Derby Trades Council (DATUC) sent an NUT Section member as a delegate to the national Stand Up To Racism Trades Union Conference in London on Saturday 10th February.
It was a fantastic event, packed out and full of reports of great work by comrades in the trades union movement to combat racism, people determined that the UK will not face the kind of rise of the racist right we are seeing in Hungary, Poland, France, Austria and Germany.
A message that came out loud and clear was the need to build for the UN Anti-Racism Day March Against Racism in London. In the final session it was announced that the Roma Council of Hungary had called a national demonstration in solidarity with the London one. This shows that our actions of solidarity echo around a Europe struggling with the rise of the far right. We should all aim to get on the coaches and make this demonstration the biggest yet!
To
get a seat on the Derby coach to the 17th March
Demonstration, email derbysutr@gmail.com.
Education Session
The education section in the morning was of particular interest to teachers.
- Dave Muritu of the UCU talked about the London FE colleges We Are All Immigrants week. A great opportunity for anti-racist work in education settings. UCU members have also been involved in supporting refugees in Calais, and a campaign to stop a blue plaque to Enoch Powell being put up in Wolverhampton to commemorate the 'rivers of blood' speech. At the end of the day it was announced that Stand Up To Racism has booked out the hotel where Powell made his infamous tirade, and will hold an anti-racist event on the anniversary of the speech!
- Kurly McGeachie of Love Music Hate Racism talked about his visits to schools and PRUs to run anti-racist hip-hop workshops and the resource pack based on 'British Cultural Values' and aimed at primary school children is available to download: http://www.britishculturalvalues.com/
- Daniel Kebede (National Education Union) spoke about the importance of building against hate at the moment. The challenge in schools created by government and policy makers through Prevent, British Values and Ofsted and the DfE's Islamophobic campaign against the hijab. He also pointed to the attacks on teacher training, reducing the access trainee teachers have to pedagogical training and the work of Freire and Vygotsky. We need to fight back for an education that liberates all our students.
- Rakhia Ismail (Labour Councillor, Islington) spoke about her experience organising protests outside McDonald's after a young woman was told to remove her hijab before she could go in. That protest won a complete apology within 24 hours. Rakhia also spoke about her experiences as a teaching assistant, and pointed out that some of our colleagues in schools have racist ideas themselves. Rakhia also announced that she plans to campaign against Ofsted chief Amanda Spielmann's attacks on the right of girls to wear the hijab in school.
- Jess Edwards (NEU) focussed on the ways that the curriculum is being contested in areas like British Values. The 'rule of law' was broken by people who helped make our modern world, such as the Suffragettes. A working party within the NEU has been formed to develop anti-racist resources that can be used across all subject areas. Input from teachers welcome, especially over ideas for ways to use these resources.
There were also fantastic other sessions, on fighting racism - building unions, the free movement of labour: tackling myths about migration and finishing with mobilising for the 17th March day of international protests!
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