Unity t file - Unite Against...

Plus books and

Europe fact fileUnityAnti-racist and anti-fascist magazine

Summer 2015 Issue 12 uaf.org.uk

‘Nobody is normal’

Inside this issueRabbi Howell: forgotten Romani footballer who won the league twice and played for England

Emmett Till: the 14 year old whose death shocked the world Multicultural Britain: Race Relations Act anniversary

Comedian Francesca Martinez on disability

and equality

Unity summer 2015 3

I hope you enjoy reading this latest issue of Unity magazine, sponsored by the National Union of Teachers.

Back in March I was very pleased to join thousands of people on the streets of London at the Stand up to Racism and Fascism demonstration. The turnout was a tremendous show of strength to those who seek to whip up divisions and scapegoat minorities in our communities.

This year’s well deserved winner of the NUT’s Blair Peach Award is Juno Roche.

Juno has shone a light on the discrimination facing many transgender teachers. You can read more about Juno’s achievements on page 21.

Whatever your thoughts on the outcome of the general election, there are certain things that should cheer us all. Firstly, despite changes to the registration system, in the final few weeks before the election over two million people applied to register to vote. In particular—thanks in large part to the work of Bite the Ballot and Hope

not Hate that the NUT was pleased to support—14% more of our young people registered to vote than at the 2010 election.

Secondly, there was another resounding defeat at the ballot box for the racist policies of the British National Party (see page 6).

Their highest share of the vote was a mere 0.9%. The BNP now only has one district councillor across the whole of the country.

For the latest news from the NUT please follow us on twitter @NUTOnline. Best wishes,Christine BlowerGeneral secretaryNational Union of Teachers

Tremendous show of strength and unity against racism and fascism

ContentsNews round-up ..........................................................................................4

Europe fact file: Slovakia ............................................................................7

Emmett Till, the ‘little nobody who shook the world’ ................................8

Fifty years since the first Race Relations Act ............................................10

Cover story: Francesca Martinez interview ...............................................12

Football: England player and league champion Rabbi Howell .................16

Books: a quartet that brings home the Holocaust ....................................18

Blair Peach Award winner Juno Roche .....................................................21

Obituary: lifelong anti-fascist fighter Morris Beckman ............................23

Unity summer 2015Production teamWeyman Bennett Tash Shifrin Mary Phillips

Unite Against Fascism0208 971 [email protected]/UAFpagetwitter.com/uafUnite Against FascismPO Box 72710, London, SW19 9GX

Love Music Hate [email protected] Love Music Hate RacismPO Box 66759, London WC1A 9EQ

© Unite Against Fascism Printed by TU Ink

Plus books and

Europe fact fileUnityAnti-racist and anti-fascist magazine

Summer 2015 Issue 12 uaf.org.uk

‘Nobody is normal’

Inside this issueRabbi Howell: forgotten Romani footballer who won the league twice and played for England

Emmett Till: the 14 year old whose death shocked the world Multicultural Britain: Race Relations Act anniversary

Comedian Francesca Martinez on disability

and equality

Unity magazine is distributed free to members of the National Union of Teachers for use with young people in schools. To get free copies for your school, NUT association or division, please email [email protected]. The magazine is also sent free to members of Unite Against Fascism. Other individuals, union branches or organisations who would like to receive copies should email the UAF office on [email protected] For advertising or editorial enquiries, please email [email protected] or write to: Unity magazine, c/o UAF, PO Box 72710, London, SW19 9GX

The NUT is proud of the work it does alongside Unite Against Fascism to campaign against racists and fascists.

Thanks to the contributions of thousands of teachers to the union’s political fund, the NUT is able to sponsor Unity magazine and to support campaigns against racist and fascist election candidates.

The fight for justice will continue until we have equality for all teachers and students.

Standing up to injustice

www.teachers.org.uk/edufacts

@NUTOnline

nut.campaigns

54 Unity summer 2015Unity summer 2015

News round-up Diary datesSaturday 27 JuneCentral London: LGBT PrideSee prideinlondon.org for more information—and look out for Pride events across the country over the summer months

Saturday 4 JulyGolders Green, north LondonDefend the Jewish community: counter-protest against neo-Nazi group See uaf.org.uk for details

Saturday 4 JulySheffield: demonstrate against the English Defence LeagueFor further details see uaf.org.uk

Saturday 1 AugustLiverpool: LGBT PrideSee liverpoolpride.co.uk for details

Saturday 15 AugustLiverpool: stop the racist “White Man March”See uaf.org.uk for details

Sunday 8 to Thursday 12 NovemberHolocaust education trip to Warsaw and TreblinkaSee uaf.org.uk

Friday 13 – Sunday 15 NovemberBlack Teachers’ Conference 2015 at Stoke Rochford HallFor more information see teachers.org.uk/black-teachers-conference

Friday 13 – Tuesday 17 NovemberHolocaust educational trip to Auschwitz and KrakowSee uaf.org.uk for information and itinerary

Saturday 28 November Disabled Teachers’ Conference at NUT headquarters, LondonFor details, see teachers.org.uk/disabledteachers

By Claire Chandler, Walthamstow UAF

AROUND 1,000 local people turned out against the English Defence League in Waltham Forest, east London, in May.

We stopped them reaching their target of Walthamstow town hall and peacefully prevented their rally.

The EDL first tried to march in Walthamstow in September 2012 when they were met by around 4,000 local

people who stopped them marching. They were unable to enter the borough when they tried again a few months later.

This time around, the atmosphere among anti-racists was vibrant and celebratory, bringing our community together. The crowd was diverse and speakers included representatives from the Council of Mosques, Christian clergy, local trade unionists and an MEP.

Irfan Akhtar, from the Waltham Forest Muslim Association, pointed out that we should, paradoxically, thank the EDL for bringing the community together. He brought on stage some children who gave us their own chant: “EDL, go to hell, you were not brought up well!“

A heavy police presence escorted the EDL along Forest Road but they did not reach the town hall. They received a robust greeting from local residents who lined the streets, reinforcing the fact that the EDL are not welcome in Walthamstow.

