The Black Members' Council campaigns for race equality in the union and in the workplace and tackles racism in the media.

 

Every year the council organises the extremely successful Claudia Jones Memorial Lecture.  

 

The lecture is held every year as part of London’s Black History Month in honour of Claudia Jones who was a pioneering radical journalist. Born in Trinidad in 1924, she moved to New York where she became radicalised by poverty and discrimination.

In 1936 she joined the Young Communist League and joined the staff of the Daily Worker. In 1955 she was arrested and served a year in prison before being deported and given asylum in the UK. Confronted by posters saying “No Blacks, no Dogs, No Irish” she became a leader in the Black equal rights movement emerging in London’s Notting Hill and founded “The West Indian Gazette”, one of the first Black newspapers in the UK. Claudia always believed that “A people’s art is the genesis of their freedom” and in 1959 was one of the founders of the Notting Hill Carnival. Today the Carnival is the biggest in Europe and is a fitting memorial to Claudia’s life of activism and campaigning. Claudia died in London on Christmas Day, 1964 and is buried in Highgate Cemetery next to Karl Marx.

 

 

The election of the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition heralds a new political landscape in this country. For Black communities, this raises many questions. Are we making any progress? Is the concept of Diversity, multi-culturalism and equality just catchwords for all political parties? After Obama, even the Tories have learned to love Black folk, apparently - and banging on about racism just shows that we are stuck in the past.

In terms of parliamentary representation, there has been a significant increase in MPs from Black communities, including a new group of Black Conservatives. Yet these new representatives are keen to assert that 'race' is not an issue. What impact will this kind of representation have on Black communities?

At the same time, we appear to be living through a 'crisis of capitalism'. While many of us may have been waiting for just such a crisis to reveal the cracks and fissures in the capitalist project, the immediate outcomes appear to promise more hard times for the most vulnerable. Job cuts, attacks on public services, education, social housing, and all round austerity all threaten Black communities. We could be bounced back to the 1970s before we know it.

This Lecture suggests that it is time to rethink our aspirations and our strategies - and to begin from a serious appraisal of where we are. How people understand the present will shape what they choose to do. Black media professionals, who are also in the line of attack, have a key role to play in informing those choices.

 

Speaker:          Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya
Sociology and Public Policy, School of Languages and Social Sciences,          Aston University, Birmingham

 

Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya is Professor of Sociology at Aston University in Birmingham. She has published widely in the field of 'race' and racism, sexuality, globalisation, war and social justice.

 

 

Her books include: Ethnicity and Values in a Changing World, (edited - Ashgate 2009); Dangerous Brown Men, Exploiting Sex, Violence and Feminism in the War on Terror (Zed, 2008); Sexuality and Society (Routledge, 2002); Race and Power, with John Gabriel and Stephen Small (Routledge, 2002); Tales of Dark-skinned women (UCL Press, 1998).

 

 

Her recent research has examined the impact of security measures on everyday life; the challenge of political disengagement; understandings of poverty and deprivation. She is completing a book examining the impact of the war on terror on everyday life, with a focus on Britain, India and Canada.

 

 

She is an active trade unionist and sits on the National Executive Committee of her union, the University and College Union (UCU). She played a central role in establishing a Black members' network in her previous (pre-merger) union, the Association of University Teachers and chaired the Equality Committee. She has represented her union on the TUC Race Relations Committee and at TUC Congress. She is a member of employment tribunals.

 

 

She has extensive experience of community organisation, including through her involvement in Birmingham Asian Resource Centre and Brap (formerly Birmingham Race Action Partnership). She has been active in community campaigns against deportations, racist attacks, miscarriages of justice, detention without trial. She is involved in a local network of Black trade unionists seeking to build support for Black trade unionism and to rediscover the radical political traditions of Black communities in Britain and beyond and a group of education workers examining the impact of neoliberalism on our educational institutions.

 

She has a five year-old son and is trying (unsuccessfully so far) not to push all of her own middle-aged hopes and dreams onto him. 

As usual the lecture will be followed by a light buffet.

 

 

Coverage of the past two lectures can be found through the links below:

• 2007 - Dr Robert Beckford
• 2008 - Doudou Diène
• 2009 - Liz Fekete
  

Black members can get involved in the council by attending the Black Members' Conference, held every year at the union's headquarters in either February or March. Black members who wish to receive an invitation should email info@nuj.org.uk for inclusion on the Black Members mailing list. Black members who are registered with the union also receive a copy of the Black Members newsletter.

 

The Council has also produced Guidelines on Race Reporting

 

Motions agreed and a list of those elected at this year's Black Members' Council 2008 AGM are available here.

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