Great post by Durham Miners' Gala on Reform

Great post by Durham Miners' Gala on Reform 

Excellent. 

Come to the Gala on 12 July.  

https://www.durhamminers.org/statement_durham_miners_gala_and_reform_uk

Read latest Landworker magazine online

 https://content.yudu.com/web/eduy/0A44swj/LandworkerWint24/html/index.html 

North Sands Massacre logo and t-shirt to come

 

Halifax silence highlights the dying screams of the Gaza people

 

Organised by Halifax Friends of Palestine, 45 persons of all ages, backgrounds and religions (and none) today walked silently round Halifax Town Centre. The purpose was to highlight the ongoing plight of the people of Gaza, who, in addition to being regularly shot at, are being starved to death by the genocidal state of Israel whose backers include the British and US governments of Sir Kier Starmer and Donald Bush.

Assembling at the site of the former Wilkinsons the procession, which had safety stewards, made its way to the beat of a single drum on the road and path to the Bus Station. 

On arrival all participants stood for a number of minutes silently, which was respected by every passerby except those showing support by saying “well done” or, best of all “Free, Free Palestine.”

The marchers then moved to the Duke of  Wellington Regiment Statue and undertook a similar activity. 

Then, and to the consternation of the security staff at Woolshops shopping centre, which contains a range of high street shops that have interests that are connected to the Israeli occupation of Gaza, the protestors walked down the main street before entering, with the support of the security staff there The Piece Hall, Halifax’s best-known building and resource. 

A further 5 minutes of silence was held on the premises. Photographs were taken.

Exiting the gates next to the Central Library entrance there was halt on the steps next to the Calderdale Industrial Museum. The silence was temporarily broken in order to highlight the Calderdale Trades Union Council plaque that commemorates the fatalities in August 1842 that has its modern-day parallels in Gaza. 

Details of the Bread Not Bayonets Film were broadcast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0UxMadnIEA The speaker was thanked for his efforts.

The walk then proceeded to the layby close to King Street where passersby in their cars could clearly see the Stop Starving Gaza banner. 

The final parts of the journey included passing by the Royal Mail sorting office and then over the road to stop outside MacDonald’s, which has had its businesses impacted on after it donated food to the Israeli Defense Forces. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68740617 A number of younger customers were curious about why a halt had been made at the franchise.

It was then a matter of a 100-yard return walk to the starting point. The event followed the weekly one hour assembly at the top of Halifax Town Centre and to which 18 people attended this week.

Well done to all concerned especially the organisers. 

30 years on - The Bradford riots

A film I have co-produced on the life of Mohammad Taj is due out shortly. In 2001 he was brave enough to interrupt a riot in Manningham to rescue a bus with passengers stuck in the middle of it. The riot followed an earlier one in Bradford that kicked off on 9 June 1995 and which he later analysed and proposed solutions to that were ignored by the Government. 

TAKEN FROM MOHAMMAD TAJ: STEERING FROM THE FRONT

Published 2018 by UNITE the union, free to download at:- https://markwrite.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/6328dpmt2018-taj-booklet-web.pdf

 

Standing up for what he believed in: the 1995 Bradford riots

Bradford hit the national news when over the weekend of Friday 9 June to Sunday 11 June 1995 public disorder occurred in the Manningham District, where many Asian people live, before spreading to Bradford City Centre.

Central to the disorders were young Asian men, a generation scarred by racism, restricted job opportunities and police harassment.

The trouble started at around 9.25pm on 9 June after two police officers, angered at being abused, arrested two young Asian men. In the ensuing chaos, requests from several residents about why the youths were being arrested were ignored and were met with the arrival of several more police vehicles and officers at the scene.

Events spiralled out of control when more arrests were made and a police dog handler roughly instructed a respected elderly resident to go indoors and threatened the man with his dog in an area where the predominant culture regarded such an animal as unclean. Many in the local community viewed the police actions as examples of racism, intolerance and ignorance.

Consequently when further arrests were made of local people, the vast majority of whom had previously never been in trouble with the police and were mounting peaceful protests demanding the release of those arrested earlier, the situation descended into rioting as bottles were thrown at police officers.

On Saturday 10 June 1995 there was at one point around a thousand mainly young Asian men battling with around 600 police officers in riot gear.

 A debate on the disorder was secured in Parliament by Max Madden, the MP for Bradford West, on 21 June 1995, at the conclusion of which Nicholas Baker, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home 33 Office Department, rejected calls for a wide-ranging public inquiry, saying: “The Government are satisfied that the Inquiry by the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) will investigate all the circumstances surrounding the complaints against the police over that weekend.”

Seventeen months after the Bradford riots in 1995, Mohammad Taj criticised police for learning nothing.

When the Inquiry was completed in April 1996 the PCA concluded that: “Allegations of police misconduct and assault in particular were of major concern to the public. The investigation had, however, found the allegations (with one exception) to have been entirely without foundation.” The Crown Prosecution Service decided that no criminal charges should be brought against any police officer.