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By Zak Cochrane, Unite Against Fascism national office

MORE THAN 6,000 people came to party at the Newcastle Unity Festival in the city’s Leazes Park on Saturday 24 May. It was an amazing display of community unity.

Highlights of the festival included multi-award winning headliner Ms Dynamite, hip-hop artist Akala, and reggae stars Natty and Panjabi MC. The event also embraced much local talent including the Newcastle Allstars steel band and dance performances from Inspired Support, an organisation that provides opportunities for people with autism. There were also sets from several top DJs from the North East.

The music and dance performances were accompanied by stalls selling food and crafts from around the world.

The festival was organised by anti-racist campaigners from the city to celebrate the cultural, social and ethnic diversity of the North East. Newcastle Unity Festival follows the tradition of the Love Music Hate Racism events that were used to drive back support for the British National Party in the first decade of the 2000s.

Although the BNP is now a spent force, in February Newcastle was the scene of a demonstration held

by another far-right group called Pegida UK, a rebrand of various fascist splinter groups intent on whipping up Islamophobia in the city.

The local community responded spectacularly by organising a 3,000-strong counter-mobilisation to oppose Pegida UK. The fascists were only able to muster a few hundred supporters. The network of activists who arranged the counter-demonstration moved on to set up the Unity Festival.

The festival was a proactive way of strengthening community ties and promoting unity in the face of those who sought to cause divisions and besmirch the North East.

The event was funded solely by donations and sponsorship from members of the public and from the trade unions.

National Union of Teachers president Philipa Harvey, who spoke at the festival, said it was important to celebrate diversity, and her union was committed to doing so in schools.

UAF joint secretary Weyman Bennett told the crowd, “We want to live together in harmony and that’s why we’re here today to celebrate our unity. The world belongs to the young, the future belongs to you and let’s make sure we keep it. Love music, hate racism.”

By Paul Sillett, Unite Against Fascism national campaigner

UNITY MAGAZINE went down a storm at the National Union of Teachers’ annual conference in April. More than 1,000 copies were distributed to delegates and a number of NUT associations put in extra orders for the magazine.

Jenny, a delegate from Bournemouth, said, “Recently we had the English Defence League marching locally. I saw someone on our counter-demonstration with the magazine, which he told me was supported and funded by my own union.

“Unity magazine provides teachers and students with the sort of materials that need to be in schools to help ensure racist and fascist lies are challenged. I think the George the Poet interview will be of interest to my students.”

John, a teacher from Newcastle, said, “Some of what I teach takes up questions such as ‘Why does racism

exist?’ and ‘Why did Hitler come to power?’ The current issue of the magazine and its back copies will be a very useful teaching tool.”

PopularitySue from Leicester ensured that copies of the last three Unity magazines were distributed among the students taking general studies at her school. She said, “The issue which really got students excited was the one with Kasabian on the front page. The band hails from Leicester and is very popular locally. The popularity of the magazine is growing. Students actually came up to me to request the last issue.”

Bob, a teacher from Loughton, Essex, rang the office to say: “It’s hard at times getting some of my students to read materials. This is where your magazine comes in. The feature on Billie Holliday resonated with students who are heavily into music. In the past I have left the

magazine around in the common room and encouraged students to read it.

“They told their friends about the magazine and I now have to order extra copies of the magazine. Please keep it up.”If you would like to order copies of Unity magazine in bulk to hand out to your students and use in lessons, please contact the Unite Against Fascism office by emailing [email protected].

Teachers find Unity magazine strikes a chord in the classroom

Waltham Forest says no to EDL racists and fascists—again

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Ms Dynamite onstage

Sun shines on Newcastle’s Unity Festival


Europe fact file

Slovakia: Kotleba’s fascists on the riseIn November 2013 a Nazi won

control of one of Slovakia’s eight administrative government

regions, Banska Bystrica. Marian Kotleba, the candidate for

the People’s Party - Our Slovakia, won 55% of the vote in a runoff election after receiving 21% in the first round.

Kotleba, a former teacher, has been involved in fascist politics for over a decade. In 2005, he created the far-right Slovak Togetherness-National Party (also known as the Slovak Congregation). He and his group paraded in the streets wearing Nazi-style uniforms and insignia. Some of the group’s members were involved in attacks on Roma and Jewish people. In 2008 it was banned by the Slovakian state for its violent and racist activities.

In 2010, Kotleba created a new party, the People’s Party - Our Slovakia. The party received only 1.3% of the vote in the 2010 general elections and 1.5% in

the 2012 general elections. However, it performed relatively well in Banska Bystrica, where Kotleba is from. In that region, it received 10% of the vote in the 2009 regional elections.

Kotleba and his new party have links with the Slovak Brotherhood, a paramilitary group that echoes the wartime fascist militia, the Hlinka Guard .

Roma and JewsKotleba’s victory in the 2013 regional elections stems from several factors. First, it ran a racist campaign, which targeted Roma and Jews. Secondly, the fascists have built up a strong base in the region.

Thirdly, corruption scandals have discredited the mainstream parties and, even worse, these parties refused to reach an agreement to join forces against Kotleba in the runoff election. Lastly, Slovakia was hit hard by the economic crises that swept Europe in 2008.

Civil rights organisations say there has been a 150% increase in reported attacks on Roma since the election of Kotleba. Banska Bystrica is home to one of the largest Roma communities in Slovakia. Roughly 20% of the country’s Roma live in the region.

And because of the region’s proximity to Hungary, it has a relatively large Hungarian community (around 12% of the overall population).

Kotleba has been working with Hungary’s fascist party, Jobbik, to persuade the Hungarian minority in Slovakia to support him and in return encourage them to also vote Jobbik in Hungary’s national elections (the Hungarian government allows Hungarians living outside its borders to vote in national elections).

One encouraging sign is that there is a growing anti-fascist movement in Slovakia which is politically challenging Kotleba and his Nazi followers. n

THE FASCIST British National Party’s dismal showing in the general election was its worst performance in more than a decade.

The BNP received support from just 1,667 voters, down from 563,743 in 2010. This meant its share of the vote plummeted by 99.7%. The party lost its £500 deposit in all eight seats it was contesting.

