All posts by Janet Powe

news, UK

Meghan shows monarchy is rotten and racist, like entire UK establishment

The racist witch hunt against Meghan Markle is gathering a head of steam on the back of that Oprah interview.

It is not often that we write about archaic backward-looking institutions lie the monarchy, but we make an exception today given how the British House of Windsor has moved to the centre of the debate about racism in the UK.

The fallout from the revelations of two rich people associated with the British Royal family – until recently – apparently threatens the British royals with their biggest crisis since the abdication of the Nazi-loving Edward VIII in 1936.

There are some parallels there it should be noted, what with Harry in his less enlightened period dressing up in Nazi uniforms and more lately marrying an American. But to be fair to Harry and his wife, the similarities end there.

The racist treatment of Meghan Markle by the royal family and the British media is of course at the heart of this latest crisis for the monarchy.

Naturally, the media that labelled Meghan as coming ‘straight out of Compton’ and as the ‘gansta’ princess, deny they are racist.

The unfree racist billionaire-owned press hate the truth

This is the same media that prattles on about free speech, but when we speak the truth about Winston Churchill’s racism they want to shut down debate, or when anti-racists demand the rejection of the whitewashing and myths surrounding slavery in the form of the statues and street names found all over this country that continue to distort the real history, they prefer to continue to peddle lies to make themselves feel better.

So it is with the monarchy too.

With their precious monarchy they fein ignorance and surprise that there is racism at the court. They deny when the racism is blatant and documented that it is really racism, and reply that these Black people always want something to complain about, as if racism is something that most white people go along with or think is OK.

Meghan shows racism at the top is the main problem

The truth is however, that the racism that exists in the UK comes mostly from the top and is encouraged from there and promoted from there.

Every institution reflects the heritage of the British ruling class and its bloody history of slavery and colonialism. This is a story of oppression in which a certain class of persons in this country were the architects and beneficiaries – the elite.

That elite may have changed its colours – so to speak, becoming less aristo and more naked capitalist but is is the same bunch of people and their descendants that rue Britain today.

For them racism continues to be a valuable implement in their ideological toolbox for maintaining their power at home, if not no longer projecting and maintaining it abroad.

It is long gone time when the monarchy should have been consigned to history.

We can only hope that the current crisis brings forard the day when the whole sorry charade ends.

More importantly , we need an end to these people living off our backs. They do no real work but are dripping with riches. They are the walking embodiment of unearned privilege.

Right’s culture wars’ tries to deny racism exists

With 120,000 people dead because of the criminal negligence of a Tory government that is the other face of the establishment in this country, it is on one level laughable that we even have to talk about the feudal hangover of the monarchy.

But the truth of the matter is that the ruling class are using the racist pillorying of Meghan Markle to double-down on their attempted racist offensive to try and put back in the box the BLM mass movement and the debates and demands it has engendered, following the murder of George Floyd in the US shone a light on racism in Britain.

It’s not so much the ordinary people of the UK that are steeped in racism but rather the undemocratic institutions that still govern this country, from the boardrooms to the media empires owned and directed by billionaires.

British monarchy is rotten to the core and racist

Harry and Meghan are of course both very rich people and they are yet to throw away their titles, so. our sympathy has to be circumspect to some degree.

But leaving that aside, the taking down on Meghan Markle and the discriminatory treatment of their son, sans title, and the comments about his skin colour, tell us all we need to know about the institution of the British monarchy – it is rotten to the core and thoroughly racist to boot.

Prince Andrew the alleged sexual abuser evades justice with the palace’s help

Finally we can not but mention the contrast between the treatment of Meghan Markle and the queen’s son Andrew, who is allegedly to have sexually abused teenage girls.

His alleged pedophilia has been covered up and in practice defended by the same monarchy that has opened up an investigation on supposed bullying by Meghan Markle. The world is watching and the world is revolted.

news, US

Racist police handcuff and pepper-spray 9-year-old Black girl

A 9-year-old girl was handcuffed and pepper-sprayed by racist cops but still none of them have been disciplined, as the racist impunity of law enforcement in the US continues.

Sadly this is apart and parcel of the everyday racist violence from police that Black people continue to suffer in the US.

