Category Archives: news

news, UK

Shukri Abdi death: “I accidentally pushed her into the deep end”

Shukri Abdi died on 27 June last year after drowning in a river in the northern town of Bury. Now one of the children with her at the time of death has admitted pushing her into the “deep end”.

Since the 12-year-old’s suspicious death, her family and supporters have been fighting for justice. She was the subject of one of the large BLM protests in central London.

Currently, the inquest into her death is taking place and already there has been a startling and disturbing revelation, confirming the family’s worst fears – that Sukhri didn’t just wonder into a river all by herself and mysteriously drown.

The inquest, which actually began earlier in the year but was adjourned, restarted at the end of November.

One of the children who was with Shukri has told the inquest that she pushed her into deeper water in the River Irwell.

The identities of the children giving evidence at the inquest can not be revealed and instead can only be referred to as Child One, Child Two, Child Three and Child Four.

Child One spoke via video link about the incident involving Shukri: “She was holding my legs at the back. I pushed her, I accidentally pushed her to the deep end. I couldn’t swim like that, I pushed her.

“She thought she could swim but didn’t know how to swim. She got into the water next to me. She was grabbing my hand. Something happened, she went down in the water to get back up, she didn’t make it. We were calling to Shukri to get up. She didn’t get up. We were all crying and shouting. She’s like really small. We were panicking. We were like: no, this cannot happen.”

A paramedic named Gillian Fenton who attended the scene said no one appeared to be distressed among the four children standing at th bank of the river, and none were wet – suggesting their had been no attempt to rescue Shukri.

“No one appeared to be crying or in any state of distress,” said Fenton.

The family accuses the authorities of institutional racism and the school she attended of failing to stop her being relentlessly bullied.

Anti-racism activist Maz Saleem, who has been helping the Justice 4 Shukri campaign, told Al Jazeera: “Shukri’s mum has clearly told us she wants justice for Shukri. She came here so her children could be protected. They fled from a war-torn country.

“This is why we decided to get the campaign together, to hold those very institutions to account that should have protected her.”

Shukri was a child refugee from Somalia.

Sign the petition for Shukri here.

news, UK

Tories back down on deporting to Jamaica those who came to UK as kids

According to the Guardian the government has partially backed down on the deporting to Jamaica those who were children when they came to the UK will not now be deported.

That could be more than half of the flight of 50 detainees originally slated for deportation.

Thankfully the Jamaican government has made representations to the UK government to stop the cruel and barbaric action but unfortunately still leaves many other individuals facing deportation.

The flight is still scheduled to depart the UK on Wednesday 2 December.

Stop deporting to Jamaica people who have been in UK most of their lives

Karen Doyle from the  Movement For Justice says of a sample of 20 cases due to be on the fight on Wednesday, none had arrived in the UK before the age of 12.

Doyle told the Guardian: “With previous flights the proportion who arrived here as children was always much higher. This is a welcome change and something that has been fought for for many years. But the secrecy around it is disturbing. A backroom deal just for this flight is not acceptable. The change must apply to all those who came as children regardless of their country of origin.”

Bella Sankey, the director of Detention Action, also questioned the secrecy surrounding the deal, urging for the law to be changed to prevent people who arrived as children (under 18) being deported: “If true, this agreement marks progress in reforming our barbaric deportation system, but why the secrecy? To be effective, this rule must be written into the law so that it can provide protection in practice and should be applied equally to all who arrive in the UK under 18, wherever they may have arrived from.”

news, UK

Jamaica50: stop this mass deportation flight! Tories are the real criminals

The Jamaica50 detainees have won support from eighty-two Black British public figures, who have spoken out against the proposed mass deportation of Black people to Jamaica.

Among the celebs joining the fight are model Naomi Campbell, historian David Olusoga, actors Thandie Newton and Naomie Harris, and writer Bernardine Evaristo (author of Booker Prize-winning novel Girl, Woman, Other).

The group is appealing to the airlines to boycott the flights and believe that the government in all probability will be breaking the law through rushing to deport the detainees.