To rub salt into its wounds, the BNP

polled lower than the Monster Raving Loony Party.

The electoral humiliation of the BNP follows years of consistent campaigning by Unite Against Fascism, Love Music Hate Racism and other anti-fascists.

The BNP was unable to recover from its humiliation in 2010, when it suffered a wipeout at the polls, and the defeat of now-deposed party leader Nick Griffin at last year’s European elections.

There were also derisory votes for other fascist parties. The English Democrats—a party that has happily absorbed many BNP members—the National Front and Liberty GB, which was first formed as the British Freedom Party by ex-BNP leaders in a tie-up with the English Defence League.

A complete breakdown of the fascist votes in the 2015 general election can be found online at is.gd/fascistslose.

News round-up

STUDENTS, TEACHERS and trustees are waging campaigns at a number of US universities to rename buildings named after members of the virulently racist Ku Klux Klan.

The Ku Klux Klan was and continues to be a violent racist organisation that has murdered and terrorised black people in the US.

This abhorrent organisation also targets Jews, Catholics and trade unionists. Its supporters often wear hooded masks when they launch their attacks on minorities or hold demonstrations (see picture above).

Trustees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the country’s oldest public university, have voted to

strip the name of a Ku Klux Klan leader from a campus building.

The decision reverses one made in 1920 to honour William Saunders, an officer for the slavery-supporting Confederate army in the US Civil War. When the building was named 95 years ago, university trustees had also praised Saunders for his post-Civil War leadership of the Ku Klux Klan.

The building will be renamed Carolina Hall. The college issued a statement saying: “Today’s decisions make an unequivocal statement about Carolina’s values and the importance of continuing to cultivate an inclusive and positive educational atmosphere for our campus.”

The University of Texas has also

stripped the name of a former law school professor and early Klan organiser from a dormitory on its Austin campus.

And there are student campaigns to remove names of Klan members at Atlanta University, Louisiana State University and Loyola University.

Vigilante The Klan’s presence in the US has seen three waves of activity. The first wave took place between 1865 and 1871. The secret vigilante group sought to destroy the gains black people made after the US Civil War and restore white supremacy.

They lynched black people and used threats and violence, including murder, against black and white Republican politicians.

The second wave lasted from 1920 to 1940. Once again the Klan’s main goal was white supremacy. At its peak in the mid-1920s, the organisation claimed to include about 15% of the nation’s eligible population, approximately 4 to 5 million men.

The third wave of the Klan began in the 1950s and opposed the Civil Rights Movement and campaigns for desegregation. Several members of Klan groups were convicted of murders, including in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

Today, researchers estimate that there may still be 150 Ku Klux Klan chapters with upwards of 5,000 members across the US.

Election humiliation for BNP

Students and teachers dismantle Ku Klux Klan’s legacy

Fascist leader Marian Kotleba

A rally held by the People’s Party - Our Slovakia The Slovak Brotherhood on the march

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Klansmen in their hooded costumes


By Weyman Bennett joint secretary, Unite Against Fascism

Money is a tiny hamlet in the US state of Mississippi. In the middle of the village stand the

burnt out remains of Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market. It is the site of one of the most brutal and tragic events of the Civil Rights Movement era.

In the 1950s Mississippi was an openly racist state. Like all Southern states it enforced a series of laws known as “Jim Crow”. These laws institutionalised racism: black people were denied equal treatment and the right to vote.

Racist murder and violence were ever-present. Since 1882, when statistics on lynchings began to be collected, more than 500 African Americans had been killed by extrajudicial violence in Mississippi alone. These murders were often carried out by violent white supremacist organisations such as the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens Council.

Emmett Till was not from the South. He was brought up by his mother Mamie Till Bradley in Chicago. This was a major northern city a world away from Money. Between 1940 and 1960 its black population grew from 278,000 to 813,000. Most came from the Southern states in search of jobs and to escape racism.

ChicagoWhile black people suffered massive inequality in Chicago, there was at least formal equality between black and white people and there was no Jim Crow.

In 1955, Mamie Till Bradley’s uncle, 64 year old Mose Wright, visited her and Emmett in Chicago.

Mose Wright was a sharecropper and part-time minister, whose nickname was the Preacher. He lived in Money, the little hamlet with three stores, a school, a post office, a cotton gin and about 200 residents.

Mose told Emmett stories about living in the Mississippi Delta. Emmett

was desperate to see Mississippi and meet his family. His mother agreed that he could go to Money for a vacation, but warned him of the dangers he could face. Emmett, aged just 14, arrived in Money on 21 August 1955.

Three days later, Emmett and his cousin Curtis Jones went to Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market to buy candy. There they hung out with other young black boys.

The shop was owned by a white couple, 24 year old Roy Bryant and his 21 year old wife Carolyn, who was alone in the store that day.

Till had a photograph of an integrated class at the school he attended in Chicago, and told the boys that the white children in the picture were his friends. He pointed to a white girl in the picture and said she was his girlfriend.

The boys couldn’t believe he had a white girlfriend. A black man could get murdered for looking at a white woman, let alone going out with one in the Southern states in the 1950s.

They dared Emmett to speak to Carolyn Bryant. He bought sweets and some witnesses claimed he said, “Bye, baby, bye” or wolf whistled at her. An FBI investigation carried out in 2006 found that he never said anything to Carolyn.

Emmett left the shop and went back to his uncle’s house.

In the early morning hours of 28 August, Roy Bryant, his half-brother John William Milam and another man drove to Mose Wright’s house. Milam was armed with a pistol. They dragged Emmett into a truck and drove away.

Word got out that Emmett was missing, and soon Medgar Evers, Mississippi state field secretary for the NAACP civil rights group, and Amzie Moore, head of its local branch, became involved, disguising themselves as cotton pickers and going into the cotton fields in search of any information that might help find him.

Three days after his abduction, Emmett’s swollen and disfigured body was found by two boys fishing in the Tallahatchie River. His head was

This year is the 60th anniversary of the birth of the US Civil Rights movement. Unity magazine is marking the anniversary with a series of pieces looking at the key moments of that movement.In this second article, we revisit the horrific murder of Emmett Till

very badly damaged. He had been shot above the right ear, an eye was dislodged from the socket, there was evidence that he had been beaten on the back and the hips, and his body was weighted with a cotton gin fan blade, which was fastened around his neck and body with barbed wire.

