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Diversity in Culture? Online webinar by ENCC

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The audio of the ENCC webinar on diversity held on the 1st of December 2020.

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Solutions found by Belgians for the COVID crisis

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Solutions found by Belgians for the COVID crisis

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1st minute of the video about De Vaartkapoen
Shared by Walter Salender

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Belgen en Corona: de oplossingen -- Les Belges et le Corona: les solutions

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Shared by Clara Paillard

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DCN - Disability Collaborative Network for Museums C.I.C.

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Campaigning cultural organisations We Shall Not Be Removed, Ramps on the Moon, Attitude is Everything, Paraorchestra and What Next? have joined together to create a new guide for the arts and entertainment sectors to support disability inclusion. On Tuesday 15 September, they launched Seven Inclusive Principles for Arts & Cultural Organisations working safely through [...]

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DCN - Disability Collaborative Network for Museums C.I.C.

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Campaigning cultural organisations We Shall Not Be Removed, Ramps on the Moon, Attitude is Everything, Paraorchestra and What Next? have joined together to create a new guide for the arts and entertainment sectors to support disability inclusion. On Tuesday 15 September, they launched Seven Inclusive Principles for Arts & Cultural Organisations working safely through [...]

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Roots Culture Identity Art Exhibition talk by artists

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Roots Culture Identity Art Exhibition talk by artists

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Shared by Zita Holbourne

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Roots Culture Identity Art Exhibition talk by artists

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Show Culture Some Love's action at the British Museum

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Show Culture Some Love's action at the British Museum

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Shared by Zita Holbourne

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Show Culture Some Love - Action at the British Museum

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A protest by black communities in the UK to challenge a racist exhibition (naked black people in chains, having no voice)
Shared by Zita Holbourne

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Exhibit B protest in London — A message to the white man, Brett Bailey

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'Fathers and Sons', a novel by I. S. Turgenev

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'Fathers and Sons', a novel by I. S. Turgenev

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Shared by Nebosja Milikic

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Biblioflow - "(Knowing) The Good, the Bad and the Evil"*

Online

Group readings of the novel "Fathers and Sons" by I. S. Turgenev and "What Is to Be Done" by N. G. Chernyshevsky.

During the joint analysis of FM Dostoevsky's novel "Demons" in the frame of Biblioflow program, the author's conspicuous reference to two famous writers of that time was commented: Chernyshevsky, whose famous work "What Is to Be Done?"-written in the prison and miraculously briefly missed censorship-is conspicuously on the table of one of the main tragicomic heroes of Demons. Reading these two novels further illuminates Dostoevsky's motives for conceiving and shaping the Demons.

What can be especially interesting to today's readers of these classic works is the topicality of the debate that is conducted by literary means between the (generally understood) political orientations of famous authors: Turgenev's progressive liberalism, Chernyshevsky's utopian socialism and Dostoevsky's mystical conservatism. Even in the most current political debates, we can recognize similar concepts and related positions and arguments. The moral principles, dilemmas and determinations that Dostoevsky brought to the forefront and to supposedly crucial plan of this discussion with his characterizations, strongly resonate in the most current political programs and debates. Even today, political actors and observers face the same question that in many ways encouraged these authors to write: what is "good", what is "bad" and what is "evil" in ideas, utopias and dystopias that pretend to change or preserve the existing social order.

In order to have a broader and better insight into these criteria, reading groups will be formed in different socio-political contexts, in several places in Serbia and the countries of the region. In accordance with the possibilities and interests, meetings and discussions will take place mainly through social networks.

*The title is a reference to the translation of the title of the famous "Spaghetti western" "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" to Serbo-Croatian, where "Ugly" ( Il Brutto in Italian) was translated as "The Bad" while "Bad" ( Il Cattivo in Italian) was translated as "The Evil". Since Chernyshevsky wrote "What Is to Be Done?" in answer to the "Fathers and Sons" while Dostoyevski critically addressed both authors in Demons, their literary (and ideological) encounter is seen as the iconic three-way duel that was seen in a final scene of the movie.

More detailed information and applying for participation: govorni.programi.rex@gmail.com

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Online Group readings of the novel "Fathers and Sons" by I. S. Turgenev and "What Is to Be Done" by N. G. Chernyshevsky.

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Shared by Isabel Raabe

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Roma Civil Rights Movement

Transnational Movements of Roma to achieve Civil Rights after the Holocaust

Thomas Acton

Up until 1945, Roma politics was based upon the post-feudalistic acceptance of marginalisation and submission to nation-states. After 1945 the emergence and energy of Roma politics significantly changed the nature of political organisation, with transnational initiatives establishing international Roma advocacy and representation.

