Open Letter to Labour Party NEC and Democracy Review Panel.

Open Letter to Labour Party NEC and Democracy Review Panel. 

Thursday, 5 July 2018.

Dear NEC and Review Panel members,

Re : Leeds Conference on constitutional reform of BAME Labour. 

The recent Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority (BAME Labour) conference in Leeds, held on Saturday, 30 June 2018, provided an opportunity for members of the Labour Party to feedback on the suggested constitutional reforms as recommended by a Review Panel established by the leader's Jeremy Corbyn's office, to facilitate feedback on the important Labour Party Democracy Review.

The event was attended by close to 200 people representing black and ethnic minority Labour Party members from across the country, including a huge delegation from Momentum Black Caucus.

Following the conference, we wish to raise a number of important matters; firstly we believe that the late distribution of  consultation documents restricted the debate and was entirely unsatisfactory. In addition whilst there was an opportunity for feedback and discussion, there was no opportunity the pass motions or amend the Panel recommendations.

We also believe that the failure to provide Halal food was a serious error of the organisers, given we were meeting in Leeds and had a hugely diverse attendance from Muslim communities across the region. 

Notwithstanding these concerns, we believe the event was an important first step, in starting a conversation about tackling racism in wider society, and within the Labour and trade union movement contextualised through the framework of race and class analysis. .

This was a recurring theme throughout the event, whereby members cited numerous examples where Constituency Labour Parties and Trade Unions have failed to advance the cause of black and ethnic minority representation and worse still, we heard examples where comrades/members were reported as being complicit in subjecting Black and Asian and ethnic minority members to racial and religious discrimination.

An important concern was the extent to which the review panel were suggesting that the definition of which ethnic groups is included in definition of BAME Labour was raised by Unison delegate Gloria Mills and reiterated by Chair of the MBC, Professor Cecile Wright.

We were reassured, by the response form the conference Chair, and NEC member Claudia Webbe, who clarified that the current definition, which relates to non-white Labour Party members, was not up for review. MBC believes this represents an important "red line" in any reconstituted black and ethnic minority, Labour Party movement. 

The event also made it clear that it found it anomalous that only black and ethnic minority Labour Party members were being charged an additional £5 pounds to become members of BAME Labour whilst no other liberation group in the party is subject to such a charge. The question was why are BAME Labour Party members subjected to this disparity?

We were also deeply concerned to find out that BAME Labour had no access to its membership database, could not send out communications to its membership, and have no access to the membership fund that had accrued over time. We were informed that tens of thousands of pounds lie dormant in a Labour Party bank account, constituting the sum total of Black, Asian and ethnic minority membership fees that have been paid throughout the last 20 or so years. MBC is of the strong view that this money should now be handed over to a newly constituted BAME Labour leadership to help fund rebuild and relaunch BAME Labour. 

The BAMEmembership database of both the Labour Party and Momentum should be made available and shared with a newly constituted BAME Labour Group. 

In addition the consultation, agreed with the Review Panel recommendations in their entirety and was adamant about ensuring the full representation at all local, regional, national and international levels of the Labour Party, the Trade Unions and Momentum, was non negotiable and should be required and underpinned by any new Labour Party constitution.

The restoration of a national BAME Labour conference was seen as an absolute priority in ensuring the revitalisation and restoration of a dynamic black and ethnic minority focused policy agenda, to meet the challenge of increasing racism and religious hatred within post Brexit Britain. It was made absolutely clear from MBC delegates and the wider participants that we need to develop, a Labour Party policy manifesto that addresses racial/class inequality that can demonstrably deliver substantive reductions, in all major areas of racial/class inequality, within our lifetime. 

Suggested constitutional guaranteed representation of the Labour Party and Trade Union movements on the BAME Labour, national executive, conferences and policy forums were also discussed. Conference was clear that there should be no automatic right of representation from Constituency Labour Parties or Trade Unions, some of whom may or may not, have prioritised the issue of race equality and black representation. 

We would argue, representation should be conditional on CLP’s and  TU’s meeting a minimum standards/criteria relating to the extent to which race equality policy and black and ethnic minority representation had been adopted as a priority and where progress towards the goal of full inclusivity was demonstrable. 

We repeat, MBC believes that there should be noautomaticright to representation on BAME structures for those sections of the Labour Party and the wider Labour movement, who failed to deliver on advancing the cause of racial equality and improved black representation.