Mamie Till Bradley demanded that her son’s body was brought back to Chicago for burial. She decided to have an open casket funeral, saying, “There was just no way I could describe what was in that box. No way. And I just wanted the world to see.”

Tens of thousands of people lined the street outside the mortuary to view Emmett’s body, and days later thousands more attended his funeral at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ. Photographs of his mutilated corpse circulated around the country. The photographs shocked the nation.

Roy Bryant and John William Milam were charged with Emmett’s murder.

The trial was held in September 1955 and lasted five days. The courtroom was filled to capacity, and was racially segregated. Press from major national newspapers attended, but black reporters were made to sit segregated from the white press, further from the jury.

The local sheriff welcomed black spectators coming back from lunch with a mocking, “Hello, niggers.”

Jury members were allowed to drink beer on duty, and many white men in the audience wore handguns holstered to their belts.

The defence’s primary strategy was that the body pulled from the river could not be positively identified, and they questioned whether Emmett was dead at all. The defence asserted that Bryant and Milam had taken Emmett, but had let him go.

They attempted to prove that Mose Wright could not identify Bryant and Milam as the men who took Till. Wright’s testimony was courageous—he was the first black man in the state to accuse a white man of murder in court.

The defence stated that the prosecution’s theory of the events the night Emmett was murdered was improbable, and said the jury’s “forefathers would turn over in their graves” if they convicted Bryant and Milam.

Only three outcomes were possible in Mississippi for capital murder: life imprisonment, the death penalty, or acquittal. On 23 September the all-white jury acquitted both defendants after a 67-minute deliberation. One juror said, “If we hadn’t stopped to drink pop, it wouldn’t have taken that long.”

PaidProtected against double jeopardy (being tried for the same crime twice), Bryant and Milam were paid $4,000 by Look magazine in 1956 to tell their story. The interview took place at the law firm that had defended the pair. Milam admitted shooting Emmett Till but neither of them thought of themselves as guilty.

Bryant and Milam were never re-arrested for the murder and neither spent a minute in prison.

Mamie Till Bradley was haunted by the murder of her son for the rest of

her life. She toured the US and Europe campaigning for justice and in support of the Civil Rights Movement.

Emmett’s tombstone is inscribed with the words his mother said at every meeting: “Emmett Till was a little nobody who shook the world.” n

ResourcesBooksA Death in the Delta: The Story of Emmett Till by Stephen J. WhitfieldThe Emmett Till Book by M. Susan Orr-KlopferEmmett Till: The Sacrificial Lamb of the Civil Rights Movement by Clenora Hudson-Weems

DocumentaryEpisode 1 of the 1987 documentary Eyes on the Prize examines the murder of Emmett Tillyoutube.com/watch?v=qFGgoE-uuUwThe Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till youtube.com/watch?v=bvijYSJtkQk

Music“The Death of Emmett Till”, also known as “The Ballad of Emmett Till”, is a song by the American musician Bob Dylan youtube.com/watch?v=8OfCXaqieas

US Civil Rights Movement Emmett Till

The ‘little nobody’ who shook the world

Emmett Till with his mother, Mamie Till Bradley

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The burnt-out remains of Bryant’s Grocery Store


Fifty years ago anniversary of the Race Relations Act

Fifty years ago racial discrimination in every sphere of life was commonplace for ethnic minorities

in the UK. Commonwealth citizens invited to come and help the “mother country” after the end of the World War II routinely faced signs stating “No blacks” as they searched for lodgings and places to live.

As well as housing, the “Windrush generation”—so-called after the ship that brought many Caribbean immigrants to the UK in 1948—often

found themselves refused entry to public places like restaurants or pubs on the basis of nothing but the colour of their skin. Migrants from all corners of the globe who came to Britain also faced racial discrimination.

Ken Martindale, of the history group Black British Heritage, came to the UK with his parents in 1957. He told the BBC, “My father was a bus conductor so he was at the coal face with the general public. He was assaulted several times, spat on quite regularly, fares were

thrown to the ground because people refused to put money in his hand.”

Hesketh Benoit’s family moved to Britain in the early 1960s. He recalls, “My dad came over first to get work—labouring and then painting and decorating. My mum followed, and the four of us came two by two as they could afford it. It was difficult for my parents to find somewhere decent to live —they saw the signs ‘No dogs, no Irish, no blacks’. They settled first in Paddington, because that was where the

community from Dominica settled and would support newcomers. They lived on friends’ floors, and only brought us over when they had their own room.”

The 1965 Race Relations Act was a limited piece of legislation pushed through by a Labour government in the face of fierce opposition from the Conservatives. It made it unlawful to refuse access on racial grounds to public places such as hotels, restaurants, pubs, cinemas or public transport. Refusing to rent accommodation to people because of their race was also prohibited, while stirring up racial hatred—”incitement”—became a criminal offence. It also set up the Race Relations Board—the predecessor of the Commission for Racial Equality, which later became the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The Race Relations Act was reinforced with a further act in 1968. This made it

illegal to refuse housing, employment or public services to people because of their ethnic background.

The new law extended the powers of the Race Relations Board to deal with complaints of discrimination and set up a new body, the Community Relations Commission, to promote “harmonious community relations”.

One of the most controversial areas of the act was the exclusion of government services, such as the police, from legal proceedings. Quintin Hogg MP argued in the House of Commons, it was unfair to treat private employers more strictly than public employers. “Why should the ordinary subject be liable to an action for damages, as the home secretary has decided that he should be, but the home secretary get off scot free?”

DiscriminationAuthor and civil liberties lawyer Farhana Begum wrote, “Even after the 1968 amendment—which outlawed discrimination in areas such as employment and providing goods and services—there was little change. It made a difference to the government and the statute books but in real terms there was still widespread discrimination.

“I believe it was not until the Race Relations Act of 1976 that things really began to improve. That law made both direct and indirect discrimination an offence and gave those affected by discrimination redress through employment tribunals and the courts.”

