 18 years before all women won the right to vote
The women chainmakers of Cradley Heath lived and worked in horrific conditions. One social commentator described Cradley Heath as ‘hell’. Whilst the Chain Masters would have profited from any historical links to the slave trade, the chainmakers of Cradley Heath did not. With no power or control over their daily lives, we commemorate the women chainmakers’ success in organising and standing up to their oppressors who profited from their exploitation.
Through organising in trade unions, we challenge exploitation in the workplace – and as trade unionists we stand with all those that face oppression and subjugation in whatever form.
Unity of all oppressed people is what empowers us and is the key to overcoming the most divisive aspects of oppression that so many face today.
This is an ongoing project, nevertheless a statement of this sort was warranted. This subject is complex and at times unsavoury; but should enable people to have open and transparent discussions and debate.
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