As we reported previously, the deportation scheduled to take place on 2 December.

Many of the Jamaica50 individuals having spent the majority of their adult lives in the UK, and their deportation deprives families of their loved ones, as the government steps up its racist immigration policies.

According to campaign group Movement for Justice, eight of the men slated for deportation have 31 children between them, but the government couldn’t care less.

The last flight to Jamaica took place in February, when 17 men were deported – a reduction fro the original number after intervention by the courts.

Tories are the real criminals

The government justifies its stance by saying those threatened with deportation are “foreign criminals”.

Any ‘foreign national’ who has committed an offence that has led to a custodial sentence of 12 months or longer can be summarily deported.

Rayan Crawford, who had been in the UK since he was 12, was kicked out of the country on the February flight for minor burglary offences. His partner Jana says Ray had a problem with a gambling addiction at the time.

Rayan suffers from a rare bone condition called Blount’s Disease and inflammatory arthritis. He hasn’t been able to get hold of the medication he requires apart fro a month’s supply from a charity. All health care has to be paid for in Jamaica.

Speaking from Jamaica, Ryan reports: “There is no free medication in Jamaica—even if you want to see a doctor, you have to pay for it. There was a charity organisation, but it said it could only give medication to me for the month.”

According to human rights lawyer Jacqueline Mckenzie, the majority of people who have been singled out for deportation have committed drug offences.

A number of Tory ministers (Michael Gove) have admitted to taking drugs, as has the prime minister Boris Johnson, but neither of them face deportation or prison.

McKenzie says that no one who has been in this country since they were children should be facing deportation to a country they know nothing about and have no connections with.

“If you have been in the UK as a child, you shouldn’t be deported irrespective of what your offence is. Whether you’ve got the right documentation or not, you’re culturally British, you’re part of this society. You’ve offended here, you are punished here, and your punishment is going to prison. People should not be punished twice,” says McKenzie.

Jamaica50 – the Windrush Scandal rolls on

Most of the Jamaica50 being held prisoner in the removal centres are the descendants of the Windrush Generation of migrants to the UK, who were invited here by the government after the war to plug the huge labour shortages facing the country at the time.

The fear the deportations are spreading through the African-Caribbean community are immense, as people who don’t have the correct papers now live in fear of possible deportation.

Not surprisingly, the government wants to forget the part played by Britain’s Jamaican colony in making the country what it is today. Without the slave trade and the wealth created in Jamaica, there would probably have been no industrial revolution in the UK.

jamaica50 - art by Zita Holbourne - poet artist activist

And of course, during the time when Jamaica was a colony, those who resided there were told they were British.

But even after taking all that into account, we should not let the government divide people into ‘good’ migrants and ‘bad’ migrants, as they try to whip up racial division. to deflect attention from their own failings.

Sadly, the government’s dirty work is being fronted by daughter of immigrants Priti Patel, backed up by the new Equalities minister Kemi Badenoch.

Zita Holbourne from campaign group BARAC UK, speaking this afternoon at a People’s Assembly event, said there is no Covid safety in the detention centres, apart from the taking of temperatures.

“Detainees are mingling and moving around, but families are banned from coming to the detention centre,” Zita explained. “This is unlawful according to the European Court of Human Rights because of the right to family life.”

Zita continued: “Each person is chained to two guards… there will be no social distancing – it will be a full flight. The Jamaican government are also out of order.”

Jamaica, a poor country, is handling the pandemic much better than the UK government, but this flight will help to spread the disease on the Caribbean island.

TUI Airways doing the Home Office deportation charter?

TUI Airways looks like it is the airline that will be carrying out the deportation – their customer service number is 0871 231 4787

BARAC UK have launched a petition to #stoptheplane on change.org – click here.

There’s a Twitter storm taking place this afternoon, using the hashtags:

#stoptheplane

#jamaica50

Zita also mentioned that an immigration reporting centre in Newham in east London, which has a large population that comes from Black, Asian and minority ethnic population – as a way to further intimidate Black and Asian people. Watch this space for more on that to follow.