In 2001 another amendment to the act brought public bodies, including local authorities and police, under the scope of the equality laws for the first time, obliging them to ensure their policies resulted in the equal treatment of all.

At an event to commemorate 40 years of anti-racist legislation, campaigning lawyer Imran Khan said: “Of course significant progress has been made since 1965 but there is still much more to do. The fact that we have strong anti-discrimination laws has led to the near disappearance of commonplace practices, which scarred our society. That does not mean they don’t ever happen but today they are the exception rather than the rule.

“Racism is changing and we need new laws and new campaigns to protect the victims.” n

‘The fact that we have strong anti-discrimination laws has led to the near disappearance of practices which scarred our society’

Equality under the lawAfter half a century, we look back at why the Race Relations Acts were introduced, how the law has developed and the positive impact the equality legislation has had on our lives in multicultural Britain

Multicultural Britain: on the march against racism

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Interview Francesca Martinez

Francesca's highlightsl Plays pupil Rachel Burns in classic BBC children’s TV series Grange Hill between 1994 and 1999l Wins Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award for Best New Comedian at the Edinburgh Festival in 2000

l Has taken her act to New York’s Broadway, and comedy festivals as far apart as Montreal, Canada and Melbourne, Australial Finalist in Channel 4’s So You Think You’re Funnyl TV credits also include an episode of Ricky Gervais’s series Extras that was nominated for an Emmy awardl Writes her first book, What the **** is normal?l Organises ‘This Changes Everything’ event with Naomi Klein and Russell Brand

‘Nobody is normal’Actor and comedian Francesca Martinez talks about being ‘wobbly’, difference and equality—and how she gets away with lying in bed until midday

Francesca Martinez is a sit-down stand-up comedian. She always sits down for her shows. At her

first big gig at London’s prestigious Comedy Store, she was helped onstage and wobbled as she walked towards the mic.

The audience was left to come to its own conclusions about the state she might be in—until Francesca broke the awkward atmosphere. “In case you were wondering, the correct term for my condition is...sober.” As the crowd laughed, a comedy career was born.

Francesca’s comedy draws on her own life and she is, as she puts it, “wobbly”. She has Cerebral Palsy (CP). Onstage, she wittily skewers common perceptions and ideas about disabled people. It’s sharp stuff.

DifferenceOffstage, as she speaks exclusively to Unity magazine, Francesca explains that she has had a “very intense relationship” with ideas about normality and difference—and the way society labels us. These are the subjects of her first book, What the **** is Normal, which has just come out in a paperback edition.

She explains, “I’ve redefined myself as wobbly. Wobbly is accurate, wobbly is non-scary, wobbly is cool and I’m proud to be wobbly. CP, on the other hand, is scary—it’s cold and technical. It sounds like a monster.”

And, as Francesca points out, “We’re all a bit wobbly sometimes.”

She is “passionate” about the ideas in the book. It’s an autobiographical journey, she says, but broadens out to look at wider issues of acceptance and the pressure to conform.

That is something Francesca first had to deal with when she started at secondary school. “I think young kids are very happy with the way they are,” she says. “They don’t define themselves as

adults do. As a child, I was very happy, very loved, very confident with no feeling that I was different or disabled or faulty.”

Then everything changed. “High school was a reality check.” That was where it was brought home that “the world views me as disabled, someone who doesn’t operate properly”.

She says, “That was a very disempowering thing to realise. I lost

all

my self-confidence and belief.”Francesca began to think more

deeply about the idea of “normality”. She explains, “I had to liberate myself by realising nobody is normal. I

needed to stop measuring myself against something that didn’t

exist and get on with enjoying being me.”

Enjoying being herself has included a five-year stint as an actor in a classic TV series, watched by millions. In 1994, Francesca landed the part of pupil Rachel Burns

in the much-loved BBC

children’s series Grange Hill, set in a fictional London secondary school. As she jokes in her stage act, “I got five years off school—legally!”

Francesca’s other TV credits include a part in Ricky Gervais’s series Extras, playing alongside filmstar Kate Winslet in an episode that scooped an Emmy award nomination. But it’s in comedy that Francesca has made her mark in recent years.

She first grabbed the mic in 1999, but just a year later became the first woman to win the prestigious Daily Telegraph Open Mic Award for Best New Comedian at the Edinburgh Festival—a mark of real quality.

And Francesca obviously enjoys it. “Comedy is the best job in the world,” she jokes. “I’ve got no boss. I can get up at midday!”

She adds, more seriously, “It changed my life being a comic. It really changes who you are. I’ve been lucky and performed all over the world.”

Comedy is also “one of the last art forms that isn’t edited, censored or commercialised”, Francesca says.

This means that as well as providing a good night out, she can get a message

across too. “If you can make people laugh, people listen to you. It’s not being preachy or worthy—you’re being funny.”

Now, in addition to her acting and comedy careers Francesca is an author too. It has added to her already hectic schedule, as she has been busy launching the book at events around the country.

“In between that, I’ve been doing shows and benefits and helped organise a big political event, This Changes Everything.” That was a huge event about climate change with campaigning comedian Russell Brand and the writer and activist Naomi Klein.

The book has given her the opportunity to delve more deeply into ideas about difference and equality.

“One of the things the book explores is the labels that we put on each other. They’re very arbitrary and very divisive. They often obscure human beings rather than enlightening us.”

“Disabled” is one of these labels, Francesca argues. “Disabled—basically a faulty product,” she says. “That really is a very negative, unfair, inaccurate label because everyone has things they can and can’t do.”

‘I had to liberate myself by realising nobody is normal. I needed to stop measuring myself against something that didn’t exist and get on with enjoying being me’


Interview Francesca Martinez

Some people can or can’t sing, some can or can’t dance, some can or can’t make a huge audience crack up laughing at a comedy show.

“These labels are unhelpful. Everyone’s different—that’s what’s normal.” That is the value that infuses Francesca’s commitment to opposing fascism and racism.

