Report: RMT Black and Ethnic Minority Members' Conference

Report by Glenroy Watson. The conference took place on Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th March 2009.

Conference opened without our Chair, elected at last year’s conference and as a result I was elected to Chair this year's conference in direct contradiction of our ‘own’ standing orders. More about that, later.

Conference was again well attended, but could have been better.

London, with the largest ethnic minority population per rata, was very poorly represented with only 6 branches in attendance; TfL No.1, Bakerloo, Camden, LU Engineering, Morden and Oval and my own branch Finsbury Park. Not forgetting Eric Cato of the Retired members branch which made 7.

Before I forget, the conference can still be seen on Webcast.

LTRC also had in attendance our allotted 4 delegates, with George Campbell ably filling in for Mark Walter who became ill before the conference.

There were 3 no show ‘delegates’, only one from the LTRC area.

Before conference, we were treated to a Black historical tour of Tottenham arranged by Mark, as part of the planning committee before he became ill.

I will not be able to walk around the area now without remembering the Ancestral past to be found on Philip Lane and Black Boy Road and so on.

There were two motions to conference, with only one being eligible to send to the Annual General Meeting in June.

Finsbury Park branch had earlier put two almost identical motions to the conference, but had had them ruled out.

When it became clear that no other branch will be putting motions to conference Finsbury Park once again, reworded their motions and submitted them again.

1) Was calling for an increase in delegation to TUC Black Workers conference. Frank Murray discovered that while the first motion had been calling for an increase to 8, our true entitlement was in fact 15. We will be lucky if this year we get two, while Aslef and TSSA have 5 or 6.

2) Was the continued call for support for a delegation to attend the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) Review in Geneva next week. The decision is still pending, and will/has been made today by the NEC.

Now for the funny bits.

The Committee’s Standing Orders says that the Chair of conference must be a member of the National Advisory Committee. I’ve not been a member of the committee for a number of years now, having resigned to make room for younger members.

I was not only elected to Chair this years conference, but also to Chair next year’s which is going to be either in Leeds or Birmingham.

Why not change the standing order I hear you asked?

The reason is simply. Members of the committee did not agree with the SO and had it imposed on them by the then General Secretary Vernon Hince.

It has become custom and practice to elect a Chair of our choice and not be restricted by a Standing Order no one agreed with, especially when the role of the Committee’s Secretary is still out of the Committee’s hands.

This in no way affects the position of the Chair of the National Black and Ethnic Minority Members Advisory Committee to which Elaine Holness has again been elected

I had great pleasure introducing the many Speakers, especially Sharon Grant who received the first of our sweatshirts ‘in honour of Bernie Grant’.

Other Speaker was national President John Leach, Mick Lynch, a young lady from Thompson’s solicitor on pensions. Keynote Speaker was Robin Walker.

A planed panel debate around the issue of institutionalised Racism did not come off because one of the Speakers could not attend on the allotted day.

Both were enjoyed in the separate hastily allotted times.

I would like to personally thank LUL’s NEC member Oliver New, not only for addressing conference and officiate when I could not do so, but for staying the whole two days and into a lengthy part of the social.

Each Delegate was provided on St Patrick’s Day with a commemorative sweatshirt as was each guest speaker.

End Report

BEM’s FURTHER PROGRAM OF ACTION FOR 2009.

The Third Reparation Conference Sunday 23rd August 2009

Members of the LTRC’s BEM committee worked very hard to ensure that the National Black and Ethnic Minority Members Advisory Committee (B&EMMAC) 2009 London conference was a success.

After the very successful 2007 Reparation conference, it was agreed at the conference and reported back to the LTRC that the event would be annual.

The 2008 conference was less successful, and so we have started working on the 2009 event.

We are concerned by the fact that this year, the 23rd August is a Sunday and depending on the venue of the Bernie Grant centre being available on a Sunday and at the right price, we will be considering moving it to a Saturday or Friday.

One of Bernie Grant's legacy is an organisation called ARM (Afrikan Reparation Movement) which is an international Organisation.

We intend to work in Partnership with ARM and GAC (Global Afrikan Congress uk) to try and get the widest appeal for this year’s conference.

This year’s conference will take place with the backdrop of the UN World Conference Against Racism having only taken place a few months before with neo colonialism working very hard to undo the gains made in 2001.

To make the conference a success, with the help of LTRC, BEM committee members will be working to deliver the following:-

1) Provide publicity in the name of all 3 organisations

2) Fund an international Speaker. I recommend a fellow Trade Unionist Saladin Mohammed of South Carolina US. He is an organiser in the public sector unions and a founder member of the organisation Black Workers For Justice (BWJF) and one of the members of the Tribunal trying to put George Bush on Trial for Katrina. While he is here program would be drawn up to allow for him to address other trade union and branches including LTRC, to raise fund for the conference.

3) Find a sponsor such as Thompson's for a Social event on the night of the one day conference.

Glenroy watson
Chair BEM