Thanks to Zita Holbourne for the art featured here

news, UK

13 police being investigated for sharing photos of murdered sisters

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has referred the Met police to the Crown Prosecution Service over their officers’ sharing of photos of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman that we reported on in early summer.

The sisters were killed in June and the police, despite requests from the family, refused to lift a finger to search for them when they failed to return from an outing to Fryent Park, Wembley, west London.

It was left to one of the boyfriends of the sister to go looking for them and to find the body.

Not only did the police not bother to search for the sisters, presumably because it was only two Black women, but when the bodies were found and they were forced to start a murder investigation they thought it would be amusing to pass around in a WhatsApp group the photos of the bodies of the deceased sisters.

Sharing photos of murdered sisters shows racist depravity of police

The appalling level of depravity and dehumanisation that this sort of behaviour requires is a shocking indictment of the institutional racism that blights the Met police in London.

Two police officer have since been arrested and altogether 13 police officers are under investigation.

The arrests took place on 11 June with the officers charged on suspicion of misconduct in a public office. They have been suspended from duties but are still on full pay.

When this case gets to court, we expect there to be prison sentences handed out. If there are not, there will be hell to pay, to put it mildly.

The IOPC has also made two recommendations to the Met:

  1. To ensure officers “within a single police station in the North East Command” conform to the expectations of their behaviour under the Code of Ethics both on and off duty.
  2. The Met must review whether supervisors and senior management at that police station “are taking personal responsibility to identify and eliminate patterns of inappropriate behaviour”.

As with so many recommendations concerning matters regarding London’s racist police force, nothing much will come of the IOPC’s strictures unless there are militant protests on the streets, as seen during the upsurge of around BLM in the summer.

We will need to be ready to hit the streets again to demand justice for Nicole and Bibaa.

International, news

Racist French police thugs beat and abuse Black music producer

French police, fresh from beating and terrorising homeless and destitute refugees on the outskirts of Paris, at the weekend viciously attacked and abused with racist insults a black music producer.

The racist cops – the majority of French police are members of the Fascist National Rally (formerly National Front) party – thought there were no witnesses. Unbeknown to them, there was a security camera filming the whole thing.

The police charged the victim – Michel (pictured above) – with resisting arrest and it was only when the video emerged that the truth came out. This latest attack took place in the music producer’s own studio.

The incident is even more disturbing because the French national assembly has passed a new law forbidding anyone – even the press – from filming the police.

Racist French police and Macron turning France into a security state

The tweet reads (Google Translates):

It happened on Saturday in Paris. 15 minutes of racist beatings and insults. The crazy scene of police violence that we reveal is simply amazing and uplifting. We have to watch it to the end to understand the full extent of the problem.

Thanks to Loopsider

Macron, with fascist Le Pen breathing down his neck – has launched a war against Muslims in the country, as well as giving the police a green light to step up their already rampant racist violence.

And it’s not just minorities that the police hate.

The Yellow Vest protest movement was subject to regular attacks by the police, as have school students on recent protests outside their schools when they protested about the government’s failure to provide personal protective equipment to schools and other public health resources.

On 23 November this was France’s finest in action on the outskirts of Paris attacking defenceless and destitute refugees:

And below is some more racist French police violence from the suburbs of Paris.

The police are torturing this man for fun because he broke the lockdown by going out to get food. Meanwhile all the well-heeled middle classes and rich people had left Paris for their second homes in the countryside:

https://www.facebook.com/blacklivesmattermovementUK/videos/223808942207712/

news, UK

Jamaica deportation flights resume next Wednesday despite Windrush

updated: 28 November 2020 8pm

The Tories are planning a mass deportation of people to Jamaica on the day the lockdown in England ends on Wednesday 2 December.

On eo fthose faced with deportation is John, not his real name.

“My life would be in danger. If I go back there, I know what would happen to me,” he said, in a report from left-wing newspaper Socialist Worker.

