Follow Up Letter to the EHRC from Race Equality Organisations

David Isaac CBE
Chair
Equality and Human Rights Commission
Fleetbank House
2-6 Salisbury Square
London EC4Y 8JX


10 April 2017


Dear David

We would like to thank you and Rebecca Hilsenrath for meeting with us on 27 March and for listening to our concerns. We also appreciate that you are facing cuts to the Commission's budget and have difficult choices to make.

However, we remain concerned about the declining numbers of BAME staff and the recent redundancies at the EHRC. Since you did not offer any workable solutions for addressing our concerns, we would propose that the following steps be taken:

1. Reinstate the staff who have been made redundant.
2. Pause and review the restructure and redundancy selection process.
3. Appoint an independent external agency to oversee and monitor the restructuring. The agency should have proven expertise in equality.

Whilst we are willing to be partners in a wider race consultation group, we do not consider it practical or realistic for the Commission to use us for advice on your employment practices.

We repeat our advice that if your proposals have a disproportionate adverse impact on ethnic minority or disabled staff then you must revisit the process and interrogate it and, given the history, the decision-makers.

We would now like to address your concerns that we have been misled or misinformed and that we have misinterpreted the data.



Number of BAME staff made redundant.
We believe that the number of BAME staff who were made redundant is 9 and not 5 as stated in your letter. Based on the list of names which we have seen, the racial profile is as follows:
Asian: 4
Black Caribbean: 2
Mixed race: 1
Irish: 2

As three people have now accepted CILON, that leaves six ethnic minority staff who are asking to be reinstated.

We also noted from your replies to our questions that:

● 28% of BAME staff were successful at the ‘expression of interest’ stage compared with 61% of White staff.

● 16% of BAME staff, compared with 22% of white staff, were appointed into roles at the assessment stage

● 24% of our BAME staff applied for VE, and 8% accepted offers, compared to 17% of white staff applying, and 9% accepting offers.

From this data, we can only infer that the restructure process - possibly even the culture within the Commission - is racially discriminatory.  We consider your process was far from ‘fair, robust and transparent.’ Somewhere there is a barrier to the progress of BAME staff and closer scrutiny is needed of the process and the decision-makers. Hence, our very strong recommendation that you bring in an external agency to review the process

Employment support and counselling for those facing redundancy
Your letter said that all staff were offered appropriate guidance and mentoring.

We have been told that under the ‘Transition to Work’ programme, staff in Birmingham were directed to Brook St Bureau who offered them part-time jobs in warehouses and other manual/non-skilled jobs. One member of staff was offered a coaching session in Costa Coffee during the lunchtime rush.

We do not consider this was appropriate guidance and definitely not mentoring.

Mitigation
You said you did mitigate adverse impact and for one individual, a job was created. We now understand that was for a disabled member of staff and it was a reasonable adjustment that was made. It seems to us that there hasn’t been any mitigation of the adverse impact of the restructure process on BAME staff.

The referral to Brook St Bureau is further evidence of the lack of mitigation.

Senior BAME staff
We were concerned that the one BAME Director was made redundant. You have informed us the recently appointed Finance Director is from a BAME background. So there is now (still) only one person from a BAME background amongst your directors.

The equality objectives set in 2014/15 stated:

'In our workforce diversity report we identified an under-representation of ethnic minority staff at the more senior grades - Level 5 and above - and disabled staff at Levels 4 and 5.   Therefore we have set the following equality objectives for our workforce diversity to begin to address this…To increase the proportion of ethnic minority staff and disabled staff at Level 5 and above to that proportionate with the Commission’s overall workforce diversity over the next 4 years.'

Of the 64 staff now at level 5 and above, there are three who are from a BAME background. This is equivalent to 5% BAME staff in senior grades.

In the year 14/15, the figure was 11% (taken from the Commission's Workforce Diversity Report).  So in the first two years of the four year period, the Commission has managed to reduce the percentage of BAME staff in senior grades by 66%! There are still no Level 6 officers who are ethnic minorities. This is zero progress two years in.

And only 1 of the 9 staff at director level and above is an ethnic minority.  

You have explained that you have set a 50% target for shortlists for senior roles at the Commission. But, looking at the restructure table, it seems there are very few senior posts which are vacant.

With regards to Grade 6 and above, we see that since 2014/15 there has been an increase in the number of staff employed at this grade. The number of executive directors has doubled. We agree you need a Chief Legal Officer. However, we question why the Commission needs four executive directors when the total workforce will be only 160 or fewer staff.

We cannot understand how a publicly funded organisation facing budget cuts can justify creating jobs at senior levels where the salary bill will be very high, while getting rid of lower grades where BAME and disabled staff are concentrated.

We consider that it is only fair and just for the financial axe to fall equally across the grades.

Lastly, you will have now read the Supreme Court decision in Essop and others v Home Office [2017] UKSC 27, which the Commission supported. As you know, the court found that in order to succeed in an indirect discrimination claim, it is not necessary to establish the reason for the particular disadvantage to which the group is put.  It is sufficient to show a causal link between a policy, criterion or practice and the disadvantage. We consider there is a strong causal link between the decision to cut jobs in lower grades and the disadvantage experienced by BAME staff.

