AS WE approach another annual St Andrew’s march and rally, we must acknowledge that this is a crucial year for the fight against racism.
The Sheku Bayoh Family Justice Campaign needs our continuing support as their inquiry continues, racist British government immigration policy and rhetoric are only getting worse and we face a cost-of-living crisis with attacks on pay that disproportionately impact black workers.
The Bayoh family’s bravery and tenacity to keep fighting for justice for Sheku must be commended. Sheku died in police custody on the May 3 2015. It’s the family’s courage and perseverance that has led to the public inquiry and is ensuring that Sheku is not forgotten. and that power is held to account.
These years have been tough for the family, but they have continued fighting hard, alongside their lawyer Aamer Anwar, for truth and justice. Our movement stands alongside them now and always, applauding their courage and strength.
We know that Sheku’s death was wholly preventable. We know that the police and others have tried to smear his name in the press and have invoked racist stereotypes to attempt to cover their backs.
Regardless of what others might be saying, we know that no-one deserves to die at the hands of the police. The police should exist to protect us from harm, not to cause harm.
There are deep, troubling questions that remain unanswered regarding the death of Sheku. We cannot be silent whilst the public inquiry, rightly, assesses whether race played a part in his utterly avoidable death. A black man from Sierra Leone has just as much right to police protection, not persecution, as a white man from Fife.
There should be no place in Scotland for institutional racism. It is up to us, as trade unionists, to call out and tackle racism head-on when we see it. Whether that be in our workplace, or in our communities: an injury to one is an injury to all.
The fight against racism is a core trade union business. It was core business when we campaigned for justice for Surjeet Singh Chokkar and when we campaigned for justice for Stephen Lawrence — and it is core business now as we fight for justice for the Bayoh family.
We often hear the rhetoric that Scotland is an opening, welcoming, diverse and inclusive nation — but the reality is much darker. It has been reported in research by the University of Edinburgh that a third of black and Asian people in Scotland consistently experience racial discrimination and that a slightly higher number consider racial discrimination to be a widespread issue.
The same research tells us that up to 60 per cent of people who say they experience racism do not report it to any kind of authority, suggesting significant degrees of both low-level and more obvious experiences of racial discrimination are going under-reported and under-detected.
The research also states that racially motivated hate crime remains the most common hate crime in Scotland; that black and ethnic minorities are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty and that there is both a substantial “employment gap” — and for those in work, a pay gap, where white Scottish workers earn 10 per cent more on average.
This is greater than the gender pay gap and is key to understanding the experience of in-work poverty amongst non-white Scottish groups. It also means a double whammy for black and ethnic minority women.
We can only tackle racism at work, racism in sport and culture and racism on the streets if we are also campaigning against institutional racism — wherever it rears its head. In addition, we must also make clear our support for refugees.
The Westminster government has ramped up its divide-and-rule tactics by passing the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, which creates a two-tier refugee system.
The Act also gives the government the power to create offshore asylum-processing centres, criminalise people when they arrive in Britain by boat, take citizenship from people without notice and restrict family reunification. This is an astonishing attack on refugees and should be resisted by us all.
Racism is something that we cannot shy away from in Scotland. To tackle it, we must face it head-on rather than try to brush it under the carpet.
Today, we will be mobilising to march against racism. Our annual St Andrew’s Day march and rally was created in opposition to the far right. The far right wanted to claim St Andrew’s Day, but the trade union movement stood together and said no.
Every year we reiterate that call; marching together in utter defiance. Racists will always try to divide working-class people and that division makes us weaker. As we have seen throughout the summer, however, the working class is united.
We are strong, we are united and we’re an unstoppable force against those who seek to divide us.
Roz Foyer is general secretary of the Scottish TUC. Twitter: @RozFoyer.