After reporting to the Home Office’s Eaton House last week, he was sent into detention at the notorious Colnbrook Immigration Removal Centre.

Speaking to Socialist Worker, John explained: “No visitors are allowed to come inside this place. My partner and my 12 year old daughter were sat outside for five and a half hours, waiting for the decision about me. 

“When I was detained on that day, I couldn’t say anything to them.” 

John says the family “did everything by the book”.

“My solicitor sent off the paperwork, with recorded delivery, to the Home Office a few weeks ago,” continued John.

“The Home Office said they’d tried to take £65 from my partner’s account and couldn’t, and that’s why my application was refused.

“But that’s not true, my partner went to the bank and no one tried to take no money out and there is money in there.” 

Jamaican deportation flights being used to criminalise the victims

Zita Holbourne from anti-racist campaign group BARAC UK said: “Those targeted for deportation are branded by government as hardened criminals. But the reality is that some are criminalised by virtue of their immigration status and for others, they have committed lesser offences, [are the] victims of county lines, or have been convicted under the now defunct joint enterprise law.”

There are at least eight people that campaigners know about who the Tories want to deport next week.

The government refuses to allow detainees to receive visits at the detention centres, where violence and filth are common place according to accounts. The government makes it hard to get exact numbers on deportations and is willing to go to great expense to make its racist point.

Two brothers born in the UK – Darrell and Darren Roberts – whose campaign BLMM has been supporting, have also been threatened with deportation to Jamaica even though they have never been to the country.

The Home Office also wants to deport Osime Brown, a 21-year-old autistic man, to Jamaica, a country he left when he was 4 years old and where he has no family connections.

The threatened deportations come after the Equalities and Human Rights Commission said in a report on Windrush that the government broke the law by not doing an equality impact assessment when they introduce their racist “hostile environment policies”.

Between 2004 and 2015John had indefinite leave to remain in the country but was arrested on a minor drugs charge, and that’s when his troubles began.

The government is pushing ahead with deportations to send a signal to its racist supporters and wider society that it is migrants and Black people that should be blamed for the inequality and poverty that is crashing like a tsunami across the country.

It is no accident that the flights are restarting now, as the Tory racists seeks to divert attention from their own criminal Covid failures and the coming pay and benefit cuts they want to impose on ordinary people to pay for the mess they created.

Latest: TUI Airways may be the airline doing the deportation flight – more here

International

Black man beaten to death by security guards at Brazil Carrefour store

Brazil has been convulsed with protests following the racist beating to death by security guards of a mixed-race Black man, Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas, in the South American country.

The man was outside at a Carrefour store, a French supermarket chain that operates in the country. An argument is said to have taken place inside the story.

Protesters have called for a boycott of all French companies and French-made goods.

The French elite is currently waging a racist war against Muslims in France and its troops are still operating in its former colonies in Africa.

The shocking footage of the killing, which took place on 20 November, quickly went viral and was swiftly followed by angry protests.

Despite an unjustified reputation for diversity, Brazil is in fact one of the most racist societies on the planet.

Brazil – a thoroughly racist society

Slavery was only abolished in the country in 1899 and Black people are at the bottom of the pile for all economic and social indicator.

Racism has got worse – if that’s possible – since the election of racist president Bolsonaro.

In 2018 popular left-wing politician Marielle Franco was assassinated by police and Bolsonaro has been accused or ordering the killing.

That’s despite the fact that Brazil has a majority Black population, but you would never know that from the countries leaders and thosee in positions of power.

Literally nearly two thousand Black people were killed by the militarised police force in Brazil last year – that’s the official figure; the real figure is thought to be much higher, especially when the military are included.

Two security guards are now under investigation for the murder of 40-year-old Joao Alberto Silveira Freitas. The killing took place just outside a Carrefour store in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil.

It turns out that one of the security guards is an off-duty policeman.

Clearly he doesn’t just like killing Black people when he’s in uniform, but also does it in his spare time too .

news, UK

Black woman violently assaulted by police in Lewisham

A video of a Black woman violently assaulted by police in Lewisham has emerged months after the incident.