Roma Civil Rights Movement

Positions

'The "Roma Art label" could become a really important way of reclaiming our practice, reclaiming our art history, reclaiming our culture.'
Ethel Brooks

About the project

News

We've won! The European Commission and Europa Nostra, the leading European heritage network, announced: RomArchive - Digital Archive of the Roma is awarded the Grand Prix of the prestigious European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Awards 2019 for its outstanding work of the digitisation of art and culture of Sinti and Roma!

The Documentation and Cultural Centre of German Sinti and Roma is the long-term host of RomArchive. From summer 2019, the institution is responsible for the development and content of the website.

Selection of articles on the launch of RomArchive Available Online

Link

Archive

The RomArchive collection contains items from ten archive sections: Visual Art, Dance, Film, Flamenco, Theatre & Drama, Literature, Music, Romani Civil Rights Movement, Politics of Photography and Voices of the Victims. Focusing on self-representation, the objects have been collected from private collections, museums, archives and libraries around the world.

Browse archive

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The Romani Anthem as a Microcosm of Diversity Petra Gelbart The song Gelem, gelem was institutionalised as the national or international Roma anthem at the first major Roma congress in 1971. Until then, the song had been familiar to many Roma as a folk song, primarily in the Balkans.

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Shared by Walter Salender

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Het forumtheater ontstond als een co-creatie tussen de vrouwen van de VK, Citizenne en regisseur Har Tortike. De groep vrijwilligers van de VK zocht een originele manier om het thema 'huiselijk geweld' bespreekbaar te maken. Armoede en familiaal geweld zijn problemen die zich vaak tussen vier muren afspelen en waarop een groot taboe rust.
Op 25.11.2015 vond de eerste voorstelling plaats in de VK in het kader van Internationale dag tegen geweld. Erna ging het Forumtheater op tour in verschillende GC's, zelforganisaties en buurthuizen.

Na de aanslagen van Parijs en Brussel (2016) vroeg de groep om nieuwe scenes uit te werken over gevoelige en complexe thema's zoals racisme, radicalisering en de angst om een kind te verliezen. De groep werkte hiervoor samen met Saliha Ben Ali en vertelde haar persoonlijk verhaal.

Het Forumtheater Radicalisering tourde in verschillende gevangenissen, zelforganisaties en hoge scholen in Brussel, Vlaanderen en buitenland. Forumtheater Radicalisering won de Ultima 2016, de Vlaamse cultuurprijs, in de categorie Amateurkunsten. Na drie jaar intensief spelen in binnen- en buitenland besloot de VK besloten om het Forumtheater project af te sluiten en te experimenteren met nieuwe methodieken om gevoelige thema's bespreekbaar te maken, zoals 'Alles op tafel'

De vrouwen van de VK zijn niet gestopt met Forumtheater en toeren verder met Citizenne. Nieuwe thema's, zoals opvoeding en gender, worden uitgewerkt en gespeeld.

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Het forumtheater ontstond als een co-creatie tussen de vrouwen van de VK, Citizenne en regisseur Har Tortike. De groep vrijwilligers van de VK zocht een originele manier om het thema 'huiselijk geweld' bespreekbaar te maken. Armoede en familiaal geweld zijn problemen die zich vaak tussen vier muren afspelen en waarop een groot taboe rust.

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Shared by Clara Paillard

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home, THE MOVEMENT FOR CULTURAL DEMOCRACY

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THE MOVEMENT FOR CULTURAL DEMOCRACY IS CALLING FOR #CULTURALDEMOCRACYNOW!READ ABOUT IT HERE.

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Debate about institutional racial violence and the role of women in the struggle against racial violence

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Debate about institutional racial violence and the role of women in the struggle against racial violence

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Shared by Walter Salender

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Shared by Zita Holbourne

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Lockdown and Ramadan: a chat with an Iman

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Lockdown and Ramadan: a chat with an Iman

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By GC De Vaartkapoen
Shared by Walter Salender

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(H)allo Corona | Corona & Ramadan met imam Mohammed Toujgani

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By GC De Vaartkapoen
Shared by Walter Salender

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International Statement on the future of culture across Europe 

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International Statement on the future of culture across Europe 

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Shared by Clara Paillard

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Amidst the Covid pandemic, which strongly affects the arts and culture sector, three European trade unions have united their voices to publish a joint declaration: the French CGT Culture, the Italian CGIL MiBACt and PCS, which represent 4,000 museums and heritage workers in the UK. This includes the Tate and the Southbank Centre which have seen hundreds of workers losing their jobs in the past couple of months.

