Speakers include Marsha de Cordova MP and campaigner Patrick Vernon.
Called by Wandsworth Stand Up To Racism
This is a socially distanced protest. Wear PPE.
Justice for the Windrush Generation – Protest at Battersea Park 11.30am 4th July
BLM Shrewsbury – Telford protest, more action planned for 11th July
Ban Tasers – Scrap Section 60 stop and search law – protest Sat 4th July
End stop & search – Ban Tasers. Protest – Sat 4 July 12 noon Ducketts Common Turnpike Lane N8 #justiceformarkduggan #justiceforcynthiajarrett #justiceforjoygardner #justiceforrogersylvester #justiceforjermainebaker #BlackLivesMatterUK #LDNBLM #BLMUK #NoJusticeNoPeace ✊✊?✊?✊?✊?✊?
David Starkey has been allowed to empower genocidal racists for too long
Starkey is not a very good historian of British history, so to expect him to know much about anywhere else in the world is stretching it.
His lies about the slave trade were just the latest in a long line of racist utterances.
During the 2011 riots, which involved more white people than black, Starkey claimed it was only happening because white kids “were turning black”.
People like Starkey – and fellow travellers such as ex-leftie Melanie Phillips, Rod Liddle, Toby Young etc – give cover to the fascists on the streets that like to attack and kill people who don’t look like them.
In case you missed Starkey’s latest vile racist diatribe here it is (from the Telegraph):
In an interview with the conservative commentator Darren Grimes, the historian said slavery could not be classed as genocide because of the survival of “so many damn blacks”.
“Slavery was not genocide,” he said.
“Otherwise there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain would there?
“An awful lot of them survived.”
Dr Starkey went on to discuss the relationship between slavery and the British Empire.
“As for the idea that slavery is this kind of terrible disease that dare not speak its name, it only dare not speak its name, Darren, because we settled it nearly 200 years ago,” he said.
“We don’t normally go on about the fact that Roman Catholics once upon a time didn’t have the vote and weren’t allowed to have their own churches because we had Catholic emancipation.”
Labour’s Starmer attacks BLM and then apologises to black journalists
updated Monday 6th July 13:45 BST: A picket of the Labour Party NEC meeting to call out the leaderships racism has been called for Tuesday 7th July at 10am. More details here.
Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, a former state prosecutor, has gone out of his way to ingratiate himself with the establishment and the media in this country.
In addition to bashing the left in his own party, he has been showing to the powers that be that they have nothing at all to fear from a Labour party led by him.
The Starmer way: soft on the Tories, hard on the left and anti-racists
This is what explains the Labour party’s supine response to the government mishandling of the pandemic response.
In fact at one point the Labour leadership was calling for the lifting of the lockdown even before the Tories were.
But the attitude that Starmer (who is after all pretty much a member of the establishment given that he is a knight of the realm) has taken to Black Lives Matter has shocked many in the black community.
Starmer when asked about the movement basically said BLM was a bit of a joke, that the issues were all about the US, inferring that all was good here in the UK in respect of racism, and that the movement wasn’t a movement at all and, again by inference, would presumably soon be over.
In case you missed the full horror show of an interview, watch and listen carefully carefully chosen words of the lawyer. His reversal of the oft-quoted remark of protesters that his is a ‘movement not a moment’ is reversed by Starmer.
Labour alienating black supporters
The remarks from Starmer come on the back of his refusal to tackle racism in the Labour Party of to discipline staffers who racially abused black women MPs
A report by the Huffington Post (see link below) recently drew attention to the tin ear the warmed-over Blairite leadership has when it comes to racism against its black members:
Exclusive: Labour Is Losing Black Members Over Allegations Of Anti-Black Racism
The Labour party has already done a good job in alienating a fair chunk of its working-class support and now it is in danger of driving away a key constituent of hitherto loyal support.
Starmer’s comments haven’t sat well with many of his own MPs.
Another Labour MP, Florence Eshalomi, said his “choice of words [was] wrong”.
That probably explains why Starmer is now on a belated damage limitation operation.
Yesterday he did e a Q&A with black journalists at which he said: “This is not a moment for not standing with the Black Lives Matter movement and the injustice that is being exposed.”
Thanks for that Keir but the damage has been done.
Starmer visited Tottenham not so long ago and a Labour Party member sent us a photograph of the gathering of locals – remember this is Tottenham.
Here’s a game to play with your Blairite friends: spot the black person.