On Friday, January 29, several officers from the Rochester police department responded to a family disagreement. Instead of resolving the dispute, the responding officers quickly escalated the situation and it ended with police hand-cuffing and pepper-spraying a nine-year-old girl. 

Here’s what we know: 

Three RPD officers pepper-sprayed a child. The child’s mother, Elba Pope, called the police for a domestic dispute. When the police arrived, Pope’s daughter was experiencing a mental health emergency. Bodycam footage shows officers tackling the nine-year-old to the ground before placing her in handcuffs and later pepper-spraying her in the back of the squad car. 

The situation called for trauma-informed care, not state-sanctioned violence. The bodycam footage reveals a pattern of historically anti-Black racism within the Rochester Police Department.  Last year, Daniel Prude, a Black man experiencing a mental health emergency was murdered by RPD, which we only discovered months later because his family demanded the footage be released. RPD has a long history of violent racism, police brutality, and attempted cover-ups. In a very similar situation — a family member calling for help — officers responded with excessive force instead of community care. 

The implication that a Black child should have the capacity to respond calmly while being handcuffed, pepper-sprayed, and berated by a gang of police officers is unacceptable. It’s infuriating that multiple police officers (grown men and women) would brutally attack a child. 

We stand in solidarity with the families traumatized by the Rochester police department, and the Black community in Rochester as they demand justice after the violent assault of a 9-year-old child experiencing a mental health crisis. Every officer involved is guilty of prioritizing violence before community care. 

We demand justice.

• Release the names of the officers involved 

• Terminate all officers who responded to the scene 

• Ban the practice of handcuffing children 

• Ban the use of chemical weapons by RPD: prohibit the use of CS gas (tear gas), PepperBalls, and any chemical weapon that threatens the health and safety of community members  

Add your name to the petition demand justice now! 

Below is the letter we will send to the Mayor of Rochester, Lovely Warren& Police Chief Cynthia Harriot-Sullivan.

Sign the Petition against racist police:

Dear Mayor Lovely Warren & Police Chief Cynthia Harriot-Sullivan: 

I’m standing in solidarity with the families traumatized by Rochester police officers, the Black community in Rochester, and Color of Change to demand justice for the 9-year-old girl who was handcuffed and pepper-sprayed by officers on Friday, January 29th. The criminalization of Black children and the irresponsible use of state-sanctioned violence on our communities will not be tolerated. 

We demand justice, 

• Release the names of the officers involved 

• Terminate all officers who responded to the scene 

• Ban the use of chemical weapons by RPD: prohibit the use of CS gas (tear gas), PepperBalls, and any chemical weapon that threatens the health and safety of community members 

If police officers are protected by anonymity, internal investigations, and paid administrative leave they will continue to harm Black people with impunity.  

We demand that the Rochester Police Department is held accountable publicly. Your community demands immediate changes and we won’t stop fighting until you move towards our collective vision of safety and dignity. 

Sincerely 

[Your Name]

Thanks to the Color of Change (sign the petition):

https://act.colorofchange.org/sign/care_not_cops/?t=3&ak_proof=1&akid=49080%2E8946524%2EVBRuzG#

news, UK, US

Covid racism: Being poor or Black means no vaccine

Covid racism by the authorities means there is a huge disparity in getting the vaccine if you are from a poor, Black or Asian background.

On 20 February the Financial Times published an article entitled Racial Inequality Plagues US Vaccine Rollout.

Change US to UK and the headline would fit for the UK too.

The FT article contains some striking graphic representations of that disparity, with contrasting maps of the major cities showing the incidence of deaths and infections (blue) and the incidence of vaccine administration (green).

Being poor or black means no vaccine for you

The shocking truth that it is black and poor people doing most of the dying but rich white people getting the best vaccine coverage. BAME and frontliners are in the Covid firing line but seemingly at the back of the queue for the vaccine.

To repeat, what is true for the US is also true for the UK, but try as we might we cannot find similar maps of the UK, presumably because our millionaire owned press does not think it worthy of investigation.

And vaccine hesitancy among African Americans does not explain the gross disparity. Although that metric is higher among the demographic because of the history and current practice of racism in the delivery of US healthcare, it is the weakest factor explaining the low take up.

Instead, the way in which the vaccine rollout has been executed is the problem. Although the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended ‘priority groups’ get the vaccine first, this has been ignored by the individual states administering the rollout.