We ask you to heed the words of Langstaff J in the EAT, to whom the court referred, who said 'a wise employer will monitor how his policies and practices impact upon various groups and, if he finds that they do have a disparate impact, will try and see what can be modified to remove that impact while achieving the desired result.’

We trust the Commission will act boldly, as we suggested, by pausing the process and carrying out a review. Hopefully, we do not need to remind you of your own obligations to ensure the Commission is acting lawfully under the Equality Act 2010 and the public sector equality duty.

At the very least, the Commission should practise what it preaches.

Yours sincerely,


on behalf of those present at the meeting:
Zita Holbourne, BARAC UK
Constantia Pennie, Race Equality Foundation
Simon Woolley, Operation Black Vote
Race Equality Matters
Lord Herman Ouseley

With the continued support of:
Society of Black Lawyers
Blacksox
GMB Regional Equality Forum
Momentum Black Caucus
Northamptonshire Rights and Equality Council
Race Equality Matters (REM)
Wellingborough Black Consortium
Hanef Bhamjee, OBE, Secretary, Action for Southern Africa –Wales
Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya, University of East London, UCU Black Members' Standing Committee
Michael McEachrane, PhD, co-founder of IDPAD Coalition UK

Letter to EHRC from Race Equality Orgs : sacking of black staff

                     

David Isaacs CBE
Chair
Equality and Human Rights Commission
Fleetbank House
2-6 Salisbury Square
London EC4Y 8JX 3 March 2017

Dear David Isaac,

It is with sincere regret that we feel obliged to write to you about the decline in the number of BAME staff at the Commission.

It has come to our attention that the number of BAME staff - especially visible minorities - has been declining for several years without any serious attempt to halt or reverse it.

We understand that twelve members of staff were selected for compulsory redundancy. Only two of the twelve staff are White British. Eight are from a BAME background, four are Muslim, six are disabled.  Apparently, seven of the twelve members of staff were unceremoniously ‘sacked’ by email on 9 February and told their last day would be 10 February.

We further understand there are no visible minorities amongst the senior management team. The only one Black director, who was on the team, was among the twelve workers who were made redundant.  We also understand that all but two of your remaining BAME workers are in the lowest three grades.

We consider this a matter of grave concern.

The legacy commission, the Commission for Racial Equality, possessed a unique racial justice acumen shaped by its diverse workforce at every level and in all departments. We believe if the Commission is not similarly diverse, it will lose credibility, authority and legitimacy with the public.

In our opinion, it is not satisfactory or acceptable simply to say the percentage of BAME workers reflects the percentage in the national population and especially not with main offices in London and Manchester. But this is not just about numbers: the personal experiences and viewpoints, which a diverse workforce brings, are essential if the Commission is to challenge the majority or mainstream beliefs. In a climate of rising levels of racist and Islamophobic attacks and where the majority opinion in GB seems to be anti-immigrant, anti-Black and anti-Muslim, then it is even more important that the Commission’s staff can stand firm against prevailing views. We believe this means recruiting a larger percentage than that in the national population - or even the local population where that is higher than the national figure.

Also worrying is the assessment of these workers as having no skills. Some of them were at the forefront of maintaining good relations in times of heightened racial tensions during periods of riots, the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, and the 7/7 terror attacks. Such an assessment disregards the value of this work and their commitment to the protection and promotion of equality and human rights. (Presumably, it is a specification for working at the Commission that employees have a demonstrable understanding of discrimination and good relations?).

On a personal front, BAME workers are only too painfully aware of discrimination, racism and social injustice. You are unlikely to know the individuals, but each one will have a personal history of struggle, obstacles and racism. Yet, the Commission has effectively told them they have no skills to hold a job with it and their experiences have been dismissed with the cold despatch of an email.

We realise the Commission’s website says it plans to address any under-representation with positive action measures. This has been the Commission’s answer to the decline in the number of BAME staff since 2011/12 when the numbers started to fall dramatically. Yet, as far as we are aware, the Commission has never used positive action measures, despite its assurances to do so.

But, more importantly, we do not consider that BAME staff or job applicants lack the skills for a position at the Commission or that positive action is necessary to equip them with the necessary skills. Given the nature of the work, we think it is, quite frankly, an insult to suggest that they lack the skills. The Commission had BAME senior professionals, lawyers and directors but almost all have gone. And we believe it will be difficult to recruit BAME staff with this poor history as it doesn’t inspire confidence or respect.

Whilst we’ve welcomed your recent statements on race hate crime, we do not believe you can or should speak for our communities. And whilst you might consult us as stakeholders, we also want to see our communities represented amongst your workforce - and not just in lower grades. Until we see progress in this area, you risk losing our trust and confidence.

We take this opportunity to remind you that the Paris Principles on the status and functions of national human rights bodies require such bodies to be ‘established in accordance with a procedure which affords all necessary guarantees to ensure the pluralist representation of the social forces (of civilian society) involved in the protection and promotion of human rights.’ The Principles also require them to work with others ‘to combat racism, to protect particularly vulnerable groups (especially children, migrant workers, refugees, physically and mentally disabled persons)...’

Unfortunately, we doubt whether the Commission can meet these obligations.