The joint declaration takes stock of the economic and social threats directly linked to the Covid pandemic, including its major impact on tourism, and denounces the disastrous political choices of the past decades across Europe that favoured the privatisation and commercialisation of cultural services as well as pushing for cultural consumerism to the detriment of a real cultural public service offer.

The unions sadly highlight the decline of democratic access to arts, culture and heritage as a result of budget cuts the disengagement of the public authorities including central government that results in the deregulation of workers' rights, a rise of precarious work and the increase of job losses and privatisations.

This joint declaration therefore sees itself as an act of constructive resistance and a contribution to a necessary citizen debate and aim to bring on board other trade unions representing cultural workers across Europe (it will be presented to EPSU, the European Public Services Union, this week).

The demands highlighted in the declaration are:

For a transformed and reinforce public cultural service

For cultural democracy

For decent and stable employment and working conditions

For human and budgetary resources really corresponding to the needs and challenges

For a new model of social &cultural development, participatory and sustainable

Against precarious work, social dumping social, privatisation and the shameless exploitation of employees in outsourced companies.

Clara Paillard, President of the PCS Culture group, said: "Thousand of cultural workers have already lost their jobs and venues have closed across the UK and this is brewing in other countries across Europe. Not only we need additional financial support from governments for the sector but it is a different model that we must develop. End the art for profit, let's act on the principle of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ensure culture is for the many, not for the few."

Zita Holbourne, PCS vice president and co-chair of Artists Union England said: "Covid has destroyed lives and now livelihoods are being destroyed including in our culture sector across Europe with huge impacts on equality, access to the arts and culture and a knock on impact on multi genre artists who work with cultural centres on a self-employed basis. There are disproportionate impacts on equality groups also, particularly women, black and minority ethnic and migrant workers in the sector. It is crucial that we work together to save our culture sector, to preserve arts which play an important role in healing and responding to the trauma, mental health and isolation impacts of the pandemic and to protect workers and the sector as a whole."
Read the statement by CGT (France) Read the statement by CGIL (Italy)

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PCS Culture Group: International Statement on the future of culture across Europe

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Amidst the Covid pandemic, which strongly affects the arts and culture sector, three European trade unions have united their voices to publish a joint declaration: the French CGT Culture, the Italian CGIL MiBACt and PCS, which represent 4,000 museums and heritage workers in the UK.

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Shared by Clara Paillard for their 'Culture Sector Recovery for Migrants' document

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Migrants in Culture is a network of migrants organising to create the conditions of safety, agency and solidarity in the culture sector for migrants, people of colour and all others impacted by the UK's immigration regime.

We are guided by a vision of culture without borders.1
1. juridical, racial, gendered, ableist, class, physical, economic, and everyday borders.

Migrants make culture. Migrants make a culture sector. We are artists, curators, cleaners, directors, educators, front-of-house staff, producers, security guards, students, technicians and many more. We work in economically and legally precarious workplaces, where we are invisible (as there is little understanding or care of how immigration regimes impact our lives) or hypervisible (co-opted as tokens of internationalism and diversity) in a monoculture. We live, work and pay taxes in the UK, but have no, or limited, political representation and access to healthcare and social services.

We recognise that the forces of systemic racism and the legacies and continuation of empire, colonisation and extractive capitalism have created a culture sector characterised by borders, oppression, discrimination, and exploitation for migrant and racialised populations. We reject the instrumentalisation of culture for social power, social cleansing and nationalist agendas. We reject the false binary of the good / bad migrant.

Migrants in Culture imagines and organises a culture sector without borders:

Safety: We oppose the UK government's Hostile Environment Policy and its violent impacts on health, education, housing, employment and the creation of culture. We platform and develop educational campaigns around the experiences and needs of migrant culture workers, so that ignorance can not be an excuse for complicity with the Hostile Environment. We advocate for a sector that is accountable to, and takes proactive actions for the safety of migrant culture workers, including access to legal advice and mental health support.

Since Autumn 2018, we have published National Findings and Testimonials on the impact of the Hostile Environment Policy on the Culture Sector, and in September 2020 we published an advoacy pack developed with a coalition of migrant culture workers titled A Culture Sector Recovery for Migrants.

Agency: We envision futures in which we are protagonists. We work with migrant peers and allies to listen and learn collectively. As culture workers, we seek to use our creative mediums, skills and resources to contribute to community-centered and abolitionist futures. We organise to create a collaborative rather than competitive sector, where the infrastructures and artworks we make are active tools in dismantling oppression, and where all forms of migrant lives and labour are valued. At the start of 2020, we organised an Activation Day for migrant culture workers and allies to build skills and envision a more equitable culture sector.

