In the 80s the ‘loony left’ was attacked b/c it championed anti-racism, gay rights, opposition to apartheid. Today everyone pretends to have always been in support of our struggles. But we remember who stood with us in those fights @jeremycorbyn@johnmcdonnellMP@HackneyAbbott
IMHO Labour as well as all parties need to do more to tackle racism of their members. But those of us who were in the anti-racist struggles never created a hierarchy of racisms. We fought against all equally. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politi…
In 2007 when the BNP was launching racist attacks in East London, Alan Johnson accused a Lab MP of "using the language of the BNP”. 83 leading human rights lawyers called for her to be sacked for pandering to racism. In 2009 same MP was accused of increasing far right support
The fight against white supremacy, racism, fascism, islamophobia, anti-semitism, anti-Arab racism has always been a collective fight. Those playing politics by weaponising racism to score political points & create divisions are no friends of the struggle.
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When I hear net zero 2050 I always remember Ambassador Lumumba (the Chair of the G77) at the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009 when he said 2c “certain death for Africa”, & a type of “climate fascism”. The UK, EU, Obama’s US supported by big northern NGOs opposed 1/1.5c target. 1/
He sat silently, tears rolling down his face, put his head in his hands & said “We have been asked to sign a suicide pact.” & that Africa is being asked to “celebrate” this deal for $10 billion. “$10 billion is not enough to buy us coffins”. This is a colonisation of the sky 2/
The global North want to ignore historical emissions & allow their citizens to carry on emitting & prevent African countries from lifting their people out of poverty. “It is unfortunate that after 500 years-plus of interaction with the West we are still considered disposables“.
1/ I see the annual ‘who is more discriminated than the other’ competition is kicking off. We can recognise that racism affects ‘minority communities’ differently both historic & present - eg structural, police violence, racist attacks, housing, education etc. And still recognise
our unities. Rather than fighting for the ‘crumbs off the table’ as Malcolm X would say, we can collectively fight for our rights to be at the table’ - doing so requires unity against our common oppression. It’s what united ‘political blackness’ that said all peoples of colour
Had a common experience of racism, colonialism, imperialism & injustice. It’s was the basis of unity for the liberation movements across Africa, Asia & Latin America. That’s not to say there aren’t issues of discrimination between communities but unity was built in understanding
1/ Statues of slave traders are toppling both in USA & in the UK. But it’s not just statues, slavery is built into every brick of this country. Barclays Bank was founded with slave profits, Bank of England funded the slave trade,
2/ & City of London was centre of slave finance. From 1761 to 1807, British traders enslaved 1,428,000 African people & pocketed £60 million about £8 billion in today's money which was invested into the UK economy. In 1770s slave profits were around 70% of investments into UK.
3/ slave profits funded the industrial revolution. Bristol was built on trading in slave sugar, Liverpool on cotton & Glasgow on tobacco. It’s baked into the bricks of country mansions & our grand buildings. During the US civil war merchants in Liverpool paid for a warship to
1/ You don’t need to watch video of George Floyd crying out ‘I can’t breathe’ as he is killed or Amy Cooper, a white woman calling the police on a black man in Central, to see the echoes of Eric Garner crying out ‘I can’t breathe’, or the Central Park 5 brutalised & imprisoned.
2/ Frankly black people being killed on video - be it in Palestine, drowning in the Mediterranean, or on the streets of the US has become normalised. For every black person these images are utterly traumatising, the pain & anger is felt collectively as everyday it’s clear that
3/ our lives don’t matter. Just as they haven’t mattered in the past & won’t matter in the future unless we act. Even when these murders are captured on film for all to see - even then it still it hasn’t brought justice. Which is why the call ‘No Justice, No Peace’ has long been
Tackling the #coronavirus has many parallels with what’s needed to tackle the climate crisis globally
✅ put people before profit ✅ universal public health ✅ a welfare system for all ✅ workers rights
✅ sick pay & living wages ✅ right to public & affordable housing (rent controls) ✅ state intervention & control of food & energy
✅ a coordinated global response to transform economy ✅ changes to work patterns ✅ invest in social & care economy ✅ public support for just transition ✅ switch arms production to health
At #COP25Madrid rich countries are literally pouring oil on to the climate fire. They have known about the urgency to act, they know the science & that the clock is ticking on 1.5c with less than a decade to act. They refused to act in the previous decade & now they are demanding
thaf they can use discredited carbon markets to shift the burden to the global South. They are calling for solutions that will displace food production in the poorest countries so they can offset their failure to act.
Because they want to lock in even more fossil fuel extraction. Their target is an expansion of fossil fuels by 150% beyond what is compatible for 1.5c. The majority of that expansion is in rich countries like the USA & Canada.