We were also appalled by the brutal manner by which the Commission terminated the contracts of those made redundant on 9 February. We understand they were served with redundancy notices by email while they were on strike - a strike called by the trades unions - and told the next day would be their last day. Trade union rights are protected human rights. And the requirement for ‘pluralist representation’ includes trades union representation.

This behaviour must be unprecedented for any employer. But, we rightly expect more from the Commission than other employer. But, even if the Commission followed a lawful process, we still expect a fair and compassionate process - to do what’s morally right, not just what is lawful.

We would like to conclude by affirming our support for a strong and effective national equality and human rights body which is diverse at all levels - and not just in terms of race but other characteristics. (We are also worried by a similar decline in the number of disabled and older staff).

Sadly, we now have serious doubts about the Commission’s credibility, authority and legitimacy with our communities.

We would welcome an opportunity to discuss our concerns with you in a meeting.

Finally, please kindly note other organisations share our concerns but they were unable to sign at this time.

Yours sincerely,

Lord Herman Ouseley
Hanef Bhamjee, OBE, Secretary, Action for Southern Africa –Wales
Professor Gargi Bhattacharyya, University of East London, UCU Black Members' Standing Committee
Peter Herbert, Society of Black Lawyers
Michael McEachrane, PhD, co-founder of IDPAD Coalition UK
BARAC UK
Blacksox
GMB Regional Equality Forum
Momentum Black Caucus
Northamptonshire Rights and Equality Council
Operation Black Vote
Race Equality Matters (REM)
Wellingborough Black Consortium




Please reply to:
REM
c/o Coral Rose
8-9 Frith St
London W1D 3JB
email: raceequalitymatters@hotmail.com

2025: A Vision for Race Equality in Britain, a BARAC UK Strategy Paper

2025: A Vision for Race Equality in Britain

Authors: Mr Lee Jasper and Ms Zita Holbourne

National Co-Chairs Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC) UK

A strategy paper, setting out a strategic framework focused on the goal of substantive reduction of racial disproportionality and inequality in the United Kingdom.

Background

BARAC UK [1] was established as a social movement and campaigning organisation in 2010 after the General Election of that year, in direct response to the anticipated politics of austerity and the likely disproportionate impact of cuts on black workers, service users, and deprived communities. We believed that the planned austerity cuts would inflame and exacerbate racism, poverty and social-economic injustice faced by black and migrant communities.

We use the term black in its inclusive and widest political sense, including all non-white ethnic minority communities living in the United Kingdom.

Our core belief is, as research has shown, racial disparities on socio-Reconomic indices expand dramatically during economic recession.[2]

We believe that the combination of the 2008 global economic crisis, the pursuit of ideological austerity and the decision to leave the European Union have combined into a perfect storm hugely amplifying and aggravating racism in Britain.

We believe that these factors have made the vision of a fair and just Britain, a nation that is a free and equal society for all its citizens, increasingly remote as rates of racial socio-economic inequality, religious and racist attacks, alongside xenophobic hate crimes, continue to rise.

We note with both alarm and extreme concern the publication of the Equality and Human Right Commission’s recent tri-annual report “Healing a divided Britain: the need for a comprehensive race equality strategy’. The report called for the introduction of an urgent and immediate Race Equality Scheme, noting the widespread and growing rate of racial inequality across the United Kingdom.

The Chair of the Commission, [3]Mr David Isaac warned in his foreword to the report that, “widespread racial inequality risks further increasing racial tensions".

We agree and support the Commission’s call for Government to adopt a "comprehensive race equality strategy".

Further we believe, as stated in a recent published report, assessing the state of racism in the UK, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) [4] stated that protracted economic decline in Britain has led to the targeting of popular scapegoats, ramping up racism for short-term political gain, led by sections of the UK’s right-wing media alongside some irresponsible British politicians.

This traditional political scapegoating is being used as a means of popular distraction; diverting attention from the real authors, and those primarily responsible for our current economic decline, the banks, financial service institutions and parliament itself.

We believe that in the current economic and political context, we will continue to see the growth of racism and religious hatred in many towns and cities across the UK, an increase as highlighted in the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s most recent report.

Britain’s ethnic communities continue to grow in size and the palpable and continued failure of Government to tackle racism and religious hatred, we believe. invites the development of European style democratically elected fascism, in an increasingly racially hostile, post Brexit Britain as exemplified by the success of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in pandering to racist sentiment and of and the election in growing numbers of a range of extreme right-wing parties [5] across the European Union.

Things are getting worse

A report “A Portrait of Modern Britain” [6] released by the UK think tank, Policy Exchange, a centre-right research institute based in London, identified significant population growth of some ethnic communities. The authors of the study looked at the UK’s five largest distinct ethnic groups including Pakistani, Black African, Black Caribbean, Bangladeshi and Indian, their findings found that some of these groups accounted for as much as 80 percent of the UK’s population growth with Black Africans being the fastest growing group and White and Black Caribbean groups the slowest.

We believe that we must urgently address the growth of systemic racism, race and religious hatred and inequality, if we are to avoid a dystopian future, leading major cities in United Kingdom, to follow the trajectory of many deeply troubled, major US cities over the last 30 years, resulting in huge racial tensions, endemic poverty, increased crime rates, huge damage to property and potentially loss of life.