Solidarity: We seek to connect migrant culture workers to a national migrant movement that opposes the Hostile Environment and the wider UK immigration regime - which are a manifestation of systemic racism and the legacies and continuation of empire, colonisation and extractive capitalism. We seek to organise for migrant justice that is inseparable from racial, class, disability and queer justice.
Our Values
Anti-racism and anti-colonialism

Connected struggles, connected futures

Leadership of the most impacted

Culture as a creative force for liberation

The ways we work

Using art skills to organise

Consensus decision making

Listening and learning

Welcoming and caring for one another

Accountability

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Migrants in Culture is a network of migrants organising to create the conditions of safety, agency and solidarity in the culture sector for migrants, people of colour and all others impacted by the UK's immigration regime. We are guided by a vision of culture without borders.1 1.

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Impact of redundancies on workers of colour at the Southbank Centre

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Impact of redundancies on workers of colour at the Southbank Centre

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Shared by Clara Paillard

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Disproportionate cuts to BAME staff to make Southbank Centre much less representative.

Redundancy terms have been changed, reducing payouts by £1.4million

Protest as Hayward Gallery reopens Saturday 1st August.

As the Southbank Centre prepares to make upto 70% of it's workforce redundant, it has proposed changes to previously agreed redundancy terms that will deny £1.4million in payouts to staff facing future unemployment. The redundancies and payouts will disproportionately affect BAME staff with at least 71 out of 365 (as some teams have not yet confirmed their "at risk" pools) positions under threat currently filled by BAME people. Should all 365 positions be eliminated, Southbank Centre will go from having a 20% BAME workforce to just 14% BAME workforce.

Southbank Centre claims it is unable to provide the previously agreed redundancy terms of three weeks pay for every year of service and is seeking to impose vastly reduced new terms on staff.

The executive team of Southbank Centre has informed staff that the government's £1.5billion arts bailout package will not help as the centre believes it will not be eligible for further funding. The scale of the proposed redundancies at Southbank Centre is huge with at least 365 staff out of 575 at risk of redundancy. The proposals affect all teams but some, such as Visitor Experience and Ticketing, are at greater risk as Southbank Centre now expects the Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall to be completely closed until April 2021.

The PCS branch commented: "Our members are deeply upset by Southbank Centre's callous imposition of severely reduced redundancy terms at a time of extreme financial and social crisis caused by COVID19. The majority of our members have long and dedicated service to Southbank Centre and are now seeing their employer walk back on previously agreed terms. Our members did not cause this crisis and should not have to pay the price for it."

Southbank Centre has pledged both publicly and internally that it supports the Black Lives Matter movement and is committed to improving the representation of diverse staff, artists and audiences across the organisation. BAME and POC employee numbers are still low at Southbank Centre and this contributes to a culture where structural racism persists. Southbank Centre's leadership has continuously claimed that it wants to make a safe working space for this group of people. It is clear however that the redundancy actions sit in direct opposition with those pledges, as Southbank Centre have made no commitments to protecting BAME and POC staff in this process beyond an Equality Impact Assessment. This group of workers will be amongst the most affected by these planned redundancies. Should the Visitor Experience and Ticketing teams be reduced the overall percentage of white staff at Southbank Centre would increase immediately by 6%.

PCS and Unite Southbank Centre branches and the Southbank Centre BAME Staff Network announced today that they will be protesting against these redundancies on severely reduced terms and the impact on BAME members on Saturday 1 August, when Hayward Gallery reopens to visitors. This will be part of a joint protest with National Theatre casual workers who are facing similar mass redundancies. Full event details are on Facebook.

Key Contacts:

PCS Southbank Centre Branch - pcs.southbankcentre@gmail.com

Southbank Centre BAME Staff Network - bamenetwork@southbankcentre.co.uk

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Mass redundancies as the Southbank Centre disproportionately affect BAME staff

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Disproportionate cuts to BAME staff to make Southbank Centre much less representative. Redundancy terms have been changed, reducing payouts by £1.4million Protest as Hayward Gallery reopens Saturday 1st August. As the Southbank Centre prepares to make upto 70% of it's workforce redundant, it has proposed changes to previously agreed redundancy terms that will deny £1.4million in payouts to staff facing future unemployment.

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Shared by Clara Paillard

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After 42 days of strike and several negotiation meetings between Tate Enterprises senior management, PCS Tate United and the mediator ACAS, union members voted in favour of suspending strike action from Thursday 1st of October pending finalisation of the details of an offer, which includes improved terms and redundancy for Tate Commerce workers affected by the restructure. Further details will follow in a joint statement between Tate United PCS and management.