The decision by the Government to reject a wide-ranging public inquiry led to the Bradford Congress, a voluntary association of representative Bradford institutions including the City Council, agreeing to appoint its own Commission of Inquiry.

The terms of reference were: “to conduct hearings to consider the wider implications for Bradford of recent events in a part of the inner city of Bradford, in order to help to create a better future for all people of the district and to promote peace, harmony and understanding between the communities of Bradford.”

Hearings began in October 1995. Bradford Congress appointed sociology professor Sheila Allen, consultant John Barratt, a solicitor with experience in investigations into local authorities and who became chairman of the inquiry and Mohammad Taj as its Commission members.

Following the bruising battle over the sale of Yorkshire Rider, Taj was given time away from work by his management. “I think they were glad to not see me at work for a while. When I was approached to be involved I made clear I would only do so if the final report would include recommendations that I felt would be bound to include requests for public funds. I felt I was given this guarantee.”

The Commission read an immense number of books, research papers and official documents. 76 members of the public were interviewed and 189 attended lengthy small group meetings to put forward their individual views. 119 officials and public representatives assisted the Commission, which recorded that 45 per cent of young men in the local Asian communities of Manningham were unemployed.

When the Commission issued its report on 20 November 1996 it was very critical of the actions of the police on 9-11 June 1995.

According to Taj when he spoke to police officers during the Inquiry he was “shocked to find out that their anti-racist training was literally done in a day and involved a visit to a Muslim ‘Temple’ not Mosque! The officers had no understanding of the people they were policing.” The Commission commented on long-term problems between the police and local Kashmiri youths who were regularly forced to endure “inappropriate, unfair, or racist treatment by individual officers.”

The Commission ended its report quoting US President Johnson’s 1968 statement on civil disorders in his country: “the only genuine, long-range solution for what has happened lies in an attack upon the conditions that breed despair and violence. All of us know what those conditions are: ignorance, discrimination, slums, poverty, disease, not enough jobs.” However, the Commission’s Report did not outline any practical tasks – or attacks in Johnson’s words.

On 25 November 1996, Max Madden tabled a motion in Parliament which noted the ‘lack of specific recommendations for action, especially by Central Government to help people living in the Manningham and Girlington areas of Bradford overcome acute poverty and deprivation...(such as) increasing Local Government funding to enable Bradford City Council to maintain key services.....to increase numbers of police officers on duty, to expand the recruitment of ethnic minority police officers and training programmes to combat endemic racism within the police service.”

Taj refused to sign off the report because it was vague and made no positive recommendations. Instead he issued his own 25-page report: A CAN DO CITY. Bob Purkiss, the first TGWU National Equalities Officer for race equality, praised this as “excellent…. much of the report is also relevant to many other parts of our society.”

Taj was widely reported in local and national newspapers. He felt that too much of “the City’s institutions can’t do culture” had damaged the report such that “When challenged to admit that there are racists within their ranks the Police Service ‘can’t do’ that for fear of undermining public confidence” and “When challenged to deal with the extensive discrimination existing in the field of employment the private sector ‘can’t do’ anything because of the exigencies and pressures of commercial life.

“When challenged to condemn the repressive and extremist forces at work within their own communities Asians ‘can’t do’ that because they would be seen as comforting bigots. The ‘can’t do’ culture is at is most pervasive and extreme within the Local Authority. Over twenty years of reducing real budgets, an unsympathetic central government and media ready to pounce on any misjudgment by a Council have habituated the authority to inaction. It has a culture that is far more ready and practiced at explaining why it can’t do anything rather than devising a way of getting something done.”

On police racism as an exacerbating factor to the riots, Taj stated: “I want them to openly acknowledge that there are racists in their ranks and kick them out in short order”.

He felt that: “For the Asian communities, and here I mean the largely Muslim communities, I have challenged them to start addressing their own failings.” The Daily Jang, an Urdu newspaper based in Karachi, Pakistan reported that significant amongst these criticisms by Taj of his own community was an attitude that integration would mean a loss of religion and culture and the subordinate role allocated to Muslim women.

Additionally, Taj said: “There are real failings and I have not been afraid to speak out about them. Koranic education can be a powerful force for the good. However, this will not occur if Arabic rote teaching is not accompanied by guidance in an accessible language.”

Because so many children from the Asian community were entering school with inadequate language skills, for which Taj contended most did not recover, he argued “there is an urgent need for a truly vast increase in new buildings – the construction of which would boost jobs and the local economy – for nursery education if the school system is to stop turning out ill-educated, disenchanted and disruptive young ‘Asians’. This is a massive task to undertake but huge problems are not resolved by meagre solutions.”

Taj’s other suggestions were for a councillor-led Manningham Development Executive, and a clamp-down on drugs trafficking, particularly in the Manningham area.