This strategy paper seeks to focus political discussions within mainstream political parties, trade unions, civil society and non-governmental organisations on the goal of achieving substantive reductions in race inequalities and social injustice faced by black and ethnic minority communities in the United Kingdom.

We believe the Government’s Race Equality Strategy (RES) approach should be bespoke, targeting local regional areas in particular employment sectors, like the media, with specific and sector specific goals and targets designed to tackle the problem where it is greatest.

Across the UK and its multicultural cities, there are huge regional, ethnic variations in the particular experience of discrimination, the extent of racial inequality experienced between ethnic groups themselves and different regions, towns and cities.  The extent of racial inequalities experienced by individual ethnic communities around the country, varies for each individual ethnic group and with strong regional variations, any effective RES strategy will require local targets and differing regional approaches.

Any attempt to seriously reduce substantive racial inequality across the UK will need to target discrimination amongst the largest employers. In order to achieve the kind of society that can be a beacon for multiracial nations around the world, we must first tackle job discrimination in the UK labour market and that means specifically targeted employment legislation capable of achieving a representative workforce.

It is also important that the demand for race equality by 2025 should be from civil society campaigns in which individual institutions and organisations not only sign up in support but also adopt their own race equality strategies in line with the demands on government. It is extremely important that organisations, institutions, businesses and faith groups all lead the demand for greater effectiveness from government in tackling race equality by way of example. This is an extraordinarily important aspect of this campaign.

Prolonged and sustained racial inequalities are symptoms of profound economic and social exclusion. Racism, discrimination, prejudice and bigotry all deny human potentiality and negatively affect the lives of millions of Black, Asian and other non-white minorities living in the UK. 

The strategy.

The achievement of this important strategy relies on the success of two important objectives;

1. The need to secure broad support and adoption of this 2025 strategy, across large sections of British society, including political parties, trade unions, faith communities, business and civil society groups and all race equality and ant -racist campaigning organisations.

2. The agreement of government on the development of a realistic RES strategy and broad policy framework, developed in consultation with black and ethnic minority communities and designed to help Britain secure the achievement of genuine racial equality and improved social justice within a decade. A radical plan that sets out bespoke targets within various sectors of British society that focuses on the reduction of all major areas of substantive racial inequality by 2025.

We hope that the obvious requirements demonstrated in this paper of the urgent need to develop a broad policy consensus and agreement across British civil society around the goal of substantively reducing racial equality in Britain by 2025, will deliver majority and significant support around a clear set of detailed campaign objectives and thereby increase our chances of convincing government to engage in the consultation, development and ultimately agreement of this important strategy.

What we believe

We believe it is now absolutely critical for the future economic, cultural and political success of post Brexit Britain, that where racial and religious hatred and the wholly negative effects of institutionalised racism, continue to blight the lives of many black and ethnic minority citizens, that such discrimination is tackled head on.

What is now required, we believe, is a profound paradigm shift of focus and approach in achieving a more equal society. It is absolutely beyond doubt that the goal of a fair, just and equal society is receding into the distance becoming a distant and increasingly unachievable goal.

In this post Brexit Britain context, tackling racism becomes a matter of national interest. It is now vital that structural racism, demonstrated and evidenced by a plethora of in-depth academic research, illuminating profound social, race and ethnic inequality, is substantively reduced over the next decade.

Failure to do so, will we believe, lead to growing and increased ethnic, religious and racial tensions in a multiracial Britain, where continued acute economic disadvantage and discrimination will lead to deep social unrest, and increased tensions among Britain's ethnic communities and ultimately civil disorder. Educated black and ethnic minority young people are becoming increasingly impatient for access to social mobility and career development opportunities.

We believe that a decade-long plan provides a realistic framework and timescale for real and sustainable progress to be made.

We believe this requires the adoption of a clear and comprehensive, ten-year RES, that outlines a series of proposals, targets and milestones, designed to achieve substantive race equality within a finite period. Black British and ethnic minority citizens must secure substantive commitments to race equality in their lifetimes.

The consequences in not doing so will condemn future generations of black and ethnic minority British citizens and the country as a whole, to a grim, angry and uncertain future where racism, racial and religious tensions, social discord and civil unrest all continue to rise.

This strategy paper presents a brief political and academic analysis of where we are today in terms of racial and ethnic discrimination and inequality, outlines key findings of academic statutory or community based research, and suggests the development of a coherent and consensual approach to making a once in a generation determined attempt to substantially reduce and/or eliminate racial inequality.

What the research tells us

Racism in 2016, is significantly worse today, than the crude racism faced by migrant communities in the mid-50/60s. Whilst this generation ended the horror of extreme racial violence and colour bar racism, the sad fact is that their grandchildren today suffer lower levels of social mobility than their parents, higher levels of unemployment and homelessness and yet are more educationally qualified than their parents.

These facts are confirmed in an important and significant report published in August 2016 by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The Commission has analysed the state of race discrimination, inequality and disadvantage in the UK.