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PCS Tate United | Tate Staff Union Members | United Kingdom

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PCS Tate United represents PCS union members at all Tate sites and across many departments. Our current campaign is Tate Commerce Strike Action to try and stop job losses at Tate Modern and Tate Britain from shops, cafés and publishing, and supporting staff protesting against redundancies.

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PCS Culture Group Black members call for action to tackle inequality in the sector

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PCS Culture Group Black members call for action to tackle inequality in the sector

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Shared by Clara Paillard

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We are issuing the below as an unequivocal statement of support for Black Lives Matter on account of the recent police killing of George Floyd in the USA. We do this fraternally in the knowledge that racism is not only a spectre haunting our USA sisters, brothers and comrades but that it also affects us here in the UK.

So many Black people have died unnecessarily as a direct result of police brutality in the UK. Just in the past 5 weeks there have been 3 new cases. On 9 May, the police had a black woman in such a tight chokehold that she cried out "I can't breathe" but it wasn't reported until 1 June. On 30 May a black ambulance driver in South London was accused of being a drug pusher and arrested. The police accused a black presenter of The Chase, Shaun Wallace, on 10 June of robbery until they spotted his barrister robes.

Overwhelming numbers of PCS Culture members are BAME/POC, who tend to be cleaners, security guards, admin staff, and gallery/museum assistants. Within this context we stand in solidarity with the plight of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (henceforth BAME) people facing racial injustice.

We cannot fail to note with a bitter irony, the pious sentiments from many art and culture institution CEOs concerning racial prejudice. In an article for the Guardian on 15 February, Clive Nwonka asked the question "The arts were supposed to champion diversity. What went wrong?"

Before the current protests and demonstrations, COVID-19 was already having a devastating effect on our communities, with 300-400 having died. In our own union, we also suffered and have sadly lost PCS members to COVID-19. Our deepest condolences go to their friends and families. We cannot underestimate the impact of this collective trauma on our communities, which comes on top of the everyday and institutional racism we live with.

Our communities face constant race discrimination at work and in the labour market. We are in frontline jobs, often working precariously and bearing the brunt of cuts. This lack of racial justice is an outcome of broader structural issues. These have become particularly apparent during the COVID-19 crisis, as seen by the disproportionate negative impacts on BAME communities and the worsening of already entrenched disparities. We have not forgotten the Windrush scandal, which has seen people deported and others made destitute, most have still not received compensation.

Many cultural institutions are 'hostile environments', where BAME staff experience racism, with thousands of racist incidents not addressed and have structures that work against properly tackling racism. This is of particular concern given just how much BAME staff is disadvantaged because of slow action on diversity and systemic racism in UK higher education. There is a lack of open and honest discussion and action in our workforces on diversity, equality and the pay gap. It is essential to also note that, for Black women and women of colour the situation is particularly dire concerning pay, promotion and training opportunities. As such, we think that significantly more ought to be done than solely statements of support for # BlackLivesMatter. Much greater effort is needed on racial equality through secure full-time employment, equal pay, access to support and resources, more equitable workloads and closing the BAME attainment gap.

We hope that this statement and the information therein can serve as a reminder about the importance of ensuring that racism and enduring racialised inequalities are dealt with. These matters impact on our wellbeing profoundly.

This recognition needs to be met with a set of real, active, meaningful and committed actions - not just beliefs.

This action list is a starting point for addressing decades of marginalisation and unfairness embedded in Cultural institution structures. We suggest that CEO boards across culture, heritage, media and sport workplaces can demonstrate their commitment to racial justice by considering, at least to start with, the following measures:

Eliminate the racial pay gap, openly publish this information and draw up a plan to eliminate it.

Establish protections against privatisation, casualisation, and exploitation, overwork and for mental health.

Put in place recruitment panels/hiring committees that have clear guidelines, accountability mechanisms and training in place to consider issues around race and equality. BAME members should be on such panels/committees.

Implement anti-discriminatory support measures for BAME staff and put in place a set of accountable, procedures for promotion, including an external review process.

Improve dedicated anti-racism training and make it mandatory for all levels of staff, entailing ongoing refreshers to stamp out racist harassment and bullying and call out injustice every single time.

Record racial breakdown of disciplinary investigations and outcomes. Investigate racial bias in grievance, performance reviews and appraisals, Publish the results and draw up plans to eliminate any discrimination.

Develop and implement strategic and meaningful initiatives with BAME community organisations in staff development and work placement schemes. Organisations that have a good record in addressing disparities in education, income, employment, environmental racism, incarceration rates and healthcare, among others should be enlisted and supported.

Introduce a well-funded mentorship programme for BAME staff and provide sufficient resources for these programmes, including paid mentors.