Vaccine hesitancy doesn’t explain rollout disparity

Most states have opted for an online first-come-first-served approach, which skews heavily in favour of the rich and well-heeled populations that have the time to sit in front of a computer refreshing the appointments site all day (or can hire someone to do that for them), or who don’t work all-hours and therefore don’t have the time to allocate for the necessary screen time.

And then there are the people who don’t have good internet access, which will tend to be the poorest communities. Then there is the already existing biases in healthcare delivery that skew to the richest in society.

Also, governments on both sides of the Atlantic are doing little if anything to counter vaccine hesitancy, with targeted outreach campaigns delivered by institutions and individuals trusted by the communities affected.

Short-sighted ruling class policy means a Covid pandemic without end

What is going on inside the rich countries is a reflection of what is going on at a global level, where the rich countries look after themselves but leave the middle income and poorest countries to fend for themselves. If it wasn’t for the Chinese and the Russians there would be no vaccine delivery in Latin America and Africa, for example.

But the short-sightedness of the rich white ruling-class elite means that the pandemic will never end because it will continue to circulate and mutate.

All graphics courtesy Financial Times.

action, UK

Justice 4 Mohamud and Moyied – Protest Cardiff 20th Feb 1pm

Mohamud Mohammed Hassan
Mohamud Hassan died after contact with 52 police officers in Cardiff. No officers have been disciplined or charged.

South Wales police are refusing to suspend an officer under investigation for their involvement in the death of an innocent young Black man – Mohamud Hassan.

They would prefer to protect one of their own instead of even pretending to try and give justice to a grieving, traumatised family.

Let’s show them true accountability.

Make your voice heard! (while wearing a mask and being socially distanced)

*We are not organisers of this event. South Wales police organised it when they refused to suspend the officer, or the other 51 that were in contact with Mohamud before he died.

Daonate to Mohamud Justice campaign here.

Justice 4 Moyied Bashir

Now South Wales police stand accused of a hand in the death of Moyied Bashir. He died after 24 police smashed into his home. Moyied had mental health issues and his parent had called the police thinking they would help get him to hospital, but instead they are alleged to have killed him. Donate to the campaign here

news, UK

Moyied Bashir is second death at hands of racist South Wales police

Moyied Bashir died after 24 police officers turned up at his home following a request for help get him to hospital. Instead, South Wales police in Newport are alleged to have killed him.

It comes after Moyied’s parents called police for help getting him to hospital Moyied has mental health issues and had been stabbed three weeks ago.

Gwent Police forced their way into Moyied’s home on Wednesday and “tied him up by his leg”, according to his brother Mohammed. The 29 year old was taken to Grange Hospital, Cwmbran, where he was pronounced dead.

A large protest took place at Gwent police station in Newport on Thursday.

First Mohamud Hassan and now Moyied Bashir dead after police contact

This is the second alleged killing by South Wales police in little over a month.

Mohamud Hassan was killed by police in Cardiff after contact with52 police officers. He was held over night by police , and left covered in cuts and bruises and died later at home.

Moyied’s brother says he was on medication for his mental health:

“He’s been battling mental health for a long period of time. The combination of the medication and his mental health got a bit stressful,” said Mohammed.

Sadly, Moyied’s parents rang the police to get help but instead the police tied him up. Moyied’s stab wound was on his main artery and after the restraints were applied Moyied started getting weaker, says his brother.

The family only wanted help from Moyied but now he’s dead at the hands of the police.

Protest against police killers – Cardiff Bay police station 1pm – jail killer cops!

Today there is a protest at Cardiff Bay police station to demand justice both for Moyied and Mohamud.

Mohamud Mohammed Hassan
Mohamud Hassan died after allegedly being beaten by police

Enough is enough. Jail killer cops!

He explained that their parents “rung the police with the intention to escort him to hospital with, say, two to three officers”.

But, Mohamed said, 24 cops arrived and “forced” their way into Moyied’s room and “tied him up by his leg”. “His stab wound is on his main artery, so while he is tied up, handcuffed, he started getting weaker,” he said.

“My dad is in shock saying, ‘What are you doing?’ In hospital, my brother was given CPR, oxygen, they tried everything.

“It was too late. We only wanted help.”