Their report cites the huge rise in hate crimes, racist abuse and violent attacks against migrants, Muslims and black people in the aftermath of the EU referendum. The report also found significant growth in rates of racial inequality and a widening of the life chances differentials between white, black and ethnic minority citizens.

These results as very worrying and fundamentally threaten Britain's social cohesion, economic prosperity, social solidarity in very many multicultural cities and towns across the country.

This substantive research review, undertaken by the Commission, focused on the areas of education, employment, housing and living standards, health, criminal justice and civic participation.

The report follows a similar report published by the Commission in 2010 entitled How Fair is Britain? This report, also came to similarly worrying conclusions as the Commission’s more recent review. We have seen no effective policy or campaigning response to either of these reports, from Government, trade unions, and campaigning groups or indeed from wider civil society. The impression given is whilst racism remains a "concern", it does not constitute a real political priority for many.

Since the publication of the Commission’s initial report in 2010 yet another generation has grown up under the cloud of continued racial and ethnic disadvantage.

The findings of both these important reports are an indictment of the grand political failure of successive governments of all parties, civil service administrations and wider civil society, in making real progress in ensuring that the dream of Britain becoming country that affords equality to all its citizens, becomes a reality within the lifetime of this current generation.

Today Britain is commonly described as a meritocracy, however we will argue that is no longer true and that Britain offers it’s growing black and ethnic minority communities third class citizenship in what is regarded the first-class democracy. Britain is an increasingly racial and religious discriminatory society where the current generation of black and ethnic minority citizens face more racism in terms of socio-economic exclusion and lack of social mobility than that faced by their parents, a damning indictment for any society.              

We are not moving towards the goal of full race equality, the goal is moving away from us, condemning millions of black and ethnic minority citizens to continue to live under the long shadow of racism.

This report is not alone in identifying such gross racial inequality.

The Runnymede Trust an independent race equality think tank published its second annual report entitled "Ethnic Inequalities In London: A Capital For All’[7] which captured the growth of  racial inequality right across the capital.

Its findings were equally conclusive that "ethnic inequalities are persistent and widespread, particularly in employment and housing." Its findings identified the south London borough of Lambeth as the most racially unequal and divided borough in London. This annual snapshot of London also confirms that the gap between black and white Londoners in terms of life chances, quality of life and opportunities is widening.

Runnymede’s report also found, as did the Commission’s review, that black and ethnic minority pupils were out performing their white counterparts, and yet suffered huge discrimination within the UK labour market. This successful trend within black and ethnic communities of a growing and confident, educated, young, black aspiring workforce, faced with systemic racism within the labour market and the routine denial of opportunity, presents the UK; both with a unique opportunity and a real and present threat.

Black and ethnic minority young people; qualified, ambitious and ready to work are finding themselves unemployed, on the streets, unable to get a decent home to live in, unable to get a job commensurate with their skills and education, and living in a society where they will find themselves repeatedly racially profiled and harassed through discriminatory application of police Stop and Search powers.

The combination of widespread racial inequality, racism and discrimination means our communities are both contained and under pressure, with no obvious social mobility routes out of this incredibly hostile environment and no real access to secure race equality and justice.

Where do we go from here?

This paper sets out BARAC’s key concerns and seeks to build public debate and political consensus on the urgent need for the development and adoption of a comprehensive Government and civil society RES action plan that identifies the goal of substantially reducing all areas of racial inequality and disproportionality by the year 2025. A plan that should be developed through, timely and ethical consultations with black and ethnic minority communities, with a goal of developing a 10-year RES definitive plan with annual targets and public reporting mechanisms.

We hope this paper’s recommendations will be considered by all political parties, civil society organisations and community groups with a view to formally supporting a statement, such as the draft produced below, by way of example;

We wish to live in a Britain that provides equality of opportunity and freedom from race, religious and ethnic discrimination. Our ambition is for Britain to become a modern multicultural democracy where all our citizens can live, thrive and prosper, without the fear of racial or religious discrimination and bigotry.

We call upon the UK Government to ensure ethical and formal consultation and partnership with black and ethnic minority communities, organisations faith groups and wider civil society in the development of a radical and fully comprehensive Race Equality Strategy (RES) focused on the substantive reduction and where possible, elimination of all substantive areas of racial inequality and discrimination in the United Kingdom by the year 2025.

We individually commit to leading by example by initiating the development of our own public, comprehensive, national 10-year Race Equality Strategy (RES) developed in partnership with black and minority communities. This will include targets in employment and service delivery that work towards reducing current levels of racial and ethnic underrepresentation and inequality and commit to publishing an annual report, outlining our progress each year until the year 2025.

This BARAC UK strategy paper sets out some of the key statistics demonstrating racial disadvantage, disparity and disproportionality that affect black and ethnic minority communities within the UK. Effects of racism are nuanced so not all communities experience the same effects in terms of racism and racial inequality. Each distinct black and ethnic minority community is defined by its particular historical, political and cultural experience that ensures a range of differential outcomes for many distinct British ethnic communities.

Notwithstanding this important distinction, it is nevertheless true to say that the major negative effects of growing race and ethnic inequality and its impact, is demonstrably greatest upon Britain's African, African Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, and of late we have seen the terrible xenophobia directed towards Eastern European and in particular Polish communities.