The consultation event also suggested the creation of a BAME Labour Compliance Unit that would produce an annual audit, to be presented at the annual BAME Conference, which assessed levels of black and ethnic minority representation, policy support and adoption of BAME Labour policy priorities of all those wishing to take up their place within BAME Labour constitutional framework. 

We recognise that within the Labour Party and wider Labour movement individual organisations were each on their own individual journey towards race/class equality with some making better progress than others..

Any constitutionally guaranteed positions in BAME Labour structures, should have to be earned and accessed, by ensuring that all applicants were committed to and were making actual and demonstrable progress towards building an inclusive Labour Party.

The consultation event noted the declining number of African and Caribbean men within the party. Whilst this was true generally, this was particularly noticeable for younger black men. MBC supports all efforts in ensuring gender parity and representation within our movement, and in particular with a focus on black women. Given the reality of the declining representation of black men, MBC believes it's now time for the adoption of policy requiring all BME shortlistswithin both the Labour and trade union movements. Conducting an internal race equality audit, of all Labour Party and Trade Union elected and employed staff would provide a baseline from which annual progress could be measured.

We are concerned that the review panel in presenting the findings of this consultation event, fully reflects the broad range of concerns expressed.We will certainly be looking closely at what is presented to the Labour Party National Executive, and will be assessing how this compares with the feedback given at the consultation event.

We believe that the consultation event marks an important first step towards democratising the Labour Party,and, in particular,BAME Labour. We confirm our intention to ensure that the highest possible progress is made in adopting a constitution that is likely to support our efforts in building the most dynamic, largest and effective black and ethnic minority campaigning group in Europe. We intend to continue to build our movement and to maintain a watching brief on the developments within the party and report back to the wider movement on progress made.

Regards and solidarity, 

Momentum Black Caucus, Executive.  

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The Ultimate Black Professional and Community Legacy Gala 2017

When we fundraise our own money, we stand on our two feet and look our children proudly in the eyes with confidence, pride and we fear no-one. #LegacyGala2017 We stand proud in the eyes of all, when we sacrifice our today for a better tomorrow. 

We stand all fall on the extend that we truly adopt the  philosophy of the Jamaican national hero, the Honourable Marcus Garvey. Today, we need to adopt this philosophy as our primary strategy for success. 

The Garveyite philosophy of "do for self" and look to Africa has never been so important as it is today. In these deeply troubled times, financial independence and ensuring a global connectivity have to be the head cornerstone's of any sustainable foundation of the next generation's leadership.

As Brexit looms and uncertainty abounds, our children face a future where they will enjoy fewer opportunities for personal advancement, economic and social mobility than any other previous modern day generation. 

It's vital that we prepare legacy organisations dedicated to providing the expertise and guidance that will support our next generation of young leaders. 

The Legacy Gala seeks to do just that; to raise our own finance to invest in our own young people, in developing ethical and effective next generation leaders

There can be no greater genetic or historic responsibility for any people. other than to ensure that they bequeath, to the next generation, their children, a world better that the one they inherited from their parents.

The Windrush generation worked hard, from can't see in the morning, till can't see at night, to ensure that they and their children, had a better future. 

This is the essential historic mission of all parents, all communities and nations.

Today we are in danger of bequeathing, to the next generation, a world in far worse state than the one we inherited. That would constitute an abandonment of our historic duty to push our communities forward and sacrifice today so that our children can benefit tomorrow.

This is our mission and today this work, investing in the future, financial independence, ethical and principled leadership is needed more than ever.

Such is the historic and some would say, the divine mission of the Legacy Gala. So join us as we celebrate black excellence and build strong foundations for the future. 

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Black Teenage Murders: The Unpalatable Truth.

Lewisham Community Action Meeting.

Honor Oak Community Centre SE4 2DJ.

Black Men Pull Your Socks Up!

Lee Jasper Speech.

Thursday 1^st October 2015 7pm.

Thank you Sharon it’s so inspiring to see a new generation of leaders coming through on this issue. People like yourself and Gwenton Sloley are leading the way for the next generation and showing real leadership of our community and I want to acknowledge that and ask the audience to do so too.

Just to acknowledge the parents of the recently deceased and the Deslandes Family whom I know having supported them when their son was brutally murdered you all have my condolences and respect.

I want to talk to you today as a father of five boys and four girls, as a Grandfather of five and first and foremost as a black man.

