Black and white unite and fight!

Luke Daniels

AND FIGHT!

UNITE

CARIBBEAN LABOUR SOLIDARITY was founded over forty years ago and from our inception we adopted an internationalist anti-racist perspective. The founding members were made up of British trade unionists, communists, Caribbean political activists and trade union leaders, men and women committed to supporting the struggles of the masses in the Caribbean for peace and justice.

Our leaders recognised the importance of working-class unity, and it is no accident that ‘solidarity’ is central to our name. We have jointly campaigned with anti-fascist organisations and were present at the last Cable Street demonstration to register our commitment to challenging racism wherever it raises its head.

We recognise the importance of working closely with our white working-class allies in Britain and seek to strengthen our alliances with the progressive movement wherever possible. We are affiliated to several trade

Building Community Resilience To Racism And Far Right Ideas

Ruth Styles FAR RIGHT union branches and with Camden Trade Council and are continually seeking affiliations with progressive organisations. Our strength as an unfunded organisation is in the solidarity we receive from the progressive movement and individuals. Our aim is to support the working class of the Caribbean and their descendants in the diaspora. We played an active role in exposing the Windrush scandal and continue to offer resistance to the’ hostile environment’ unleashed on immigrants and their British born children. We make the fight for reparations for slavery one of our main objectives in striking at the roots of racism. By demanding an apology, we insist on a recognition that a wrong was done to our ancestors, who were enslaved and trafficked to the Americas. A wrong, whose legacy is with us today in the form of violence, poverty, and disease. We demand compensation for the enslavement of our ancestors for profit, a profit that helped make Britain one of the riches countries in the world. Whilst compensation was paid to the slave ownersthe slaves received not a penny. We say this is an insult and in injustice that demands compensation.

IN RECENT weeks we have seen across the U.K. far right groups demonstrating outside of hotels that accommodate refugees and asylum seekers. They are aided by a government that blames refugee and asylum seekers for wider society's ills, using unacceptable racist terminology, (e.g. describing the 'small boats' bringing refugees to our shores as an 'invasion').

The main stream media runs anti refugee narratives and we are fed a constant diet of racist, xenophobic ideas claiming that the U.K. cannot cope with, or afford, more people coming into the country. Not only is this factually incorrect, it is designed to hide Government responsibility for the crises impacting on the working class, it is designed to divide and enables far right and fascist groups to try to exploit the situation.

Whilst these far right demonstrations are being met with admirable resistance, with counter demonstrations making clear that refugees are welcome here, we do need to ask if this is enough?. Does this combat extreme right wing ideas gaining a foothold. I would argue it does not. So what do we need to do?

We need to build community resilience to unite local working class people and provide the facts and information to combat right wing propaganda.

We can only do this by local community organising, uniting all sections and ethnicities in localities. It means identifying common concerns and communities developing their own voice. It means organising so that they communities can represent their own interests, combat racism and challenge far right ideas.

We intend to step up our activism for reparations for slavery until justice is seen to be done. We note that some individuals and organisation are beginning to accept there is a case for reparations and have made some useful gestures of reparations. So far the British government is refusing to have a ‘conversation’ with our CARICOM leaders, who are demanding they sit down to discuss the matter. We believe that our role in CLS is to get the attention of the British establishment to listen to the call for reparations and make adequate response. We may not have gunboats, but we have the sense of justice of the British people on our side. We call on all anti-racist organisations to support us in the fight for reparatory justice. Our aim is to keep making the claim for reparations and to do this by raising awareness of the issue on the broader public and in the trade union movement in particular. Black and White Unite and Fight.

LUKE DANIELS IS PRESIDENT OF CARIBBEAN LABOUR SOLIDARITY

Such organisations are build on hard work, primarily a neighbourhood-based approach, which begins with knocking on doors and listening to the concerns, motivations, and aspirations of people about their lives and communities. Organising with neighbours and friends develops trust and hope. It enables local people to speak in a united voice for themselves, and not have others claiming to speak on their behalf.

Community organisations will be built around local issues, e.g. poor housing, community crime, poor services, food poverty, or any other community concerns. Once organised they will be able to link up with other similar local groups and organisations such as trades unions, creating wider influence, understanding and strength.

The aim is always to bring people with shared interests together, enable them to develop confidence and a sense of collective power. They will be able to identify common goals and build an organisation to develop strategies and goals and act in unity to achieve them.

Key principles must be to engage widely across a local community and local people democratically controlling any organisation that is set up. Communicating effectively with all sections of the local community is essential to achieve the widest representation of the local community.

People from minority ethnic backgrounds have direct experience of racism and discrimination and must be involved, have their voices heard and taken seriously and be encouraged and enabled to take a lead. This does not mean that the local white population has no role, on the contrary they have a very important role. It is precisely by all sections of a local community supporting and engaging with one another that representative and powerful local working class unity can be built.

We must build long term community resilience to racism and the extreme right by organising our local working class communities to have the confidence to challenge racist and divisive ideas.