Any race equality strategy would need to take account of these real differentials in the lived experience of distinct ethnic communities. That requires very specific targeting of individual groups and communities that suffer the greatest disadvantage. This approach recognises the reality of racial disadvantage as it impacts upon distinct ethnic groups and provides a credible and coherent response to those in the greatest need. This moves away from a broad "black and ethnic minority" categorisation and adopts entirely specific ethnic targets focusing on specific disadvantage and disproportionality, where such disadvantage clearly exists.

Current initiatives

The Prime Minister recently announced her intention to conduct a Race Equality Audit across all Government Departments and public services in an effort to reveal "difficult truths" about the extent of racism across and within the public sector. This audit will highlight differences in outcomes for people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds in areas of health, education, childcare, welfare, employment, skills and criminal justice.

Whilst this is to be welcomed, it is vitally important that the detailed remit of such an audit, the evaluation of the resources required and the timescale for its delivery and completion are all agreed in partnership with a broad range of credible black and ethnic minority organisations and communities. A simple 1980s style race equality snapshot across government cannot be, in and of itself, viewed as real and substantial progress. This has to be much more than just a bean counting exercise.

Despite these concerns, this initiative is to be welcomed. The real test will be the extent of public consultation and engagement with black and minority communities. This audit must enjoy the confidence of our communities and that will require genuine government and civil society partnership in the development of the specific terms of reference that will inform the work of this audit.

However, there remains a fundamental weakness in what is currently being proposed by government. The reality is that discrimination in wider society goes well beyond the realm of public services. If the UK private sector is to be excluded, then a critical area where racism's social economic effects are endemic will be ignored.

Failure to include discrimination in relation to goods and services will result in a keyhole examination of racism in Britain rather than a comprehensive full-scale enquiry. We must work together to make sure that the remit for the planned audit is substantive and capable of tackling these issues in a sustainable and effective way.

The ‘fire next time’

What we believe is required, is a Judge led public enquiry on a similar scale to the 1967 United States, National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders also known as the Kerner Commission  and was established to investigate the causes of civil disorder that took place in the aftermath of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King.

We believe that as a consequence of austerity, heightened levels of race and ethnic discrimination, disadvantage and inequality, civil disorder is not just likely, it is inevitable. We believe there is a failure in government to recognise the driving factors that led up to the civil disturbances of 2011[8] and that many of the issues that gave rise to those events have not just remained unaddressed but have become substantially worse over the last five years.

By establishing a much broader inquiry now, the country can save itself millions of pounds in avoiding the huge costs that would be associated with yet another outbreak of national civil disorder and riot damage. We believe that for all British citizens to flourish and for our economy to prosper we must be better able to compete in an increasingly globalised world.

Britain as a multicultural democracy must utilise all the talents available to the nation in an effort to enhance social cohesion and promote economic prosperity.  

There is simply no need to wait for the ‘fire next time’ politicians, trade unions, civil society groups and campaigning organisations need to all coalesce around and campaign for the establishment of a judge led public enquiry and the production of a comprehensive race equality 10-year strategy.

2025 Racial Equality Campaign

BARAC UK 2025 Race Equality Campaign Draft Objectives

BARAC will work with others to develop a project/campaign framework that has the potential of attracting wide spread support whilst providing the necessary public pressure needed to reverse the current trend of widening inequality and race discrimination.

Power concedes nothing without demand. 

The importance of establishing the issue of race as a political and policy priority within both central and local Government and wider civil society, requires a mass movement and a broad based campaign, capable of keeping the issue high on the media and political agendas.

Key to achieving this important objective is creating the broadest possible alliance of black and ethnic minority organisations, trade unions, community and civil society groups and faith communities.

The key aim of the campaign is to;

Challenge Government, business and wider civil society to substantially reduce persistent racial inequality and disproportionality in both employment and service delivery in addition to improving levels of ethnic representation in public life by 2025.

The 2025 Race Equality Campaign will seek to encourage British society to adopt the objective and goal of ending significant racial inequalities within 10 years.

This will involve, clearly identifying current rates of race inequality, disproportionality and ethnic under representation through a base line Race Equality Audit (2017) and setting challenging annual public targets for substantial reductions to be achieved by 2025. 

The Campaign is designed to encourage a broad range of institutions, businesses and organisations to support the statement and sign up for the

2025 Race Equality Challenge committing to working, within their specialist sectors, toward the elimination and or reduction of major areas of racial inequality, disproportionality and ethnic under-representation by 2025. 

We have five initial developmental objectives for further discussion;

a)    To publicly campaign for Government, businesses, institutions, civil society organisations, faith groups and individuals to accept and sign up to the 2025 Race Equality Campaign.

b)    To work with others in seeking to significantly challenge, reduce and where possible eradicate all major areas of racial inequality, disproportionality and ethnic under-representation in Britain by 2025.

c)    To promote, campaign and advocate for better public understanding of the reality and scale of racial inequalities, disproportionate treatment and ethnic under-representation and its effects on British society and economy.

d)    To highlight the financial cost to Britain’s economy and prosperity of continued racial discrimination and economic exclusion and injustice.

e)    To bring public pressure to bear on governments, businesses and institutions to sign up to the campaign, reserving the right to initiate social action where there is resistance to race equality.