“Fascism—that’s the politics of fear, fear of the other, fear of difference,” she says. “We live in a society that fears difference, and out of that fear comes the politics of hate. Parties like the British National Party and UKIP are an

anathema to me—I love difference.”Division and hatred “is a distraction

from an economic system that rewards a minority”, she points out. “Don’t blame immigrants, disabled people or single mums—that’s classic divide and rule. It’s to distract us with false enemies from the real enemies. It aids the powerful to perpetuate the politics of fear and division because if we’re fighting among ourselves, we won’t fight together.”

Francesca is proud to have “a different set of values—difference is beautiful. It makes us stronger. It makes us grow.”

She says, “People have different skin colours, different accents, places of birth or religious beliefs—but people are people. We share so much more than we don’t.”

UnityThe campaigning comic adds, “Everyone in the world wants a safe place to live and quality time with the people they love, and everyone in the world has a right to those basic principles.” It’s all about unity, Francesca says. At the end of the day, we’ve got a lot in common. “We all share this rock in space.” n

Would you like to win a copy of Francesca’s new book What the **** is normal?

It’s simple, just answer the question below and send your answer with your name and postal address to [email protected].

What children’s TV series did Francesca act in?

The names of those who enter the competition will be drawn out of a hat and the winners will receive their prize by post.

Win a copy of

Competition

Francesca Martinez’s new book


Football the Romani pioneer

For more on Rabbi Howell, see The Evergreen in Red and White,

Stephen Kay’s novel. Go to theevergreen.co.uk

For more information about Show Racism the Red Card, and a collection of games, teaching

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By Stephen Kay, author

It’s right to celebrate the pioneering role of the first black and Asian footballers, such as Arthur Wharton, Andrew Watson, Laurie

Cunningham and the others highlighted in the Winter 2014 issue of Unity magazine.

Great work has been done to recognise the role of these players in challenging prejudice in the game and society. One ethnic minority player who always gets overlooked, however, is Rabbi Howell.

Rab, as he was known, was a much more significant figure in footballing terms than all of the early black pioneers and yet he has been largely ignored and forgotten. He was the first Romani footballer and the first Romani international, getting his first England cap in 1895.

Rab first played professionally for Sheffield United and was a mainstay of the team right

through to when they won the English First Division in 1898.

He played a key role in Liverpool’s first rise to success, was a part of their first Championship winning squad in 1900/01, and in 1899 was only the third Liverpool player to win an England cap.

Rab’s career was ended when he was 36 years old by a leg-breaking tackle, while he was playing for Preston North End in 1903.

He had played at the top level for 13 years, an incredible achievement, especially in those days before sports medicine and all the support a modern player gets—and given how much more “robust” play was back then.

But Rab is buried in an unmarked grave in Preston Old Cemetery. It is not comfortable to reflect on why Rab is not celebrated as other pioneering players are. Is it because Romani people have either chosen to integrate or, where they retain their identity, to keep to themselves and so

have no one to speak up for them? Or is it because anti-Romani prejudice remains so strong? Around English grounds you still hear calls of “Gyppo” when a player of a certain appearance (beard, long hair, etc) plays, or chants aimed at opposing fans using the racist anti-Romani term “Pikey”. But few regard this as anything like as bad as the “N-word”. It seems to be a prejudice that carries little taboo.

I have been trying get recognition for Rab, and to get him a headstone. I have had great support from Sheffield United and from Football Unites Racism Divides, who have pledged £250, but so far I have only had rebuffs from Liverpool and Preston. I am struggling to understand why. It is not so much about the contribution of a few hundred pounds

for a headstone as the message that this gesture would send to fans and the community about inclusion. It is sad as well as perplexing that they don’t want to be associated with it.

Other Romani heritage footballers in Britain and on the world stage, such as Ricardo Andrade Quaresma, Christo Stoičkov, Gheorghe Hagi, Andrea Pirlo, Dani Güiza, Freddy Eastwood and Eric Cantona, walk in Rab’s footsteps. No one who played for England should be buried in an unmarked grave. n

Steven Kay is author of The Evergreen in Red and White, a novel based on Rab’s last turbulent year in Sheffield

‘Racism is something created, and anything that has been created can be undone.” Those are the words of

Samuel Eto’o, the Barcelona, Chelsea, Everton and Inter Milan striker (pictured left, heading away from goal for Chelsea).

He is one of a number of players who support Show Racism the Red Card. The anti-racist charity is backed by famous names including Thierry Henry, Jermain Defoe and Ryan Giggs, and is supported by the National Union of Teachers.

An SRtRC survey of more than 8,000 young people at 60 schools produced worrying results.

More than a quarter (28%) believed jobs being taken by foreign workers might stop them reaching their goals and half (49%) agreed that migration to the UK was out of control or not managed properly.

More than a third agreed with the statement “Muslims are taking over England”, and on average respondents thought Muslims made up 36% of the population—the true figure is around 5%. Almost half (47%) said there were poor relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in England.

But—and it is an important but—on every question more than half the school students supported migrants and believed there were good relations between Muslims and non-Muslims.

Commenting on the survey, SRtRC chief executive Ged Grebby said: “Many of the young people questioned appear to understand and agree with the notion that racism is bad, but reveal gaps in their understanding by displaying prejudice towards particular religions or nationalities, particularly with regard to immigration.”

Those ideas can be challenged by inviting organisations like SRtRC, Unite Against Fascism or Love Music Hate Racism into our schools to help counter the misconceptions and falsehoods young people are being exposed to in the media and in the wider world. n

Rabbi Howell: league champion and England player

Footballers line up to tackle racism and prejudice

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By Jo Noble, Ealing NUT

Morris Gleitzman’s quartet of novels, Once, Then, Now and After follow the life of Felix

Stanislaus, a Polish Jew. This is a series of books examining

the events of the Holocaust—when Hitler’s Nazis murdered six million Jews and millions of others, including socialists, trade unionists, Roma people, LGBT people, disabled people and others—and its aftermath.

The first book is set in Poland in 1942 and follows his harrowing plight to escape the Nazis, first in an orphanage, then hidden in a cellar. The other three books follow his story, taking the reader forward to the present day and then back as Felix revisits his past.

ChoseOnce is based on the true story of Janusz Korczak, who ran an orphanage. When the Nazis came to take away the children, he was offered his freedom but chose to die with the children rather than abandon them.

