8/9/2019 Implement the Equality Act CONF Flier[1]

1/2

Student Conference:

Building independent,

integrated, mass actionto implement the

Equality Act.Movement for Justice by any means necessary>Fri 25

th/ Sat 26

thJune 2010

>10am 4pm

Speakers include:

Shanta Driver, US civil rights leaderShanta is Chair of BAMN, (www.bamn.com), a youth movement leading the fight todefend free public education against privatisation and re-segregation, and to defend andextend Affirmative Action - key gain of Dr Kings Civil Rights movement.

Movement for JusticeMFJs purpose is developing young leaders of a new integrated, mass, civil rightsmovement, independent of the political parties. The MFJ organises to speak the truthabout racism.

Student panel on antiracist strugglesThis year we have marched and rallied, and organised in communities against BNP, to

stop the EDL, and to be able to speak out about racism. We will discuss and takelessons from these experiences to build new campaigns and strengthen our movement

Also invited: NUS Black Students Campaign & LGBT Campaign

At SOAS University, Russell Sq WC1H(near Russell Sq tube; buses include 188, 7, 68, 168, 91, 59)

Co-Hosted by: SOAS Unison Black Members Officer, and Equality

Officer, and Students Union Vernon Sq & Mature Students Officers Contact: mail@movementforjustice.org.ukFB: movement for justice by any means necessary Txt: 07552 093 950

8/9/2019 Implement the Equality Act CONF Flier[1]

2/2

Conference: Building independent,integrated, mass action toimplement the Equality Act

Fri 25th / Sat 26th June (Details overleaf)

Implement the Equality ActSPEAK THE TRUTH ABOUT RACISMBUILD THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

Britains black, Asian, Muslim, ethnic minorityand immigrant communities are a permanent,growing and dynamic force in the life of thisnation. Our vital contribution to this societyand our struggles for justice, equality anddignity are shaping the new Britain, ourBritain - a nation that can only thrive andprogress as an integrated, multiracial andmulticultural society that is united on the

basis of equality and respect.The Equality Act puts into law the most far-reaching anti-discrimination measures of anyBritish equality legislation so far. TheEquality Act, passed by parliament thisspring, is a long overdue response to thegrowing power and certain permanence ofour communities. It is an acknowledgementthat this nations history of governmentsponsored institutional racism, sexism and

anti-gay bigotry has created inequalities inopportunity and discriminatory policies andpractises that can only be redressed throughthe creation and implementation of a new setof policies and practises that redress theharm done from past policy, and establish anew level playing field.

Implementation of the Equality Act providesus with a new weapon in our fight to makeBritain a society where equality is a reality foreveryone who lives works or studies here

what ever our race, culture, religion, nationalorigin, gender and sexual orientation.Organising the social power of black, Asian,Muslim ethnic minority and immigrantcommunities, and building a new independentcivil rights movement, will be necessary toturn the lofty ideas embedded in the EqualityAct into reality. In 1954 the US SupremeCourt decision, Brown v Board of Education,made the Jim Crow segregationist laws, policies and practises of the old American

South illegal. However, it took the mass protest action of the civil rights movementlead by Dr Martin Luther King to tear downJim Crow policies and end the second classtreatment of black people and other minorities

and fight for real equality. We will have tofollow Dr Kings example if we mean to makethis societies longstanding racism and sexism

a thing of the past.

Building a Movement powerful enough tomake the Equality Acts anti-discrimination /positive action mandates integral - in hiringand promotion, admissions programmes andthe development of academic and supportprogrammes of colleges and universities, andin the contracting policies of local councils -will require a new young black, Asian, Muslimand immigrant leadership to step forward.

These new civil rights leaders of ourcommunity must be honest, optimistic and bedevoid of cynicism and political pessimism.They must believe in, and be fighting for, theprinciple that our movement can create a NewBritain that is hospitable rather than hostile toour communities and can be truly integrated,multicultural and multiracial.

To achieve this, our new young leaders must:1. Speak the plain truth about racism2. Organise mass actions to stop the

alarming rise of physical attacks againstindividuals and the Mosques

3. Stop the scape-goating of black, Asian andimmigrant communities targeted forunemployment, cuts in educationalopportunities, and cuts in benefits.

If we fail to build a new civil rights movementour communities disproportionately bare thebrunt of cuts in jobs, closure of educationalopportunity and benefits, the possibility of the

restoring the project of making Britain into amore egalitarian society based less on classprivilege and more on fairness, will have nohope of succeeding. Only a new IndependentCivil Rights Movement can have the vision,power, determination, political will and socialprogramme needed to protect and advancethe interest of Britains suffering middle class,working class, poor and oppressed.

Movement for Justiceby any means necessaryContact: mail@movementforjustice.org.uk FB: movement for justice by any means necessary