AS Black History Month 2024 is celebrated, we in the anti-racist, anti-fascist movement can allow ourselves a pat on the back for routing the racist Tommy Robinson and his ilk, not only in Walthamstow but all over the country.
The unfortunate and brutal murder of three innocent white girls in Stockport was exploited by the fascists to spread racist propaganda, leading to widespread attacks on mosques, hotels housing refugees and the homes of black people.
The Labour government, quick to praise the police for their role in routing the fascists, ignored the mobilisation by the trade union movement, anti-racist organisations and the outrage of ordinary citizens, forcing the fascists off the streets.
Without the intervention of thousands of outraged citizens up and down the country, the story could have been quite different.
The snap election was the backdrop to rioting as the Conservative Party, desperate to capture votes, ramped up their racist rhetoric, scapegoating refugees and immigration. In the usual election season numbers game, the Labour Party was only too keen to join in, giving the racist Reform UK party of Nigel Farage a platform to claim some four million votes.
We can allow ourselves a celebration, but our work is far from done. This Black History Month, we need focus our energies to resist all attempts by the establishment to stop the teaching of black history.
Professor Hakim Adie’s Africa history course was cut at Chester University, followed by cuts at Goldsmiths University to black literature courses, and attempts to axe the African Odyssey film programme are underway at the South Bank. The teaching of African history is crucial to defeating racism.
As we fight to end oppression, it is worth remembering that the root source of racism is the European enslavement of Africans for profit. As citizens protested the reintroduction of slavery, the enslavers resorted to mass propaganda to justify their enslavement of Africans.
For 500 years, we have been subjected to an ideology of racism (a pack of lies about Africans) to justify their brutal enslavement. Both white and black people have been affected by the lies about Africans. White people have been led to believe they are superior to black people, and this is often acted out in discrimination and prejudice against black people.
Black people have also been affected by the systemic propagation of lies about Africans, and when they act on the basis of those lies, it is deemed to be “internalised” racism; the source of much of the black-on-black violence we experience today.
The fight for reparations for transatlantic chattel slavery is crucial in defeating racism. An apology by the government is necessary to acknowledge that a crime against humanity was committed. Such acknowledgement will bring comfort to black people and help their healing.
White people will understand that they were lied to — that, in fact, Africans were always their equals. A crime was committed in the name of white people, and they have every right to be enraged about being lied to and to be fully engaged in righting these wrongs committed in their name.
An apology without commitment to repairing the damage done by enslavement will be meaningless and only add insult to injury.
European states were deeply engaged in the economic exploitation of Africans, and Eric Williams, in his book Capitalism and Slavery, argued the profits made kickstarted the industrial revolution.
When Parliament abolished slavery in 1833, over 40,000 white people of the middle and owning class received £20 million (about £15 billion in today’s money) in compensation for the loss of their “property.”
The enslaved received not a penny. The legacy of enslavement and colonialism has left huge problems for Africa and the Americas, which can only be repaired by financial compensation.
As we mark Black History Month, it is an opportunity to raise awareness about the evil slave trade and call on the Labour government to sit down with Caricom and the African Union to discuss reparations.
If we live in denial about the existence of racism, there can be no change. Often, the racism of the ignorant fascists in the streets is what gets the attention of the corporate press, but we should not ignore the fact that research into almost every institution in Britain has shown that racism is deeply embedded in society.
We can confront the fascists in the streets, but it is the institutional racism that is a real danger to the lives and livelihood of black people. A report into the Windrush scandal, which the government attempted to bury, concluded that the origins of the “deep-rooted racism of the Windrush scandal” lie in the fact that “during the period 1950-81, every single piece of immigration or citizenship legislation was designed at least in part to reduce the number of people with black or brown skin who were permitted to live and work in Britain.”
It is time to build a united front of black and white to end racism.
A meeting, The Roots of Racism and Oppression — Slavery the Fight for Reparations, is organised by the Communist Party of Britain on October 30 at 7pm, Ruskin House, Croydon CR0 1BD. You can join the meeting by registering at url.communistparty.org.uk/5.
Luke Daniels is the president of Caribbean Labour Solidarity.