Add at end of existing point 28
In Britain, as in other countries, the Black Lives Matter movement has radicalised thousands and articulated a challenge to historical and present day racism – from statues and street names lauding slave owners to the skewed history our children are taught in school.
For centuries the Tories have represented the most successful elite in Europe. In the past they bolstered their position at home by ruthlessly appropriating the human and raw material resources of the empire, rationalising this theft and genocide through a myth of racial superiority which remains at the foundations of racism of present day British society.
Assisted by their friends in the media, the Tory response is to blame vulnerable and minority groups for the failings of the capitalist system. Grenfell Tower fire, the racism revealed by the Windrush affair (engendered by years of Tory ‘hostile environment’) and the attitude towards desperate migrants and refugees are the most blatant, and recent examples of the racism we must combat.
At present, the main opposition to this has come, not from the Labour Party but from the streets. The BLM movement has played a major role in making this happen and focussing minds on all aspects of the racism experienced by Black people in Britain. Claims by Labour to be 'the Party of equality' have not been backed up with action.
Starmer's attempt to silence complaints by suggesting they can be solved by 'unconscious bias training' is one example of the woeful lack of understanding by the current Labour Party leadership.
Many have suggested the ‘Black Wall’ which protects the Black urban vote risks being taken for granted. For the Labour Party, solidarity with the oppressed should never be an empty motto. We await with great interest the findings and recommendations of the Forde Enquiry.
Whatever the future of BLM, the Labour movement cannot ignore the significance of the movement that has come out of those eight minutes 46 seconds and the thousands of people who have been radicalised and organised as a result. The Labour party must not and cannot afford to lose their support.
Bisi Williams
Cathy Augustine
Nadia Jama
Jackie Walker
Ben Sellers
Terry Conway
Moz Bulbeck-Reynolds
Gwynne Reddick
Alison McGarry
Graham Bash