Sofi Taylor - Chair of the 2006 TUC Black Worker's Conference
Sofi Taylor - Opening Remarks
Colleagues, friends, brothers and sisters fellow delegates, visitors and guests, I welcome you on behalf of the TUC to Eastbourne and this annual gathering of black workers from all over the United Kingdom.
This is the 13th annual TUC Black Workers Conference and we continue to be an important part of the TUC Calendar.
Conference is always a very special occasion, not only because it is a chance to catch up with old friends, an opportunity to discuss the latest issues and gossip and to make new friends, but also because it helps to strengthen the bonds between all of us.
Conference before I say something about the challenges that we face in our fight for social justice I would like us to remember those who suffered and died as a result of the London Bombings on 7th July last year.
The bombings resulted in a tragic loss of life and misery for those families, that were directly caught up in the incident and we continue to offer our sympathy and condolences to everyone who suffered.
Many were from our black communities.
This was an indiscriminate attack on the population of one of the world's most diverse cities.
Let us stand for a minute's silence us to remember all of those who died in the bombings and those families that continue to suffer the consequences as a result of injury or loss of their loved.
(Minutes Silence.........................)
Conference thank you for that,
You are all very welcome to the conference.
My hope for you and indeed all delegates present is that you will play an active part in this conference and find it a positive and rewarding experience.
We look forward to your contributions to this conference.
As black activists engaged in a struggle the struggle for race equality and against discrimination and exploitation, we have an important role to play in setting the agenda for anti- racism campaigning in the area of employment.
We must use this time productively and wisely,
This conference is an opportunity for us to share our thoughts, ideas, and experiences,
Debate those issues that are important to us and set our priorities for the coming year.
We must be prepared to listen to each other and engage in a healthy, constructive, respectful and comradely debate.
It is the tradition of this conference to be robust, respectful and comradely in our deliberations - it is also part of our heritage as black people and a tradition that we bring to the British trade union movement.
Conference, the last year has been a momentous one. The bombings in London on 7th July have along with September 11 had a profound affect on the debate about race equality in the UK.
We have gone from a position of consensus around the need to tackle institutional racism as a result of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry to a confused debate about the integration of communities and how to achieve it.
We have gone from a position where with the introduction of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act where there was an emphasis on eliminating racial discrimination to a situation where encouraging diversity in the workplace has come to dominate public policy on dealing with the exclusion and discrimination faced by black workers.
Working Against Racism is the theme of this year's conference. It is a theme that reminds us that we will not make progress or achieve change without being prepared to participate, being prepared to take action and being prepared to be involved and nobody here will be under any illusion that we have a lot to do.
This year has seen the introduction of three Government bills that have the potential to have a major impact on our lives. They are the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill, the ID Card Bill, and the Terrorism Bill.
The Government have argued that they need the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill and the introduction of ID Cards to crack down on illegal working.
I don't know about you but I have a major problem with describing people who are trying to earn a living to feed themselves and their families, but who do not happen to have the right pieces of paper as illegal workers.
Since when did working become illegal?
The reality is that there are many undocumented workers in the UK.
Without them our hotel and restaurant industries would ground to a halt. Our agricultural produce would not be picked, our food packed, our streets, offices and public places would not be cleaned.
They are not the social security scroungers, terrorist and criminals that the Daily Mail and other sections of the right wing media like to portray. They are, because of their position always powerless, often exploited and if they are black discriminated against.
The Race Relations Committee believes that the only way the plight of these and other migrant workers can start to be addressed is by the Government recognising that measures must be introduced that allow these workers to enjoy the same system of enforceable employment rights as any other worker in the UK, that the Government should separate the question of a person's resident status from their ability to enforce employment rights.
It cannot be right that if you dismissed from work unfairly and because of discrimination that you cannot effectively enforce your rights because you have ceased to have rights of residence.
It cannot be right that if you are employed by an agency but they have not got you a work permit that you can be exploited like an indentured labourer or have to live in virtual slavery.