GoFundme page for Moyied is here

news, UK

Tories targeting Black Lives Matter and XR as ‘extremists’ exposes their own weakness

1 Comment

In a disturbing development, the government today announced an investigation into Extinction Rebellion (XR) and Black Lives Matter (BLM) and other “progressive extremists”, as it sought to liken the ecological movement and the fight for racial justice to far-right thuggery and terrorism.

The Tories have hired a clapped-out ex Labour MP to be the witch hunter in chief – a certain Lord Walney, real name John Woodcock.

Woodcock performed his services to the ruling class of Britain by doing his best to destroy the Labour Party, during the time when it was led by socialist and staunch anti-racist Jeremy Corbyn.

We hope they are paying Woodcock well for his McCarthyism.

Woodcock, after citing the far right in passing, then focuses on his real target: “We must be vigilant against a similar blind spot in Britain to the prospect of progressive extremism.

“That is, unacceptable disruption or even violence carried out in the name of progressive causes to which the political establishment and large majority of the population have great sympathy, like climate change and racial injustice.”

In a backhanded way, Woodcock admits that there is no evidence of violence by Extinction Rebellion, in comments to the Tory rag the Daily Telegraph, where he mused: “There have been a number of, at the moment isolated, examples of climate change activist groups, particularly Extinction Rebellion, overstepping the mark into antisocial behaviour.”

Not content with attacking XR, he then went on to indulge in a bit of old-fashioned red-baiting (you know the line – ‘Are you or have you ever been a communist?’).

His target was the left-wing socialist group the Socialist Workers Party: “I want to look at the way antidemocracy, anti-capitalist far left fringe groups in Britain like the Socialist Workers Party tend to have much more success hijacking important causes,”said Woodcock.

Clearly the powers that be hate the idea of people exercising their democratic right to protest and to be anti-capitalist, as well as anti racist, it would appear.

Black Lives Matter Movement responds to anti-democratic witch hunt

BLMM activist Gary McFarlane, responded to the government witch hunt in comments supplied to the media.

“Tarring XR and BLM with the same brush as far-right terrorists is an outrage. Far from the noble Lord being independent, he is the hand-picked servant of a man – the prime minister – who described Black people using vile racist language, extremist language that thankfully most people left behind in the 1950s.

It is Boris Johnson who has made pedalling Islamophobia his trademark, and in so doing providing cover for far-right extremism. So if the Lord wants to fight extremism he should start with his employer. 


“As for supposed left-wing hijackers, the Lord needs to brush up on his Black history. Many leading and influential figures in the fight for Black liberation were Marxists or influenced by Marxism – from Angela Davis to Paul Robeson, not to mention the great Black historians CLR James and WEB Du Bois (the latter being the founder of the NAACP).

“Also, one of the founders of the Notting Hill Carnival was a member of the Communist Party – Claudia Jones. The hugely influential Black Panther Party was a Marxist organisation – are they to be excised from history too by the Tories’ McCarthyite thought police? 


“The truth is that both XR and BLM have wide support and encompass people of divergent political views united in common aims – and our rulers clearly find that a threat. Meanwhile, violent fascists go about their business relatively unmolested by the same authorities.”

news, UK

Don’t let Osime Brown be deported to his death in Jamaica

Osime Brown, 22, came to the UK when he was four and is now threatened with deportation – his mum fears he will die if he’s deported to Jamaica.

Osime has a learning age of six and is autistic. As if that was not enough, he suffers from PTSD and heart problems.

None of those disorders are helped by the threat od deportation to Jamaica that is hanging over him.

We reported on this case in July last year, but unfortunately the struggle is still ongoing.

The campaign to stop his deportation has been gathering a head of steam, with 50 MPs now supporting the campaign, with even the archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams writing to home secretary Priti Patel to demand the deportation in stopped.

A petition to support Osime has been signed by 358,902 people at the time of writing.

A desperate mum fears her autistic son will die if he is deported to Jamaica – where he has no relatives and knows no one.

Osime Brown. Pics by Osime’s mother, Joan Martin

Osime Brown, 22, has PTSD, anxiety, a heart problem and screams out in his sleep as he awaits a Home Office decision.

So how did Osime end up being faced with deportation to a country he doesn’t know and has no relations or other connections?

