MORE than 100 people from around the country crammed into a House of Commons room named for the parliamentary launch of Grassroots Black Left (GBL).
Labour Treasury team frontbencher Clive Lewis, the ex-shadow defence secretary, was among four MPs who spoke, including Chris Williamson, the politician voted 2017 overall best Labour MP by popular left-wing website Skwawkbox.
Black party members, including disproportionately Muslims, have faced false charges of anti-semitism yet the Chakrabarti Report told us that this form of prejudice is not rife in our party.
Islamophobia and anti-black racism are much more prevalent but those twin evils have been ignored by Labour. We demand the party leadership publicly defend its supporters who have been purged.
Ahmed stated: “We believe Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell are genuine allies of African, Caribbean and Asian people and they must act to defend our activists who have been under attack.
The meeting applauded “the struggle of the suffragettes who, through their bravery, won the right for women to vote in Britain 100 years ago.” Grassroots Black Left is proud to be in that fine tradition of campaigning for justice for our people, who are under-represented in positions of power in our society.
Lewis paid tribute to the late MP Bernie Grant, who, he said, was a Labour Party black sections trailblazer for a black voice in the party.
“Black sections weren’t achieved at the time [in the 1980s], but, with Jeremy as leader, I think we are on the cusp of achieving them to advance the interests of black party members.
“I’ve certainly put in a submission to Labour’s Democracy Review urging the establishment of an annual, policy-making national conference for black Labour Party members.
“We want set places on the Labour’s ruling NEC for black members and dedicated staff at Southside [Labour headquarters] working for the same black section, for black members of the party. It’s absolutely shambolic that BAME Labour [the current party group for black members] only has just over 600 members.” It is estimated the Labour Party as a whole has about 100,000 black members.
Lewis went on: “We need an organised black voice in the Labour Party, which is critical if we are to combat the growing tide of racism that’s been growing in Europe and across the world, including with Trump in America.
He urged black Labour members to lobby their MPs, get active in their constituency parties and a trade unions and stand for office to achieve change.
Naz Shah MP said: “I have the largest Muslim constituency, Bradford West, 51 per cent.
She added: “I’d like to have a conversation about black politics but also about Islamophobia. It’s no different to the racism based on colour.
“A woman in a hijab has got an 85 per cent less chance of getting a job than one without. A man is charged £1,000 more for car insurance because his name is Mohammed. Muslims have been told to get off the bus like Rosa Parks. That’s Islamophobia.
Williamson, who recently resigned from Labour’s front bench to spend time connecting with party members and to fight for his fairer community charge system, said: “It’s really important to have people who are prepared to stand up to be counted like Linda Bellos [the black former leader of Lambeth council in the 1980s].
Justice4Grenfell campaigner Moyra Samuels said: “Eight months on from the tower block fire, our community is facing broken promises, a distrust of authority, 98 households that still haven’t been found a new home. People are exhausted and intensely angry.
They were so delighted by the successful launch that Africans for Jeremy Corbyn’s Values and the Leicestershire branch of the Indian Workers Association affiliated to Grassroots Black Left.
The message from GBL is that we speak on our own behalf, reject tokenism and will pick fighting black socialists to represent us.
Deborah Hobson is a trade union activist and co-chair of Grassroots Black Left.