It can not be right that unscrupulous employers are allowed to play one group of migrant workers off against another in order to lower wages and maximise profits.
Sadly the new legislation proposed by the Government does not deal with any of these problems.
Instead we have proposals to introduce a 5 tier point system for migrant workers with the rich having unlimited access and the poor being told they can only come to work for short periods and that they can not bring their families.
Instead we have proposals for biometric ID Cards and a national identity database along with suggestions that to get access to services or a job you will need to produce this as the ultimate proof of your identity.
A system aimed at managing people as cogs in the wheel of the economy rather than dealing with the excesses of discrimination that the labour market can dish out.
We face a more frightening vision of the future than Aldous Huxley's Big Brother with employers and public service agencies being turned into an extension of the immigration service and who will this most affect.
With the Government declaring that they do not see a need for non-European migration for low paid and low skilled jobs in the economy many will interpret these measures as meaning,
If you're white you're all right.
If you're black, go back.
We also face the prospect of another Terrorism Bill. A law proposed in response to the London bombing that will inevitable demonise black communities and Muslims in particular.
Of course the Race Relations Committee and the TUC believes that the Government needs to have measures that as far as possible guard against the kind of attacks that we saw on 7 July.
However clauses in the bill on the encouragement of terrorism and dissemination of terrorist publications have much wider ramifications because of the wideness of the definition of terrorism.
Struggles that black communities and trade unions have supported against apartheid and other oppressive regimes would be in greater danger of being outlawed as a result of such a bill.
We have argued that the effects of such provisions are more likely to alienate large sections of the population from which the Government needs support.
I believe that the attacks on our civil liberties that could result from all three bills will not make our country safer but continue to alienate black communities from feeling they are a part of British life.
Rather than being a force for progress and unity they create an atmosphere of strife and division.
This conference is taking place in the run up to local elections in most local authorities in the Country. An election where extreme right wing parties like the BNP are seeking to exploit issues about migrant workers and terrorists, an election that presents us with some major challenges.
It is the black communities that have to deal with the consequences of an increase in racial attacks and racial hatred when the far right make political and electoral gains.
We should never forget the role that Oswald Mosley's Brown shirts played in organising mob attacks on black people in the Notting Hill riots of 1958.
The role of the National Front in provoking violence by marching through black communities in the early 1980's or the Role of the BNP in using football hooligans to provoke violence in Bradford, Burnley and Oldham riots in 2001.
We must take responsibility for the leadership in the fight against fascism - out of meetings and conference halls - and into the communities where we live, which the fascists seek to divide.
The TUC has worked to stop the BNP making electoral gains at the local elections in 2003, the local and European elections in 2004 and the General Election in 2005
Along with anti-fascist groups and community organisations we have worked to stop the electoral progress of the far right.
However this is not enough.
There are still twenty-one BNP Councillors holding positions in local authorities and in the last elections over 800,000 people voted for the fascists.
We must ensure that members of our communities participate in the coming local elections and use their vote.
Many in the black communities have forgotten that the ability to vote is not a human right but has been won as a result of the hard fought struggles of many trade unionists before us.
Many in our communities have forgotten that defending our communities means taking an active part in the political process to ensure that BNP Councillors are not elected to claim that they represent the views of our towns and communities.
It is no good complaining about the rising tide of racism and racist violence towards out communities if we are not to do our bit in making sure that no fascists are welcome here.
These are some of the issues that form the backdrop to our debates this weekend.
They form part of our agenda for the trade union movement.
We must set high goals and challenge the government, employers and the trade union movement to meet them.
We should be clear that tough challenges lie ahead of us.
However, I know that through working together in unity solidarity as black people and in unity across the trade union movement we have a chance of making more progress.
Finally, I want to thank you very much for listening.
I am honoured to have been chosen by my peers on the Race Relations Committee to chair this conference.
Again I welcome you all to the 13th TUC Black Workers Conference in Eastbourne.
Have a great conference.
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