Please demonstrate your support and solidarity with our campaign if you work in a UK culture, heritage, media or sport institution by insisting your employers make a serious commitment to carry out and deliver on the 8 points of action.
We also welcome and encourage all anti-racist allies to join us in raising these issues by adding your name to our campaign statement form.
Together we can take the vital steps of inclusive, concrete, strategic and systematic actions to genuinely encourage our BAME staff to thrive in the UK. In solidarity, PCS Culture Group Black Members' Committee Endorsed by PCS Culture Group Executive Committee

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Culture group black members call for action to tackle inequality in the sector

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We are issuing the below as an unequivocal statement of support for Black Lives Matter on account of the recent police killing of George Floyd in the USA. We do this fraternally in the knowledge that racism is not only a spectre haunting our USA sisters, brothers and comrades but that it also affects us here in the UK.

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Shared by Zita Holbourne

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A membership to Artists' Union England gets you professional support and access to resources. That means you'll get:

Public and Products Liability (PPL) insurance

30 minutes FREE legal advice

Access to resources about artists' issues

FREE training and study opportunities

Coming soon: tax guidance

Your membership means help will be there when you need it and we'll constantly campaign for artist's rights.

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A membership to Artists' Union England gets you professional support and access to resources. That means you'll get: Public and Products Liability (PPL) insurance 30 minutes FREE legal advice Access to resources about artists' issues FREE training and study opportunities Coming soon: tax guidance Your membership means help will be there when you need it and we'll constantly campaign for artist's rights.

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Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC)

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Black Activists Rising Against Cuts (BARAC)

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Shared by Zita Holbourne

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Saturday, 14 November 2020
We welcome the Black People, Racism and Human Rights report published on the 11th November 2020 by Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights

The Committee polled Black people in the UK to assess their views on the issues highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement. The report focuses on four areas; health, criminal justice, nationality and immigration and democracy.

The report makes several damning findings and critical recommendations, all of which we consider to be important in seeking to restore trust and confidence of the Black communities in the rule of law. Access to equality and equal rights is a fundamental for all citizens.The fact that a large proportion of our society continue to live with racism and discrimination and be treated as unequal citizens is no longer a tolerable situation.

The report points to fundamental breaches of the social contract between citizen and State which is essential for any multicultural functioning democracy. Severe violations of Black people's human rights cited in this report provide a vivid illustration of the extent to which Black British people's human rights are disregarded and abused. These human rights abuses take place despite Government being aware of these serious issues as evidenced by

legal commentary, academic reports and government inquiries, all of which demonstrate increasing rates of racial inequality, injustice and oppression.

Whilst the report is welcome, we do not feel it goes far enough in its recommendations.

For example, the Committee fails to recommend to government that it should sign up to the general prohibition of discrimination outlined in Protocol 12, Article 1 the European Convention of Human Rights. (ECHR). Doing so would provide a strong indication of the Government's commitment to tackling the systemic and institutionalised racial discrimination. Signing this important protocol would also n strengthen domestic race equality and human rights legislation thereby improving trust and confidence of Black communities.

The report also fails to reference this Government's failure to acknowledge or institute a programme celebrating and contributing towards the UN's International Decade for People of African descent , (2014 -2024)

Fundamental to a sense of shared citizenship is a confidence in the equal application of the rule of law. This report highlights the reality that the majority of Black people do not believe that they are equally valued as citizens of the United Kingdom, nor do they think that they are treated equally before the law. This is informed by strong evidence from legal practice and academic research and validates the belief that Britain remains a deeply racist society where the colour of one's skin is more important than commitment to one's country.

The generally accepted principle and basis of the social contract between Government and the British Black community has been breached by a failure of the Government to acknowledge and take action to address systemic institutional racism. The consequences of these failures are profound and erode the very basis of the idea that Britain is a modern, multicultural, meritocratic and inclusive democracy.

There is a fragile balance between democracy, protection and obedience to the State. Failure to tackle racism presents an existential threat to our civil condition. The State can no longer credibly demand Black communities' obedience to the law whilst only offering partial protection against the degrading effects of institutionalised racism, injustice and racial disadvantage.

As a result, the State not only loses its authority, representative democracy ceases to have credibility in the eyes of those who are denied access to justice and equality.

The report's finding that over 75% of black people in the UK do not believe that human rights are equally protected is a chilling statistic that bears witness to the reality that black people in the United Kingdom are third-class citizens living within a supposedly "first-class democracy".

We concur with the Committee's analysis on this issue and subsequent recommendation "This is a damning indictment of our society and must be addressed as a matter of the highest political priority. To this end, the Equality and Human Rights Commission must undertake to run an annual opinion survey..."