Though a very harrowing read, it is a journey full of beautiful moments. One such moment is when the children create a “story tent” and purge themselves of images and events that haunt them, to create happier tales.

This moment highlights, as does the book, the power of storytelling in the face of deep tragedy. As the terror and brutality of the Nazis grows, Felix

and Zelda, the main characters, remain courageous, hopeful and innocent.

Despite all they face, they hold on to the belief that ”everyone deserves something good in their life, at least once”. Their remarkable friendship is evidence of this—a friendship that endures hunger, fear and terrible tragedy.

The powerlessness of the children trying to escape an awful fate is counterbalanced by their powerful friendship and their determination to survive. The author’s dedication reads: “For all the children whose stories have never been told.” Though it is a difficult read, this is a story that deserves and demands to be read.

Then, the second book in the set of four, is dedicated “to all the children who had to hide”.

If, after reading Once, you are hoping Gleitzman’s characters fall on happier times, you may be disappointed. Felix and Zelda

find refuge living with Genia, a Polish pig farmer’s wife, and together they determine to weather the Nazi storm. There are times when this sad and eclectic family unit share moments of happiness, but they are all too brief. Gleiztman tells his readers, “This is my imagination trying to grasp the unimaginable.”

Readers will enjoy travelling with Felix and Zelda through their exciting and dramatic adventures as their bravery

and devotion to each other make for compulsive, compelling reading. It was with utter relief that I learned that there were two more books in this series.

Now, the third book in the quartet, jumps forward over 60 years and leaps across continents to Victoria, Australia. In Now the characters face cruelty in two very different forms: a school bully and a devastating bush fire. The moment when the school bully’s motivation is exposed resonates with previous cruelties from Once and Then.

EchoesThe fire is a metaphor for, and reminder of, the sweeping and destructive tide of fascism that Felix survived. Echoes of past events are handled sensitively and poignantly.

In the ensuing adventure, Felix’s granddaughter finally gives him the opportunity to make sense of his past. The conclusion is “a big joyful whoop’” and an affirmation of human spirit.

After, the final book of Gleitzman’s quartet, returns to the war years to

fill in some of the gaps between Then and Now. It has been described as “one of the finest children’s novels written in the past 25 years”. The fourth book concludes the story in a way that is as unexpected as it is deeply moving.

This quartet is an inspiring celebration of friendship and courage in times of terrible loss and adversity. n

Books the Holocaust

The quartet in the classroomAs a teacher, I have used extracts from the books in literacy and history lessons and in assemblies in Key stage 2 to 4 (age 9+).

Although the subject matter needs to be handled very sensitively, it also requires and demands a bold approach—something that is refreshing and challenging. These stories are beautiful, poignant and devastating in equal measure but because they are narrated through the eyes of a child, they are full of charm, innocence and humour.

Reading as adults, we comprehend the underlying brutality in a way that a child would not, but this should not make us shy away from sharing these stories with children. In a recent book week, a parent volunteer read an extract to a class of 10 year olds. The children cried and laughed—and I had to order several extra copies for the school library.

Stories of friendship and courage in a time of terrorA quartet of novels for young readers, based on the true story of the children in an orphanage, helps us gain a better understanding and to reflect on what happened during the Nazis’ Holocaust

The powerlessness of the children trying to escape an awful fate is counterbalanced by their powerful friendship and their determination to survive

Children at the Nazis’ Auschwitz death camp


Help support Unite Against Fascism’s work with a regular donation of a few pounds a month and become a UAF solidarity member. The regular income from our solidarity members is vital to sustain our campaign against racism and fascism. Send the completed form to: UAF, PO Box 72710, London, SW19 9GX

Your name ..............................................................................................................................................................................................Your address .................................................................................................................................................... Phone ..........................Email .................................................................... Occupation ....................................................... Union ............................................

Standing order mandateThis will enable us to set up a standing order with your bank. It can be cancelled at any time simply by informing your bank.I wish to pay Unite Against Fascism by standing order [please tick amount] per month £5 Solidarity £10 Solidarity plus £15 Solidarity super £20 “They shall not pass” solidarityMonthly payments. First payment to be made on _ _ / _ _ / _ _ _ _ [please fill in date]Bank name .............................................................................................................................................................................................Bank address .......................................................................................................................................................................................... Account holder’s name ...........................................................................................................................................................................Account number.................................................................................... Sort code................. /................./..................Please pay HSBC Bank plc, King’s Cross, 31 Euston Road, London NW1 2ST, account name Unite Against Fascism, sort code: 40-04-07; account number: 51336460, for the credit of Unite Against Fascism, the sum of the value indicated above

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Become a UAF solidarity member

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Understanding the Holocaust

Visit Krakow and Auschwitz Educational trip organised by Unite Against FascismUAF is repeating its successful educational trip to the Auschwitz concentration camp and the city of Krakow in Poland in November 2015.

The trip aims to offer a greater understanding of the Holocaust. Students and teachers are particularly welcome.

The £270 cost includes flights, budget hotel and the coach trip to Auschwitz. There will be guided tours and talks about the Holocaust, Jewish resistance and fighting fascism today.

For more information, please phone the UAF office on 0208 971 7426 or email [email protected]

LGBT Blair Peach Award

Juno Roche, president of Buckinghamshire National Union of Teachers, has become a leading

voice for transgender teachers, their visibility and rights. She is the winner of this year’s Blair Peach Award.

The award is named after the former president of East London NUT who was killed on an anti-racist demonstration in Southall, London, on 23 April 1979. On the day of his death, Blair Peach was marching against the fascist National Front.

The award is granted to individual members or groups of members who have made significant and exemplary contributions to LGBT, race, gender or disability equality in their school or NUT division.

In addition to her powerful, personal speech at the NUT’s 2014 annual conference, Juno’s award marks the extraordinary strides in cross-union work in which she has played a part: the setting up of a trans teachers’ network, TUC workshops, and a cross-union trans workers’ network.

She has also supported individuals who are transitioning—changing their gender presentation in the outside world to match their internal sense of gender—in the workplace. The impact of this work is demonstrated by her inclusion in the Independent on Sunday’s 2014 Rainbow List.