Taj felt: “The Local Authority must also look to central Government for co-operation. It is entirely reasonable to request additional assistance from this source when pursuing innovative, radical and cost-effective solutions to deepening difficulties.”

Speaking in 2017, Taj explains. “As we got nearer to completion there was pressure from the major institutions not to make financial demands on national Government or even on Local Government, as in the latter case it would mean diverting resources from the outer areas of Bradford towards the inner city. Neither was politically acceptable and I argued that the Girlington Report, where most residents are of South Asian origin, from 6-7 years previously had already identified the issues in inner cities.”

According to Jowett: “Taj was under tremendous pressure by the Bradford political establishment to sign the official report. I know they approached him just before the report was due to be officially signed by its three commission members with a job offer to him to become the co ordinator of a new community relations body they hoped to establish in Manningham.

 Taj had been critical of many 1970s black radicals, including those in the AYM, from inner-city areas who were co-opted by local authorities and then became of no use to the communities they came from. He did not want to tread the same path.  “Taj, who I know always liked being a bus driver, stood by what he believed and I think that may have later counted against him when he sought selection as the Labour candidate in Bradford West shortly afterwards. Generally, Taj believes in having arguments internally within any organisation and if he loses he will go out and support the policy or person. But there comes a time on certain issues when the gap is too big and you have to stand your ground no matter the consequences. This was one such occasion.”

 “I disagreed with him over his decision not to put his name to the report as I felt he was setting himself up to fail but if Taj feels strongly enough about something he will stand his ground,” states Gerry Sutcliffe.

The authorities unwillingness to take up Taj’s demands meant that in 2001 there was a much more violent riot in Manningham. Right in the middle of the mayhem a bus got stuck with passengers and its driver on it. “Taj actually went to the bus and assisted with it leaving the scene without harm. It was a very brave thing to do,” says Jowett.

WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOUR ON 12 JUNE EVENT IN WAINSTALLS, HALIFAX

 

THURSDAY 12th JUNE

WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOUR

4.30pm at Luddenden Dean Wesleyan Methodist Chapelyard

Heys Lane, HX2 7TR England

Wreath laying for 7 worked to death orphans buried in the cemetery

Speakers to include 17-year-old Charlie Metcalf and Dan Whittall (NEU).

There are 160 million children working worldwide of which 112 million are working on small farms on plantations, often in hazardous conditions. Few of the youngsters have access to trade union protection and in recent years, progress on eliminating child labour has slowed and at the heart of which is the poverty wages being earned by parent’s such that they cannot afford to cover the basic needs of their children, including food and education.

However, in every continent, and in businesses of every size, trafficked children working in cocoa plantations have gone to court to hold big companies to account – Cargill, Mondelez, Barry Callebaut, Mars plus Nestle, whose cocoa supply chain leads from West Africa to their headquarters at the other end of Lake Geneva.

The youngest a child can work part time in the UK is aged 13. That has not always been the case (1) and buried in a mass grave at Luddenden Dean Wesleyan Methodist Chapelyard are seven female children and young women from a Liverpool workhouse who worked for Calverts, a local mill, in the nineteenth century. They were amongst 250 young girls forced to move across the Pennines in the late 19th century to settle outside Halifax in Luddenden Valley, which is beautiful on its relatively few sunny days but bleak in the autumn and winter when the winds get up and snow falls. (2)

Thanks to the efforts of trade unions and child welfare campaigners we have labour laws that now, on paper, protect children. Nevertheless in 2023-24, 2 young children were killed whilst engaging in work activities on farms whilst Cameron Minshull, aged 16, was killed in 2015 in a horrific lathe accident on a Government-funded apprenticeship where he was being paid £3 an hour. His factory boss was jailed.

It is vital to keep up the pressure to protect children and to this end CTUC is organising a wreath lay ceremony at the Chapelyard at 4.30pm on Thursday June 12th, which is the WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOUR. This is organised by the International Labour Organisation with the backing of UNICEF. 

Everyone is welcome to attend this important event. Bring flowers to lay at the graveside.

1.       Watch ‘Not So Happy Valley’ by Mark Metcalf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdcrdIlxs60&t=107s

For more details contact Nigel on 07709 684473 or Mark on 07392 852561

https://calderdaletuc.org.uk

Calderdale TU Council, c/o Calderdale NEU, Elsie Whitley Innovation Centre, Halifax HX1 5ER 

The event was ruined by an abusive Kim Pearson, who identified herself (possibly falsely) as the owner of the cemetery, who contended that Calverts, a god fearing group who dressed the orphans up on Sundays, had been good people. Pearson, who appears to have no record - and if she has she never mentioned it - of ever showing any concern for children forced into labour during her lifetime, insisted on speaking and was, out of respect, given a considerable amount of time to do so. She was insistent that the wreath/flowers should not be left on the grave. They were placed on it on Sunday 15th June. This won't be last time that trade union events take place at the grave. 

REMEMBERING ELLEN STRANGE - SATURDAY 5 JULY 2025 AT HOLCOMBE