- Conference
- 2004 National Black Members' Conference
- Date
- 29 October 2003
- Decision
- Carried
Each year there are black history monthly events across the country but these are varied in their links within the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities or Black and Minority Ethnic voluntary organisations. If each regional black members’ committee were to organise events with all the BME voluntary organisations in their county or local area this would ensure that UNISON black members and UNISON black activists were provided with a forum for raising political awareness and increasing the recruitment opportunities within the BME community. The potential additional members could be drawn from amongst young people aged 16 plus and community workers.
Instead of there being one month of celebration we should be organising events all year in each of the twelve regions in partnership with local RECs, CREs and other relevant partner organisations. Each regional black members’ committee should decide on one or two recognised black trade unionists or civil rights activists whom they wish to honour and bring to the attention of members of their local community.
There should also be a regional finale event organised by the regional black members’ committee and supported by the regional council/committee which will raise awareness of the important role that black trade unionists/civil rights activists have played in the local, regional, national and international fight for social and civil justice. This finale should take place on the last Saturday in October across all 12 regions within the UNISON structures.
In the planning of the annual Black Members’ Conference we should ensure that all regions provide an exhibition of some of the black history events and displays that have been organised throughout the previous 11 months in their region. In addition, whichever region that is hosting the conference should be asked to identify at least two black trade unionists or civil rights activists either born in the region or who had worked in either capacity in the promotion of trade unionism or civil justice.
Each regional black members’ committee could play a key role in raising awareness within the wider membership of the rich history of the black community in the region, support black members in participating actively in such events, raise political awareness of young and senior citizens and raise its own profile within the region.
These are some of the remarkable people that we should be celebrating and remembering through the trade union and civil rights movement each year:
1)270 years ago slavery was abolished in the British Empire on 29 July 1833;
2)Mahatma Ghandi started a non-violent challenge to Indian Independence from the British Empire;
3)Harriet Tubman died 90 years ago on 10 March 1913;
4)Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, marking the start of the United States Civil Rights Movement on 1 December 1955;
5)Martin Luther King delivered his “I have a dream ……. ” speech at Washington Monument;
6)the Race Relations Act comes into force on 26 November 1968;
7)13 years ago on 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela was finally freed from 27 years unlawful imprisonment in apartheid South Africa and the rest is history but it is not solely black people’s history as he has surely shown;
8)Bill Morris first Black General Secretary of a Trade Union in the United Kingdom;
9)Bernie Grant, Keith Vaz, Dianne Abbott and Paul Boateng, first black Labour MPs;
10)Paul Boateng, first black Minister;
11)Stephen Lawrence, Ricky Reel, Roger Sylvester all murdered because they were black;
12)amendment to the Race Relations Act;
13)Beverley Malone, first black Head of Royal College of Nursing;
14)and so many more people across the United Kingdom and the world who have fought and died because of civil and social injustice.
Conference calls upon the National Black Members’ Committee and all regional black members’ committees to work with the National Executive Council and the regional committees to ensure that:
a)all the regional black members’ committees to co-ordinate black history events across the whole region;
b)all regional black members’ committees to develop a partnership with local RECs and regional CREs to access funding to support the events;
c)all regional black members’ committees to work with county and branch black member groups to encourage and develop actual links with members of local black and minority ethnic communities in their region and raise awareness amongst all members of the history of trade union involvement and/or community activism within each county and across the international spectrum;
d)each county representative on the regional black members’ committee should promote the black history month events back in their county, with the support of the Communications and Black Members/International Officer;
e)each National Black Members’ Committee meeting receives a written report providing an update on all the black history events that have taken place in their region;
f)the National Black Members’ Committee works in partnership with the other National Self-Organised Group Committees and the National Executive Council to ensure that the famous achievements within the trade union and civil rights movement of women, disabled and gay and lesbian people are celebrated throughout UNISON on a regional level;
g)the National Black Members’ Committee work with the National Executive Council, National Self-Organised Group Officers and the Chair of the Standing Orders Committee for National Delegate Conference to organise an annual celebration of famous trade unionists and civil rights activists at the annual National Delegate Conference and all other annual National Conferences;
h)each regional black members’ committee works in partnership with the other regional committees to organise an annual finale event on the last Saturday in October to provide an educational and social event about black history. This should coincide with the annual general meeting for all black members in the county and an afternoon/evening event open to all members in the region.
The benefits to black member participation are:
i)the regional committee, councils and branches will be supported in their attempts to improve black membership recruitment, participation and organisation;
ii)this approach will raise awareness and understanding that empowering black members from within their local communities increases the organisational effectiveness of the branches and therefore the region as a whole.