DiscriminationThe National Transgender Discrimination Survey conducted in the US found that discrimination, including physical or sexual violence against trans people due to transphobia or homophobia, is a common occurrence for trans people.

It also revealed that transgender and gender non-conforming people face injustice at every turn: in their childhood homes, in the school system, in harsh and exclusionary workplaces, in doctors’ surgeries and hospital accident and emergency departments, before judges and at the hands of landlords, police officers, healthcare workers and other service providers.

The US survey exposed the fact that trans people are nearly four times more likely to have a household income of less than $10,000 a year compared with

the general population. A staggering 41% of respondents reported that they had attempted suicide, compared with 1.6% of the general population. And 51% of those surveyed had been harassed or bullied at school, while 61% had been the victims of physical assault and 64% of sexual assault.

NUT general secretary Christine Blower says: “Juno made a lasting impression on delegates at our 2014 conference and I am delighted to see

her extraordinary contribution to trans visibility and rights recognised with this award. Her energy and selfless determination to support trans teachers are a model of what can be achieved both as an individual and through cross-union work.

“Many trans workers will benefit in years to come from the work Juno and her colleagues are doing today. I am incredibly proud that she is an NUT member.” n

Trans teacher fights for equality

Juno, with her Blair Peach award, at NUT conference

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Black and White on the BusesThe 1963 colour bar dispute in Bristol Madge Dresser £3While civil rights marches took place in the US, black workers in Britain were fighting their own campaign for equal rights to employment on Bristol’s buses. This pamphlet, based on interviews with the participants, shows how the racist “colour bar” was beaten.

The Ghetto FightsMarek Edelman £7.99A remarkable story of Jewish resistance to the Nazis. Marek Edelman, one of the leaders of the Jewish fighting organisation, describes the heroic uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. He describes how the ghetto fighters took on Hitler’s army with a few smuggled arms. An inspiring story of resistance.

The Three DegreesPaul Rees, £20 hardbackIn 1978 West Bromwich Albion became one of the first British football teams to field three black players: Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson. And they did so at a time when the fascist National Front was at its most virulent, staging marches around the country. A story about sport and social change.

1 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QE020 7637 1848 l www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk

Walter Tull’s ScrapbookMichaela Morgan, £6.99 (Age 7+)Born in Kent in 1888, Walter Tull became the first black British professional football player and the first black officer in the British Army. The Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town player was recommended for a Military Cross but never got one because of his skin colour. He died, aged 29, in battle.

Black British Rebels Figures from working class history

By Hassan Mahamdallie

This pamphlet shines a light on key figures in British history who fought racism as they led great working class struggles.

From Olaudah Equiano’s campaign against slavery to Jayaben Desai’s leadership of the Grunwick strike, it covers more than 200 years of history in multicultural Britain.

Order it now Bookmarks, 1 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QE Phone Bookmarks bookshop on 020 7637 1848 Find us online at www.bookmarksbookshop.co.uk

£3

Obituary Morris Beckman, 1921-2015

By Paul Sillett, Unite Against Fascism national campaigner

We have lost a part of anti-fascist history with the passing of Morris Beckman, who

died in May, aged 94. The last of the founders of the post-war anti-fascist organisation, the 43 Group, is gone.

Morris and his comrades challenged fascism in Britain in the 1940s—and he remained a committed and active anti-fascist until his death, lending his support to a new generation of activists in the campaigns against the British National Party and the English Defence League.

SurpriseMorris was born in 1921 in Hackney, east London. He served in the merchant navy during the war, but returned to an unpleasant surprise. In his own words: “I came back from World War II to find fascists marching through east London, singing, ‘Well done Hitler, we’ll finish the Jews off.’”

Oswald Mosley’s fascist Blackshirts had been active before the war—they were famously defeated by a huge anti-fascist mobilisation at the Battle of Cable Street, in east London, in 1936.

But Morris, and other Jewish returnees from wartime service, were horrified to find that even after Hitler’s defeat, Mosley’s fascists had

re-emerged, staging anti-Semitic open air meetings.

Morris and his friends established the 43 Group—named after the number of people at its first meeting—in 1946. They decided they would “maintain unrelenting pressure on the fascists”. Within two months the group had 200 members, mostly young and ex-military.

The group collected intelligence on the fascists’ activities and systematically disrupted their meetings. “We had a policy of the three Ds: discuss, decide, do it,” Morris would say.

Around 1,000 people eventually joined the 43 Group, including many women. Over four years, the group disrupted around 2,000 fascist meetings.

The group enjoyed support from many quarters, but particularly in the Jewish communities to which many members belonged. East London was the heart of the battle against the Blackshirts. “In Ridley Road, Hackney, it was virtually non-stop,” Morris recalled. “Once we started, we wanted to flatten the enemy.”

The group worked on many levels, leafleting against fascist candidates in council elections, among other activities.

The 43 Group, with others, continually challenged Mosley and his Union Movement—the successor to the pre-war British Union of Fascists. By winter 1949, they had succeeded in breaking up its organisation—the fascists were defeated.

It was my privilege and honour to call Morris a friend. For anti-fascists, time with Morris was always educative, informative, funny and illuminating. His last great quest was to get his classic history of the 43 Group re-published, and the delight in his eyes when the book came out—with new photos, information and updates—was a tribute to his writing and energy.

DemonstrationsMorris worked with UAF, backing demonstrations against the EDL, and speaking to a new young audience on several occasions. He was always keen to speak to anti-fascists, even when his health was failing, something that stands to his immense credit—and for which we will always be grateful.

At a very moving reunion of 43 Group members some years ago, Morris and others spoke of the need to be vigilant and take to the streets against today’s fascists.

His was a great life: he gave it his all. Anti-fascists have lost a real giant, but his example will live on in those he has inspired. Our hearts go out to his family, friends and all who knew him. n

The 43 Group: Battling with Mosley’s Blackshirts is published by The History Press.

A lifelong anti-fascist fighter

Morris, with his wife Pat

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Official LMHR merch l tees l range of colours l order [email protected]

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