The graphic video shows as many as eight police officers forcefully restraining the woman, with one officer punching her while she is on the ground.

The woman – who provided her first name to the BBC’s Newsnight – reports how she was lifted off the ground by the handcuffs placed on her and by her braids, leading to hair being pulled out of her scalp.

The video was taken by concerned bystander Umer Khan in May this year.

Black woman violently assaulted: “if you can talk you can breathe” says racist cop

When she complained that an officer who was pinning her to the ground was killing her, the officer said, with a smirk on her face, “if you can talk you can breathe”.

The officer said they were arresting Janet for obstructing a drug search.

The violent assault, which took place in Lewisham, south-east London, didn’t end on the street.

Back at the police station there was more violence from the police thugs.

Janet was repeated punched by an officer and was illegally strip-searched in the presence of male officers.

It has been well documented that the police use disproportionate amounts of force when interacting with Black people.

BBC’s Newsnight discovered that ‘Use of Force’ – a legal level of violence that the police are allowed to use as part of their duties – has increased markedly:

From BBC News:

BBC Newsnight has obtained Use of Force data from 37 out of the 44 police forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

During the lockdown months of April and May, 27 out of the 37 police forces saw a rise in Use of Force, compared with the same months in 2019.

The Metropolitan Police – the UK’s biggest force – saw a rise of 26% from 25,993 Use of Force incidents recorded in April and May 2019, to 32,705 in the same months in 2020.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/embed/p08zbyl4/55019778

news, UK

Slaves sold on a Friday racist graffiti shocker at Tesco

2 Comments

Updated 27 November 2020 15:00 GMT

Updated 2 December 2020

Slaves sold on a Friday – that was the shocking racist graffiti that appeared in a Tesco store in Tottenham on 8 November.

BLMM can reveal it follows a complaint made two months ago to top management of the UK’s largest supermarket in response to alleged routine racist abuse of workers at its South Tottenham store by the white manager.

That is the claim of a worker at the store, a copy of whose statement to Tesco bosses is in the hands of Black Lives Matter Movement.

BLMM has reached out to Tesco for a response, but as yet have not heard back.

One of the store managers (there are several store managers at large Tesco outlets) stands accused of using the N word repeatedly in her interactions with Black members of staff.

One of the victims of the vile racist abuse initially delayed making a formal complaint to Tesco in the hope that action would be taken without him needing to do so, given the the serious nature of the allegations, but to date there has been no progress, with XXX still working at the store.

Suffice to say, the atmosphere in the workplace “has significantly changed”, says the worker whose written statement we have seen.

There is an investigation ongoing, but two months on from lodging the complaint no action has yet been taken, not even a suspension of the manager.

We have since received a response to the allegations from the supermarket.

A Tesco Spokesperson said: “We take all allegations of racism and discrimination of any kind in the workplace extremely seriously. We cannot comment on individual cases but any allegation is investigated thoroughly by a trained and impartial colleague and we always take action where necessary.”

The complainant – who wishes to remain anonymous at this stage – sent BLMM a copy of the written statement outlining the unacceptable and shocking racism that exists at the store:

“I personally feel very uncomfortable working with XXX, having had her say the racial slur to my face on the day in question (10th November 2020).

Racist manager refuses to apologise or show any remorse

“XXX has offered no apology or shown any remorse for her language and has displayed in her behaviour that she does not understand or acknowledge the deep offence, pain and revisited trauma that word causes many of us.

“As someone who grew up in Britain during a time of racial tension when the N word was used to intimidate, insult, ridicule and belittle in a demeaning manner, with the intent of causing pain and distress, I was triggered back to very painful and upsetting times when the use of the word and its intentions were deemed acceptable in society.”

The statement continues: “It appears that Tesco is in support of XXX and her deplorable behaviour and that is totally unacceptable. I no longer feel that Tesco is a safe working environment free from abuse, both verbal and physical, be it from customers or staff and colleagues.

