Rethinking British Policing!

T-A-S-E-R

 A 5 Point Manifesto.

by Charles D. Crichlow

IT has become abundantly clear that policing within the British criminal justice system is not working.  For decades, trust and confidence in policing among the UK Black community has been comparatively low and for good reason.  Ministry of Justice data on Race and the Criminal Justice System has consistently throughout the 21st Century shown that Black people are unjustly treated.  The call from the streets in the aftermath of the George Floyd murder is, ‘We want Equal justice under the law’; ‘We want change and we want it now’ and ‘No Justice No Peace’.

Incrementalism will not suffice.  No longer can we afford to engage in ‘look how far we have come-ism’  Herein is the outline of a manifesto for a radical rethink of policing.  I believe, that this is what sections of the public, who have been oppressed by the present system for far too long, deserve.  Upon close examination one will quickly recognise that these changes will not simply benefit a minority of the population but the whole of society.  I must point out, that the ideas put forward here, are only the beginning of what will be a long continuous road towards public safety, protection and equal justice.  No one should have a monopoly on good ideas and undoubtedly others will bring forth other welcome suggestions. This manifesto is not for faint-hearted evolutionists but rather for a genuinely radical rethink of policing in its current form, which I argue is not fit for the essential purpose of racial justice.

This manifesto is deliberately brief, so as to make way for more nuanced and detailed discussion and collective framing of ideas. What is for sure; is that it’s high time that our political leaders take a bold and dispassionate look again at British Policing and the Criminal Justice System.  Whilst also resisting the tendency to be seduced by the awesome power of police leaders to dazzle and seduce with an overly romanticised vision of policing and focus them on the hard reality of racial injustice in this nation.

I therefore set out below, the T-A-S-E-R Model which is based upon the accumulation of experience over my thirty years (Participant Observation) as an Operational Police Officer a Community Organiser and former President of the National Black Police Association. I say respectfully to those within the policing profession, that it should not be for you to determine the merits of this manifesto. Instead, it is for you to work for the public. Since you are supposed to police with our consent, I implore you to set aside the customary disdain for anything resembling a usurpation of your power to determine the policing dispensation. And that instead you pay attention to the cry for justice which is ringing out loud and sweeping across the globe. You now have at the very least the opportunity to contribute something on the right side of history. To think or do otherwise will see your authority slip even further away and pave the way for future anarchy.

T-A-S-E-R MODEL = Transparency Accountability Scrutiny Education Reparation Transparency.

Transparency For far too long, the police have been allowed to operate effectively in secret when it comes to implementing reforms.

They have effectively been given free reign to ‘mark their own homework’. This can be seen in terms of duties under the Equality Act (2010) where the public have little or no insight into how they operate and how they are monitored.

As a police officer, I have witnessed first hand the cavalier approach to these legal duties and the total disregard to its application at the front line of policing. This has to end. And a new era of Radical Transparency must be ushered in, whereby the public get to have maximum real-time insight into how the police, carries out its duties under the Equality Act. ‘The public is the police and the police is the public’ has effectively become a brainwashing mantra that misleads the public and police officers into a romantic perception of the reality. This has to be addressed by opening up policing, much more to the public gaze.

I propose that unless there is a compelling argument for confidentiality, police boardrooms where matters of public interest are to be discussed should be made accessible (via camera) to the public. It should not be left to the police alone to decide upon the many aspects of policing activity that in my view can and should be made transparent to the public. There must be a radical approach to this. Accountability

Each and every police officer is invested with extraordinary powers of discretion, to act in ways that no ordinary citizen can. Therefore much should be expected in terms of holding them to account for their actions.

In far too many cases, accountability is non-existent or is severely hamstrung by aspects of the very Criminal Justice System that is intended to protect the public. We have seen many examples of rogue officers escaping justice or, moreover, being protected by the organisation. Conversely, good officers have all too often, been hurriedly forced out of policing in questionable circumstances and Black officers have disproportionately and inexplicably found to be in this category.

I propose that the application of police Professional Standards be taken completely out of the hands of the police service and that this is coupled with a completely independent mechanism for investigating police misconduct. This would mean the complete abolition of the Independent Office of Police Conduct and the replacement with something, which is fit for purpose particularly in terms of racial justice. In addition there should be a presumption that accountability is a public concern therefore notwithstanding appropriate confidentiality issues, questions of misconduct should be answered in public.