I want to tell you a short personal story. I live in Lambeth and have done so for some 30 years now. My Wife’s and I last child, is a lovely bright intelligent boy who we brought up to have empathy and compassion for all people. I had told him, as I had told all our children, if you see someone in distress you do not walk on by, you help, if your see someone bullying another person, help then if you can.

Then one day in the summer of 2010 my 16-year son was on his way home from Rugby practice, he’s small but powerfully built lad and on his way home he came out of our local tube station and was confronted with a groups of our boys in a fight with a small boy, whom he knew form school.

My son intervened on instinct and knowing the boy he tried to placate the group of boys.

Seeing that one of them had pulled a knife, he grabbed his school friend by the collar and yanked him out of the way. As he did so, the boy with the knife lunged forward and my son was stabbed in his torso just above his hip.

All the boys fled, including his school friend and left my Son stabbed bleeding on the pavement. I got a call at work form my wife who was frantic. I just couldn’t make out what she was telling me. Finally I she was able to tell me our son had been stabbed.

The feelings of morbid dread, fear and feelings of powerlessness that overwhelmed us were indescribable; a gut wrenching fear gripped me as I headed for Kings College hospital. Once there we saw our beautiful boy, surrounded my doctor’s nurses, tubes connected to him and clear panic in the medical team.

The doctors and nurses, God bless every one of them, worked to stabilise his condition. For two hours we waited not knowing how serious he was injured. That was the worst nightmare of our family life. They told us the blade had almost nicked an arterial vein above his hip.

A millimetre to either side and he would in all likelihood bled to death on the spot.

This isn’t about politics for me it’s the reality of life and death.

Today I’m here to say what needs to be said. 

I seek only to speak with clarity no modulation, clear and unfettered without the binding constraints of ego, agenda or ambition.

We have to face the fact, that as it stands today, our young people are engaged in war of self-hatred, bitter enmity and extreme violence.

Look where we are? Once, not that long ago, we were a community united. Today our children kill each other with a shocking frequency and a sickening ferocity.

Today, we all sit here in shock about the increase in teenage murders across London and in Lewisham in particular.

Lets for us one moment, consider our condition as a community.

Knife crime is up 18% in London and… over the last year and there are a reported 1000 stabbings a month and 10 young people have died this year already.

According to the statistics form the Ministry of Justice published in 2012 in London for every 1000 white people there are 11 murders. For every 1000 black people they are 32.

Black Youth Unemployment stands at 50% according to official figures published in 2012.

The findings of a Met Police Multi agency Domestic Violence Murders Review for 2006 stated approximately 25% of all murders in London.

Furthermore, 30% of children are actually witnesses the murder of their mother. Many of these murders are happening as a consequence  of bitter disputes about separation and child contact/custody. The long-term impact to children witnessing their mothers being beaten and killed  and experiencing is children who are predisposed to  or have a propensity to violence. 

We the Black Community, have one of the highest rate of Domestic Violence and DV murders of any single ethnic community in London.

Research published by the Safe Network shows that Black children and those of mixed heritage are more likely to be subject to child protection plans and/or end up in the care system than white children.

Figures produced by the Youth Justice Board this year show that since 2013 there has been an increase of 54% in the number of Black Youth being imprisoned.  

We have more black men in prison than University.

Prisons and youth institutions have themselves become breeding centres of organised violence and racist abuse by staff, according to Her Majesties Inspector of Prisons.

London Poverty Profile published by the Trust for London shows 20% of the White population lives in low-income households, compared to 40% of people from BME backgrounds.

We all know Black Homelessness is on the rise as well as the desperate figures relating to the incidence of mental health in our community, I cant tell how many of our children our excluded from schools because with the introductions of Academy and Free Schools, who no longer are required to publish these figures, we know less about this issue today, than we did 30 years ago.

The poor state of the economy is aggravating these acute socioeconomic conditions and that leads me to conclude, looking forward, that things could get much worse given the very strong link between these issues and the incidence of violence.

The World Health Organisation is very clear on this issue, as is the Equality Trust whose work the Spirit Level sets our very clearly the relationship between long term deprivation and violence.

So, I say to all of you all gathered here tonight, that the situation we are facing is likely to get much worse and the critical question that hangs pregnant in the air over every single one of us…. is what are we… not the Council, not the police, not the schools, what are we going to do about it?

Add to these facts the reality of cuts to public services and Local authority budgets means that their ability to help in financial terms is reducing year on year, so we know that times are going to be tough.