Actually Starmer was proud of his work in Tottenham – he posted it on Facebook. Again, remember, this is Tottenham!
You can send complaints to the Labour Party at the emails below (yes we could complain to the Conservative Party about their racism too but, seriously, why bother):
Labour East – laboureast.org.uk
East Midlands Labour – eastmidslabour.org.uk
London Labour – labourinlondon.org.uk
Labour North – labournorth.com
Labour North West – labournorthwest.org.uk
Labour South East – laboursoutheast.org.uk
Labour South West – laboursouthwest.org.uk
West Midlands Labour – westmidlandslabour.org.uk
Yorkshire and the Humber Labour – yorkshireandhumberlabour.org.uk
You can fill in the complaint form here:
Racist police share selfies of dead sisters – justice for Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry
update 30 April 2021: PC Deniz Jaffer, 47, and PC Jamie Lewis, 32, have now both been charged with misconduct in public office
Sack police who refused to search for missing sisters and then shared selfies of bodies
Sisters Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46 were murdered but the police treatment of the families has shocked the country.
The police refused to search for the sisters when the family asked for help to find them. A boyfriend of one of the sisters eventually found the bodies.
Police officers involved in the inquiry took photographs of the deceased and allegedly shared the selfies on some of their social media.
This level of dehumanisation of black women is truly horrendous, not to mention racist. The officers have been suspended.
At the least, the police officers who took the disgusting selfies should be sacked forthwith and then prosecuted for misconduct in a public office.
Two days ago an 18-year-old man was arrested after the police were forced to put resources into hunting down the suspect.
Thought they knew who she was – a black woman who lives on a council estate
The sisters’ mum, Mina Smallman, told the BBC the pictures “dehumanised” her children.
“This has taken our grief to another place,” she Mina
“If ever we needed an example of how toxic it has become, those police officers felt so safe, so untouchable, that they felt they could take photographs of dead black girls and send them on.
“It speaks volumes of the ethos that runs through the Metropolitan Police.”
Mina added: “They [her daughters] were nothing to them and what’s worse, they sent them on to members of the public.
“I knew instantly why they didn’t care. They didn’t care because they looked at my daughter’s address and thought they knew who she was.
“A black woman who lives on a council estate.”
Keep going for Breonna Taylor – protest on Sat 11 July across the UK
london_blm WE JUST RECEIVED THESE PROTESTS FOR BREONNA TAYLOR ACROSS THE UK ? Check for your city!
yunes_radhy ??kimmy.quarles
Let us know if a protest is planned in your city, town or village!
Justice for Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry
There have been calls to widen the focus of these protests to include the cases of Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46.
The sisters were murdered but the police treatment of the families has shocked the country.
The police refused to search for the sisters when the family asked for help to find them. A boyfriend of one of the sisters eventually found the bodies.
Police officers involved in the inquiry took photographs of the deceased and allegedly shared the selfies on some of their social media.
This level of dehumanisation of black women is truly horrendous, not to mention racist. The officers have been suspended.
At the least, the police officers who took the disgusting selfies should be sacked forthwith and then prosecuted for misconduct in a public office.
Two days ago an 18-year-old man was arrested after the police were forced to put resources into hunting down the suspect.
Full report here.
Jesse Jackson speaks! Where next for anti-racism and US / UK BLM?
Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/usuk-blacklivesmatter-where-next-for-the-anti-racist-movement-tickets-111867592982
What Next for the Anti-Racist Movement?
It has become impossible to ignore the disproportionate effect of state violence on Black communities worldwide but especially in the United States and the UK.
The sheer scale of the recent global protests is reflective of the fact that the murder of George Floyd is not an isolated incident. The protests also come at a time when Black communities in the US and the UK feel that they have been deliberately endangered in the response to Covid-19 and deprioritised in general.
Diane Abbott MP and Rev. Jesse Jackson will be joined on Friday by notable members of the civil rights movement and anti-racist campaigners for a special discussion exploring ‘What Next for the Anti-Racist Movement in the UK and the US?’
SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
Jesse Louis Jackson Sr
American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, and politician.
As early as 1971, Ebony Magazine named Jackson to its “100 most influential black Americans list.” During the 1980s Jackson achieved wide acclaim as a politician and a spokesman for civil rights issues.