We welcome the Committee's undertaking to ensure that they hear from a diverse range of witnesses in their deliberations. Black Asian and Minority ethnic Lawyers will assist the Committee by helping to facilitate input and evidence from a broad delegation from British Black communities.

We further agree that the Equality and Human Rights Commission has failed to provide adequate leadership or be effective or gain the trust of British Black communities in both tackling racial inequality and protecting black people's human rights. The recent appointment of Prof David Goodheart as an EHRC Commissioner a man whose on record of denying the existence and reality of institutional racism is a serious and deliberate provocation by Government and will simply further damage Black public confidence in the institution.

The Committee's recommendation that a new Commission of Racial Equality (CRE) and the creation of local Race Equality councils should be established enjoys our support. All available evidence demonstrates that the racial inequality gap has widened since the demise of the CRE. The morphing of the CRE into the EHRC has failed.

We also urge the Committee to recommend that Parliamentary select committees conduct race equality impact assessments in all aspects of their work, and in particular, where known racial and ethnic disparities and injustices exist.

The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities mentioned in the report and chaired by Dr Tony Sewell (someone else who is also on public record as having challenged the very idea of institutionalised racism) and set up by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in response to the Black Lives Matter protests, lacks credibility. We anticipate its findings will not, given the views of its chairman, enjoy the confidence of Britain's black communities and are unlikely to make any strategically relevant or meaningful findings.

We support the idea of the need for a comprehensive cross Government race equality strategy to improve the collection of data on racial equality but any cross-Government initiatives, must include representation from affected communities of different perspectives.

One of the most significant areas of fundamental human rights breaches occurs in health. The Committee's notes that "78% of black women and 47% of black men do not believe that their health is equally protected by the NHS when compared to white people".

Death in childbirth provides a profound and tragic indicator of the realities of cumulative effects of systemic and institutionalised racism on black communities.

The Committee finds that seven in 100,000 white women, 13 in 100,000 Asian women, 23 in 100,000 mixed ethnicity women and 38 in 100,000 black women die in childbirth. The fact that there remains no significant government action regarding this issue is an appalling indictment. What it tells British black communities is that the Government views black women's lives as of no significant value.Had white women died in similar numbers, this would be a national scandal.

The Committee's recommendation that the NHS must set a target to end the maternal mortality gap is of critical importance and work must begin on this immediately.

We believe that the number of unnecessary deaths of black infants' is an issue that was deserving of recognition in this report. Black Caribbean and Black African infant mortality are recorded as 6.6 and 6.3 deaths per 1000 live births. These are the second and third highest ethnic minority into mortality rates behind that of Pakistani babies that die at a rate of 6.7 per hundred live the births. In contrast, white British babies have an infant mortality rate of 3.3 deaths per 1000 live births.

There can be no greater condemnation of any society that the ethnicity of its children should determine their life expectancy at the point of birth.

The Committee quotes Public Health England statistics which show the disproportionate and severe impact of Covid19 on Black communities stating that "after accounting for the effect of sex, age, deprivation and region, black people of Caribbean and other black ethnicities had between 10 and 50% higher risk of death when compared to white British people."

That Government and the National Health Service appear to have no substantive response to the increased vulnerability of Black communities to Covid-19 is further evidence of the extent of neglect.

That the Government has recently announced that any new vaccine will be applied to a list of priority groups that does not include vulnerable BAME communities must be revisited immediately based on the evidence.

The continued criminalisation of the British Black community through the process of racial profiling in policing and immigration and the effects of systemic, institutionalised racism has dramatically increased in the last 20 years. The Committee's report states of all the " issues covered in this polling this... [was the one area] where there was greatest consensus...'.

85% of Black people not being confident that they would be treated the same as a white person by the police."

This was particularly true for young Black people between 10 and 17 years old who only make up 4 per cent of the population but make up 33% of children remanded in youth custody. The Committee states "the number of children in youth custody from a Black background has increased 6% in the last year, and now accounts for 28% of the youth custody population".

The Lammy Review commissioned by David Cameron's Government in 2016 to look into racism within the criminal justice system identified profound ethnic disparities in criminal justice administration, processing and sentencing. The review made 35 key recommendations of which only six, according to the report's author David Lammy MP, have been implemented.

There is a profound crisis of confidence between British Black communities and police services in England and Wales. Public confidence surveys conducted by regional Police services including the Metropolitan Police Service have shown a catastrophic drop in the level of public confidence in policing. It is this area that we believe will act as a catalyst for wider civil disturbance if radical action is not taken to begin to address growing tensions between Black communities and the police.