Signing up to the campaign.

Political parties, business and civil society organisations from all sections of society, who agree with our stated aims and objectives to join with us in helping Britain to become a vibrant, multiracial democracy by 2025 are invited to sign up. 

Sign up to 2025 Race Equality Challenge and commit to publish a five-year Race Equality Strategy that sets out yearly targets for the reduction or elimination of all areas of racial inequality, disproportionality in employment and service delivery and targeted improvement of ethnic representation. 

Commitment to the publication of annual Race Equality Audit reports identifying progress against annually agreed targets aimed at reducing rates of race inequality, disproportionality and ethnic under representation.

Help promote the campaign nationwide.

Support the public launch of the campaign group which will take place on Saturday 15th of January 2017 on the occasion of the birthday of Dr Martin Luther King.

Campaign Structure

The 2025 Race Equality Campaign Group will be the national co-ordinating group providing input and guidance to the campaign.  We expect this group to meet no more than 4 times a year. 

This group will be made up of specialist organisations committed to tackling race inequality that will then be utilised for their sector specific expertise.

BARAC UK will convene a national campaign-planning group, that will help focus early negotiations with government about the remit and resources needed to undertake a comprehensive race equality audit across the UK.

If you are interested in becoming one of the initial, founding signatories and supporters of this important campaign, contact:

BARAC UK   Email: barac.info@gmail.com  

 www.blackactivistsrisingagainstcuts.blogspot.com

@baracuk

End.

---

[1] BARAC UK http://blackactivistsrisingagainstcuts.blogspot.co.uk

[2] Economic scarcity alters the perception of race. Amy R. Krosch and David M. Amodio http://www.pnas.org/content/111/25/9079.abstract

^[3] Equality and Human Rights Commission https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/our-work/news/widespread-inequality-risks-increasing-race-tensions-warns-ehrc

[4] United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racism. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/aug/26/politicians-rise-hate-crimes-brexit-vote-un-committee

[5] BBC World News 28^th April 2016 “ Is Europe lurching to the right?”

[6]  A Portrait of Modern Britain. Rishi Sunak and Saratha Rajeswaran. Policy Exchange

[7] http://www.runnymedetrust.org/projects-and-publications/equality-and-integration/london-ethnic-inequalities.html

[8] Reading The Riots London School of Economics. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/46297/1/Reading%20the%20riots(published).pdf

BARAC responds to EHRC report on deepening and systemic racism in the UK

The  EHRC has produced a  report this week on the level of racism in the UK  - nothing in the report is a surprise because these are all things BARAC has been saying since we were founded 6 years ago but we welcome the EHRC producing the report as it backs up what we know to be true with facts and figures. 

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/race-report-healing-divided-britain

What is important now is how that report is used by government to put in place an urgent strategy to address racism which has been amplified by austerity and increased due to  the Brexit campaign. 

Here are some reactions  from co-chairs of BARAC Lee and Zita.

A detailed analysis by Lee and you can watch Zita speaking on this week's Debate Show, Press TV.

http://leejasper.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/racism-is-dividing-britain-and-denial.html

Click here to read

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/08/19/480672/UK-Racial-Inequality-EHRC-Holbourne-Morris

Watch here

STEPHEN LAWRENCE, RACISM IN THE UK, 19 YEARS ON WRITTEN BY ZITA HOLBOURNE

STEPHEN LAWRENCE, RACISM IN THE UK, 19 YEARS ON

WRITTEN BY ZITA HOLBOURNE

On Tuesday 3^rd of January we saw 2 of the killers guilty of the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence sentenced to imprisonment for their crime. 

Stephen Lawrence in the words of his mother was a ‘bright, beautiful young man’ in his teens with his whole life ahead of him before he was killed by a racist gang in Eltham, South London in 1993.  

Doreen and Neville Lawrence fought an 18 year battle in their quest for justice for their son and whilst this was a positive outcome, it has come 18 years too late and the battle is still not over as at least 3 of those who were part of the gang that murdered Stephen are free.

The poem I wrote on the night of 3^rd January, entitled ‘Strange Kind of Justice’, sums up how I feel about it.

http://soundcloud.com/zita-holbourne/strange-kind-of-justice-in

In 1998 a public inquiry known as the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry took place as a result of the Lawrence family campaign. This was headed by Sir William MacPherson who concluded that the Metropolitan Police Service was institutionally racist. MacPherson’s report and recommendations led to the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 which placed a duty on public sector bodies to promote race equality through the Public Sector Race Equality Duty. This was followed in 2006 with a duty on Disability and in 2007 on Gender.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/1999/feb/24/lawrence.ukcrime12

Through the public sector equality duties public sector bodies were required to publish race, disability and gender equality schemes and carry out equality impact assessments on any new or changed policies to assess any disproportionate impact of their proposals on race, disability or gender. Trade unions have drawn on the public sector equality duties to challenge the disproportionate impact of job cuts, relocation and discriminatory pay amongst other discriminatory policies. Whilst employers have not been proactive in ensuring they adhere to the duties their very existence has given us a route in which to challenge institutional racism and discriminatory practices and policies collectively.