Dr. Sheridan Todd Yeary
Senior Pastor of the Douglas Memorial Community Church in Baltimore, Maryland. A third-generation preacher/pastor, Dr. Yeary serves the faith community of Douglas Memorial as the fifth pastor in its 90-year history. Dr. Yeary is often sought after to offer commentary, public testimony, and insight on a variety of public policy and leadership concerns, and has presented in a variety of forums.
Bishop Tavis Lane Grant II
Senior Pastor of the Greater First Baptist Church in East Chicago, Indiana. Bishop Grant is an alumni of Moody Bible College and has several honorary doctorates. You will often times hear him say “Tough times don’t last, tough people do!”
Jonathan Luther Jackson
American business professor, entrepreneur and social justice advocate. He is the national spokesman for the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and a partner in a Chicago-based beverage distributorship
Kwame Kwei-Armah OBE
British actor, playwright, director and broadcaster. In 2018 he was made Artistic Director of the Young Vic, where he has directed Twelfth Night and Tree. From 2011 to 2018 he was previously the Artistic Director of Baltimore Center Stage where he directed: Jazz, Marley, One Night in Miami, Amadeus, Dance of the Holy Ghosts, The Mountaintop; An Enemy of the People, The Whipping Man and Things of Dry Hours
Diane Abbott MP
The UK’s first black woman MP and former shadow Home Secretary.
Are you suffering racial discrimination in your workplace? Get help today
We get lots of enquiries about how to access help and advice on racial harassment and discrimination issues at work from people who are not in a trade union.
Thrive Law is an excellent law firm for equality and discrimination problems and you can contact them at: [email protected]
Mel Gibson’s racist Force Of Nature glorifies police brutality
The new Mel Gibson film, Force of Nature, is rather obnoxious and racist.
Checkout the Daily Beast review, or read the excerpts below:
Mel Gibson’s New Pro-Police Brutality Movie Is Crazy Racist
Nazis and Black Americans are equated as kindred self-loathing thieves, although they’re still sympathetic figures because they either regret their conduct (Griffin) or didn’t actively take what wasn’t theirs (Bergkamp). Given that he’s the son of a rabid Holocaust denier (and raving anti-Semite), Gibson’s participation in a film featuring a likeably remorseful guy with Nazi lineage hardly comes as a shock. But why Polish or Bosworth would want to involve themselves in such dreck remains baffling.
Unholy is the best way to describe sitting through 91 minutes of Mel Gibson and Emile Hirsch as rugged shoot-first, ask-questions-later cops gunning down Hispanic villains, and rescuing non-Puerto Rican men and women, set against a stormy background meant to recall a real-life disaster. Force of Nature is, in that regard, a throwback to a very familiar, very standard-issue sort of action affair in which police officers are excused their vicious trespasses because such hostility speaks to their venerable manliness, and light-skinned characters invariably come to the aid of helpless—and appreciative—darker-skinned folks. Even before the recent George Floyd protests and attendant calls for reform of intolerant institutions, that template was outdated and unpleasant. Today, though, it reeks of the very old-school unseemliness most Americans are ready to move past.
Daily Beast, June 26, 2020
Or check out the Digital Spy review, which highlightas the white saviour narrative against the backdrop of the hurricane in Puerto Rico :
Why Mel Gibson’s new movie has created a major controversy before release
Once the trailer was released on Monday (May 18), Force of Nature created an instant controversy as Puerto Ricans who experienced Hurricane Maria, as well as the struggles they’ve dealt with on the island, let their feelings known.
“Approximately 4,645 people died because of this hurricane. Approximately, because it was bad enough we don’t even have exact numbers,” one Twitter user wrote.
“People buried their dead in their backyards. People were without food, water, homes, electricity, for MONTHS. This is not an okay movie.”
Others criticised the movie for its ‘white saviour’ narrative with Gibson’s character “fighting a bunch of ‘bad guy’ ricans, also all the good guy cops are white”, while another called it “outright disrespectful”.
Digital Spy, 21 May 2020
Sadly this film was financed in part by a UK company, Ingenious Media www.theingeniousgroup.co.uk/media.
If you are not aware of how they get their money… they rip off the UK tax payer:
www.accountancydaily.co/ingenious-film-scheme-ruled-tax-avoidance-appeal
www.buzzacott.co.uk/news/hmrc-s-tax-avoidance-ruling-on-ingenious-film-financing-scheme
www.kinsellatax.co.uk/film-partnership-schemes
Perhaps their anti-social approach to business and making money needs to be highlighted?
Lionsgate UK should also be called out for such casual racism.
Thanks to Richard Sutton for bringing this film to our attention