Key to this, in addition to implementing the Lammy Review's recommendations, is addressing critical issues such as stop and search and the disproportionate number of black deaths in police, prison and immigration service custody. We agree with the Committee's recommendations to governments to establish an Article "right to life" Commissioner and Human Rights compliance unit to ensure investigative support to the victims' families and also ensure that critical recommendations for action are implemented to prevent future unnecessary deaths.

The recommendations from the Lammy Review and the Angiolini Review must be acted upon with urgency. We welcome the recent ruling by the Supreme Court that has determined that Inquest juries' inquiries into sudden deaths, in seeking to determine where

responsibility lies, should not now rely on the legal principle of 'beyond reasonable doubt but should instead rely on 'the balance of probabilities."

We believe a culture of racism is implicit in British immigration policy and practice. The Windrush scandal provides a powerful spotlight on the serial injustice faced by many Black British citizens in seeking to access their citizenship rights. But people were unlawfully detained and deported because of the Government's "hostile environment" in direct breach of their right to liberty contained in article 5 of the ECHR.

There can be no more egregious example of the extent to which Black people are subject to racial injustice. Wendy Williams, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary Windrush Lessons Learned Review into the scandal published in March 2020, found that "failings demonstrate an institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness towards the issue of race and the history of the Windrush generation within the Department, which are consistent with some elements of the definition of institutionalised racism." We believe that the failings identified are entirely consistent with the definition of institutionalised racism and can be categorised as such beyond all reasonable doubt.Williams found that the effects of the Windrush scandal was to inflict serious harm on its victims.

We agree with Windrush victims who wrote to the Guardian on 14 October stating that the Home Office's improvement plan published on 30 September 2020 is "long on regrets but short on specifics of how and when appropriate changes will be made."

The Government's compensation scheme is failing the victims and is in total disarray, adding serious insult to grievous injury. Government's decision to set the threshold of evidential requirements for eligibility for compensation as "beyond a reasonable doubt" is an insurmountable obstacle for the majority of Windrush victims in claiming compensation. This wilful and malicious action by British Government provides powerful insight into the extent to which British Black communities are now treated with utter contempt by our Government.

We believe the Government should be subject to a motion of censure in both the Houses of Parliament and the House of Lords condemning its failure to deliver on its promises to ensure that justice was delivered to all Windrush victims.

To restore trust and confidence within Black communities that this process is authentic and meaningful, we believe that the Government should provide a sum of £200 million to be given to an independent body. That body could then adjudicate and administer the process of compensation and reparation to Windrush victims and end the ongoing scandal that has seen victims sadly die whilst waiting for justice.

We are also concerned that polices and legislation governing deportation, family reunion, asylum and the fees structure for applying for immigration status documentation, need to be reviewed as a matter of urgency as these disproportionately affect and impact on the lives of the UK's Black and ethnic minority population in an adverse way.

Without immediate and substantive action to address the growth in racial inequality as a consequence of systemic, institutionalised racism and in the absence of Government, action to fundamentally address human rights abuses experienced by Black British people, we believe there could be increased racial divisiveness, a breakdown in respect for and adherence for the law and government institutions.

The consequences of allowing Black British communities to continue to suffer such egregious abuses of our human rights will be civil disorder in our major inner cities and a breakdown in law and order. It is incumbent upon Government to recognise the realities of systemic institutionalised racism as it manifests itself in the fundamental abuses of the human rights of British Black communities, and to take urgent action now to avoid, what would be a national catastrophe.

We will be contacting the Joint Committee to facilitate a delegation presentation from a broad range of national Black organisation and expert individuals that can assist in contributing to this important debate in an effort to support the work of the Committee and further highlight these issues.

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Black Activists Rising Against Cuts. (BARAC) UK

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National Chair / Co-founder; Zita Holbourne Established 2010, grassroots campaigning org against racism, injustice, adverse impact of austerity on black communities, for migrant / refugee rights. UK based but our focus is both o UK and globally.

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Video from the 'Show Culture Some Love' conference (UK)

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Video from the 'Show Culture Some Love' conference (UK)

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By Clara Paillard
Shared by Zita Holbourne

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Drawing by Vahida Ramujkic, result of the project 'KAMEN-DINAMIKE' (stone-dynamics) by Nebosja Milikic and Tadej Kurepa (in the frame of the project ACTOPOLIS)
Shared by Nebosja Milikic

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Drawing by Vahida Ramujkic, result of the project 'KAMEN-DINAMIKE' (stone-dynamics) by Nebosja Milikic and Tadej Kurepa (in the frame of the project ACTOPOLIS)
Shared by Nebosja Milikic

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Including disabled people as audience and artists

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Including disabled people as audience and artists

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Presentation by Kris de Visscher