I commend Doreen and Neville  Lawrence for the inspiration, strength, hope and determination they have brought to so many others facing racist attacks and race discrimination – whilst enduring their own prolonged battle, forced to set aside grieving the loss of their son in their quest for justice because they had no choice but to keep on fighting for that justice.

I am proud to have played a small part in supporting the Lawrence’s campaign over many years alongside many other trade union and community anti racist activists.  The TUC established the Stephen Lawrence Task Force which was a high profile campaign with the aim of eliminating institutional racism in the workplace.

http://www.tuc.org.uk/sltg/action_plan.htm

But I am saddened that it was necessary for the Lawrence family and so many more families to have to dedicate their lives to seeking justice for their loved ones and angry that legislation that came into force in order to prevent the type of institutional racism that was demonstrated by the Metropolitan Police Force following Stephen’s death is still in existence today within not only the police forces but other public sector organisations and institutions.

10 years after the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and MacPherson Report, Dr Richard Stone who was a panel member of the Inquiry produced a review report which exposed the failure of government to implement the vast majority of the original recommendations and other reports evidencing the same were produced by other independent bodies. That the recommendations have not been followed through is a disgrace in itself but once the evidence was produced demonstrating quite clearly that this was the case the government should have put in place an emergency action plan to address the situation. The issues that  the recommendations sought to address have not gone away, if anything many of them have got worse and this is why Dr Stone made some new recommendations in his report.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/04/where-are-black-police-officers

In October 2010 a new Equality Act came into force and in April 2011 the public sector equality duty replaced the race, disability and gender duties. Whilst the duty covers other protected characteristics which is welcomed we have seen a significant weakening of the previous duties. There is no longer a requirement for Equality Schemes to be published or for Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) to be carried out. Effectively the new law makes it easier for employers to disregard their duty to promote good race relations and take steps to prevent race discrimination occurring in employment or the services they provide. It seems to be that the onus is on lessening the burden on business and increasing the burden and distress racism brings for those on the receiving end. 

The promised code of practice of the Public Sector Equality Duty which is even more important because of the watering down of the Duty has yet to be introduced and I am concerned that any delay in introducing this will lead to more public sector organisations failing to take race equality seriously. 

Whilst we must fight to defend the equality protection in law that exists and use it to challenge discrimination, not least in respect of the disproportionate impact of cuts on gender, race and disability grounds we must also strive for improvements because we are seeing an increase not a decrease in discrimination in all aspects of our lives including;

·         at work in respect of  job cuts, pay, pensions, promotion and progression, 1.2 million people are unemployed with 1 in 2 young black people out of work

·          in education where the scrapping of EMA means that those from deprived backgrounds cannot afford further education let alone afford the tripled tuition fees of £9000 per annum from the start of the forthcoming academic year, making degree level education a privilege for the wealthy when it should be available equally to all

But the racism we face goes beyond education and the workplace, in the criminal justice system, policing, stop and search, DNA database, service provision with many essential services disappearing due to funding cuts in particular in the voluntary sector, attacks on migrant workers, the Far Right blaming black communities for cuts being made by the Con-Dem coalition, racist hate crime, in sports – not least in football, on our TV screens and disgracefully we saw efforts to detract from the verdict in Stephen Lawrence’s murder trial in the days following. In effect there is no aspect of our lives where racism doesn’t raise its ugly head.

If ever there was a need for robust race equality law, backed up and enforced by the government through the powers held by the Equality and Human Rights Commission which is also facing huge cuts reducing its capacity to deliver on race equality it is now. Access the campaign leaflet  ‘What Price Equality’ and the Save the EHRC petition here.

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/equality-and-human-rights-commission/index.cfm

The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust was set up in Stephen’s memory supports young people from deprived backgrounds through bursaries to pursue careers in architecture – which was Stephen’s chosen career and wishes to broaden this approach to include law, finance and media studies.

You can find out more about the Trust and make donations via the Trust’s website: http://stephenlawrence.org.uk/ and call upon you all to initiate any fundraising initiatives you can to further the work of the Trust and to continue Stephen’s legacy. 

Doreen Lawrence launched a £2 text campaign this month. You can donate £2 by texting: DLAW02 £2 to 70070.

Progress to me is not measured by what we’ve achieved but what we’ve retained maintained and improved upon and the legacy we are able to create for those who will go after us. A temporary fix does not bring change it simply delays the problem and the time when we have to face it head on. 

There’s never been a more important time for workers, service users, communities and families to come together to challenge the discrimination we face in all aspects of our lives. When we divide we fall when we stay together we have strength and unity, two essential ingredients in the struggle for justice, equality and freedom.

Zita Holbourne is co-founder and co-chair of Black Activists Rising Against Cuts, a member of the PCS Union National Executive Committee and of the TUC Race Relations Committee and a performance poet and artist.

PCS NEC statement on Stephen Lawrence

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/pcs_comment_archive.cfm/id/EC9D083F-806E-4702-95532257ABBE528C

Information about BARAC including how to join our campaign.

http://blackactivistsrisingagainstcuts.blogspot.com/

Information about Zita’s work as a poet and artist.

www.myspace.com/zitaholbourne