Osime was convicted of robbery of a friends phone in 2018, and sentenced to five years in prison. Winesses say that far from trying to steal the pphone, Osime was trying to stop the theft.

The hugely disproportionate sentence is sadly par for the course in the Bitish injustice system, but he now componded by the threat of deportation.

Now Osime’s mum, Joan Martin fears her son will die if deported to Jamaica.

“He has developmental delays and is extremely vulnerable.

“He would not survive in Jamaica with no one to look after him.

“He developed heart problems in jail and I worry his heart will stop again. I check every 15 minutes while he is asleep.

“Osime is traumatised. Often he can’t sleep and when he does he will be screaming, ‘No! No!’

We must stop this cruel and inhuman deportation of this autistic man.

Please sign the petition today at Change.org:

https://www.change.org/p/home-office-stop-the-deportation-of-vulnerable-autistic-man-osime-brown-stopthedeportation-robertbuckland-ukhomeoffice

news

Defend the Colston 4 – in court Mon 25th Jan – 8 mins silence at 9:45am

The four people charged with criminal damage for removal of the Colston Statue have their first court hearing on 25th January at Bristol Magistrates Court. If you are glad that Colston is no longer on a pedestal in our city, join us online to show them your support.

We’ll be putting on a teach-in and holding an 8 minute silence at 9.45am to remember the 84,500 people whose kidnap and enslavement Colston helped to fund and organise during his time with the Royal Africa Company. As well as taking time to celebrate the enslaved whose many rebellions brought about abolition.

Given the ongoing risks from the new variant of Covid-19, we are asking people not to attend a protest at the magistrates court in person but to do so virtually instead.

Between 9.30am and 10pm on Monday 25th please share solidarity photos and post to the event or to your social media using #GladColstonsGone, saying why you’re glad Colston’s statue is no longer on our streets.

And keep checking back for updates, there will be more details and exciting associated events coming soon.In solidarity and hope.

The four people charged with criminal damage for the removal of the Colston statue have their first court hearing tomorrow – Monday 25 Jan – show your support online 9.30 – 10am fb.me/e/172vnC8JE #GladColstonsGone #BlackLivesMatter 

news, UK

Priti Patel plans to introduce racist SVRO stop and search laws

Home secretary Priti Patel has announced the government’s intention to push ahead with yet more racist stop and search powers for the police, despite no evidence that they help to stop violent crime.

The government plans to introduce legislation to enable the introduction of Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVRO), which would allow the police to stop and search any individual who has been convicted of a prior criminal offence.

Patel announced the new measures in comments to the Mail on Sunday.

But there is no evidence that stop and search fights crime. In 2018/19 nothing was found in 72% of searches. Black people are already 10 times more likely to be stopped than who’re people and the serious violence reduction orders will increase this racial disproportionality. 

Add to this the fact that the draconian Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act means the police already have wide discretion to stop and search without the need to show “reasonable grounds”, the real purpose of Patel’s new power grab is to be seen to be acting tough and, sadly, to stir up more racism.

Only 5% of stops under Section 60 lead to an arrest.

SVROs will give the police power to search anyone with a previous conviction without having to provide grounds for doing so. How are such persons going to be identified? By the colour of their their skin? 

The rollout of SVROs comes on the back of the increase in stop and search targeting Black kids, under the guise of the Covid legislation. Stops in May 2020 in London shows that 1 in 8 of all Black males aged 15 to 25 were stopped in London.

Stops by the London Metropolitan police in May 2020 were double the figure for 2019, according to the Home Affairs select committee.

Patel told The Mail on Sunday: “A minority will say these measures are disproportionate and will affect minority communities or claim that this is racism. That is simply not true.

“People will say these measures are controversial. But to me, when people are dying, that doesn’t matter. The government’s number one job is to keep our people safe.”

The Tories don’t care how many more lives their policies ruin and care even less about the addressing the real causes of violent crime.

Much of inner city violent crime on the streets is driven by turf wars over drugs, so why not legalise all drugs.

Many stops in London and elsewhere are initiated because a police officer says they could small cannabis, so why not legalise cannabis as they have in Canada and more than a dozen US states?

Meanwhile, Black men continue to die after contact with a police officer, such Mohamud Hassan who dies in Cardiff last week after allegedly been beaten by police office at the Butetown police station.