I want to speak to the Black men in the room and those watching elsewhere. Because all too often we are absent from the home and too often we are the perpetrators of Domestic Violence when we are in the home.

We populate the mental health, prison system and dole queues in disproportionate numbers and sadly we are the most likely to be shot or stabbed in London. 

We are in danger of ourselves, we are our biggest mortal threat, and all of us are at risk of someone close to us, losing his or her lives unnecessarily because of the unaddressed needs of another young person.

The challenges that we face are immense, but not insurmountable. The most basic and fundamental question we must ask ourselves is, what is the value of young Black lives?

The answer is as simple as it is sobering. The value of young Black lives is precisely commensurate with the value we as a community place upon them. 

As we stand today, young Black life is cheap.

Too often we contrast the values of our children’s lives with the perceived value place by wider society of the lives of young white people. This is an error.

The ugly, abhorrent truth is that as a community, we value our own children’s lives least of all. 

More Black teenagers have lost their lives in the UK since 2000 than the combined total of British soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.  They are not the only casualties as we often totally ignore the number of Black youth fortunate to survive. The walking wounded, scared, maimed and disfigured bodies that constitute the invisible causalities of a war of self-hatred. Then increasing rates of black male suicide are terrifying.

These are the inconvenient truths we must now face head on.

The pains of these losses are borne largely, but not exclusively by Black women and children alone. The reality of the abandonment of too many of our children are broken hearted angry boys, without fathers.

The broader consequences of this implicit, public and yet unacknowledged failure that so corrosively attacks both the heart and soul of poor communities can be read on the headstones of the dead youth.

The causalities of the deadly virus of violence and in particular youth violence are all around for us to see. 

And like any other deadly and infectious disease, violence and the fear of violence, leaves whole communities in deep pain, traumatised and paralysed by a toxic combination of pain, fear and feelings of powerlessness. 

Our moral failure is only matched by our political failure. 

We all know economic injustice, poverty and depravation exacerbates, aggravates and amplifies violence. The World Health Organisation is very clear on this point, as are a plethora of international studies that bear witness to the tragic consequences of long-term poverty and high unemployment. Public health approaches to tackling violence are urgent priority and we need to utilise a social action model of community organising, that is funded by us. 

Against this backdrop of ever increasing public sector cuts the problem, dipping our hand into our own pockets is an important part of moving forward and restoring our self respect. I believe given these problems, the awful prognosis is that things will get worse, as the public sector’s ability to meet these challenges diminishes. In that context we must step up not step down. 

Not only are we an economically impoverished community, we also suffer a poverty of ambition, a poverty of empathy, a poverty of social solidarity and a poverty of ethical leadership. 

Community organisations seeking public or statutory funding are forced to compete rather than co-operate, contributing to a climate of distrust and alienation.

Too many Black men in our communities feel both disempowered and disrespected, generating feelings of low self-esteem, shame and anger.

Even our everyday language has become increasingly violent and dominates our discourse infecting our psyche and thought patterns producing self-regulating crabs in a barrel.

In the midst of this deep dysfunctionality, lies a minority, but a significant minority, of broken families, broken children and broken communities who are starved off familial leadership in the home and ethical leadership in the wider community. 

These casualties of economic injustice produce damaged psychologies, where emotional intelligence is minimal, where commitment to learning and education can be weak and the language and physicality of immediate, intimate violence and abuse becomes infectious.

Over time these dysfunctional and damaged families and local communities create a self-reinforcing environment where the virus of violence becomes not only highly infectious, but also malignant.

The simple truth is only compassion; love and empathy can overcome the challenges we face.

Doing so has the unique potential and the hopeful possibility of enthusing feelings of pride, familial love and community responsibility. Therein lies our goal and best weapon against this plague of violence.

Absent Black men need to home both literally and to their communities. They must come home and join Black women and children struggling to cope with the desperate trauma and grievous loss and become evident in the fight against this deadly infection.

Gwenton Sloley issued a simple and yet profound challenge. He called for community leaders to ‘ pull up our socks’.  We can do that but we must empower our communities through action knowledge and compassionate love.

We must return to the family, defend our communities become and principled ethical leaders. We need a paradigm shift toward a 'do for self' social economy.

We are the key to effectively dealing with this issue.

As the African American poetess famously said, when asked where are the black leaders and responded.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”

Thank you