“I do not trust that should any future incidences of any nature occur between colleagues and customers that Tesco management team will be fair and impartial in its handling and processing of such matters.”

For 10 years the Tesco worker has been complaining about racism at the store and says the latest incident is part of a catalogue of discrimination issues.

The Tesco group that the store comes under has seen at least 20 complaints made about racism at stores in north London, with Lee Valley, Chesthunt and Ponders End stores all said to have seen racist incidents involving Tesco managers or other employees.

Black Friday promo at South Tottenham branch of Tesco: “Slaves sold on a Friday”

The latest such occurrence was on Sunday 8 November when the words “Slaves sold on a Friday” was scrawled across a Black Friday promotional display.

update: The display was positioned in the staff canteen, which narrows down the number of possible culprits. After being contacted by the Daily Mirror, Tesco management finally called in the police.

The manager failed to take action until workers at the store demanded its removal.

slaves sold on a friday graffiti at tesco store
This racist comment appeared at the South Tottenham branch of Tesco on 8 November 2020. The manager failed to take action until workers at the store demanded its removal

The alleged racism at the Tesco store follows a furor over the company removing two Black actors from its Christmas TV advert.

Perhaps in response to Black Lives Matter, UK supermarkets – notably Sainsbury’s which has received a racist backlash for featuring a Black family in its Xmas advert – have been trying to pay more than just lip service to anti-racism and diversity.

But many might be forgiven for concluding that it is really just window dressing in Tesco’s case, given the blatant racism that has been making the working lives of its employees at the South Tottenham store a living nightmare.

Racists have become much bolder in the wake of the racist agenda of the government in recent years, and a prime minister who is yet to apologise for the many racist comments he has made. And of course the likes of Trump across the pond giving legitimacy to white supremacists and fascists hasn’t helped matters.

There has been an increase in racist abuse and attacks across the country, with Muslims (and by inference Asian people generally, as the racists don’t differentiate) and Black people bearing the brunt.

David Burke of the Daily Mirror has now followed up on our story:

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/anger-black-friday-sign-defaced-23079568

We have been requested to remove the name of the individual who is at the centre of the allegations and have now done so – 2 December 2020

news, US

Giuliani in antisemitic and racist meltdown in latest pitch to steal election

Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani who you might remember from the latest Borat film, as the sleazy man with his hands down his trousers, is apparently still not embarrassed about appearing in public.

With a man like this tasked with trying to steal the election from Biden and Harris, we already knew the chances of Trump making any headway were slim to non-existent.

But that’s not holding back Giuliani.

He held another press conference yesterday, at which he made more unsubstantiated and wild claims about supposed election fraud and one of the companies that supplies counting machines – Dominion.

Republican racism anti-semitism goes into overdrive

As is typical of the American right, his comments were laced with straight up racism and anti-semitism, as he claimed that George Soros was funding BLM, Antifa and that Cuba and China were in on the ‘steal’ efforts.

His deranged nonsense was of course not for the consumption of ordinary folk, but the rabid near-fascist base of diehards, whose whole world collapsed when the reality dawned that Trump lost by more than five million-plus votes and also massively on the electoral college vote tally.

Giuliani meltdown was literal

But that wasn’t what caught the eye of the assembled journalists, who still had visions of the previous presser, which was held in a parking lot with the Trump media team sandwiched between a pawn shop and a crematorium, outside Four Seasons Total Landscaping.

Nope, this time it was even more bizarre.

As the so-called lawyer spewed his anti-Semitic bile and full-on racist garbage as he spun his story about Dominion (the voting machine people) and how they were run by Venezuela’s Chavez (from the grave presumably), before correcting himself by remembering that the president of Venezuela is a man called Maduro, a weird brown juice started dribbling down the side of his face – it was his hair dye!

Rudy Giuliani meltdown

Is this a thing with men in the Trump orbit, and of course Agent Orange himself who spends tens of thousands of dollars on his appalling hair do?

And here’s that video, in case you missed it – 30 seconds in:

https://youtu.be/oRKlvh2b1t0