Scrutiny

Hand in hand with a new Radical Transparency so too must there be a new era of Super Scrutiny. At present we have an extraordinary state of affairs, whereby police forces either have little or no scrutiny, of how they implement the legal requirements of the Equality Act and yet they get to pick and choose who is deemed appropriate to scrutinise their work.

The current system of inspection by the ‘Her Majesty Inspector of Constabulary’ is completely inadequate. I have seen at first hand how the police are able to very easily ‘pull the wool over the eyes of HMIC’ - a toothless tiger. Police and Crime Commissioners whose role is to hold the Chief Constable to account on behalf of the public have been fantastically ineffective in terms of racial justice. Many of these PCC’s are hopelessly incapable of performing this task not only due to competence but many are ideologically driven.

I propose the establishment of a completely independent body of highly professional and competent scrutineers in the field of equal justice with the necessary powers to ensure compliance. Their remit will include identifying disparity and ensuring police compliance with equality duties and its own equality strategies.

Education

From Training to Education, there is ample evidence to suggest that police forces are not capable of recruiting, training and developing the workforce, the public and the whole of the system required for equal justice to flourish. Policing has recently been placed on a more professionalised footing, whilst this is a welcome step it is not enough.

I propose that the recruitment and development of all police personnel should be taken completely out of the hands of the police force and placed in a framework of Education rather than simply regimented training. A genuine new ethos of Education for Public Service should be the goal where Police Forces will become genuine Police Services. This should include every aspect of current training including and particularly ‘Use Of Force’ training. This should not in anyway signal a pivot towards privatisation of any aspect of current policing functions but rather to establish new ways within the public realm, of improving policing. The College of Policing has been a signal failure in terms of its 6 remit, particularly in regard to race equality, it has simply come to reflect and replicate the racial hierarchies that exist within policing. Moreover it represents a huge waste of public money that could be put to better use. The same applies to many of the institutions, which represent policing from top to bottom.

Reparation

In order for any of this manifesto to be implemented, the current police force and justice system must come to reckoning with its past and therefore genuine reparative racial justice must be brought about.

Whole communities have been criminalised labelled and brought to ruin by institutional racism not just by hostile policing but by an entirely hostile environment in terms of education, housing policy, health and generally towards the presence of Black people in the United Kingdom who were brought here to work, build and be used as was the case under Colonialism and Enslavement.  Indeed, the roots of some of the crimes, which have plagued the Black community, particularly those of a seriously violent nature (often framed as so called ‘Black on Black’ violence) can be located in the legacy of a history of violent oppression.  These ‘chickens are now coming home to roost’ and all the tough talking about ‘rioters’ and ‘thugs’ will not drown out the voices of those who have a just cause and demand for reparatory justice.

In short, reparatory justice is the first and necessary step toward equal justice.  Any attempt to build a future upon the unquestioned foundations of the current broken system will prove to be an exercise in futility and we will be back here again. The backlash to the current movement has already begun and the need for courageous leadership is palpable. Failure to take the necessary steps will prove to be a concession towards those who benefit from the privilege of status quo and the advancement of white supremacy. We have seen and heard that the call of ‘white silence is violence’ thus, political cowardice is also violent and must be called out loudly. This brief manifesto is submitted / launched at the Windrush Defenders – ‘Burning Work: In the Wake of Windrush’ Conference (22.06.2020) however, this is a public document and will be open to much wider conversation.

Charles D. Crichlow 21.06.2020

A former police officer with 30 years service. President of National Black Police Officers Association from 2009-2013.Graduate of Manchester University School of Law with a Masters in criminology. Served as Independent Special Advisor to Tutu Foundation review into institutional racism.

Quotes: (“...pay attention to the cry for justice which is ringing out loud and sweeping across the globe. You now have at the very least the opportunity to contribute something on the right side of history. To think or do otherwise will see your authority slip even further away and pave the way for future anarchy.”)

(“We have seen and heard that the call of ‘white silence is violence’ thus, political cowardice is also violent and must be called out loudly.”)

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Blackballing the Busybodies

by Les May

I’M sure that the good people of Rossendale will sleep easier in their beds knowing that judgement has been given and they have permission to continue with having a ‘blacked up’ face amongst their local street dance troupe.  But as I have suggested elsewhere this part of the tradition may have nothing whatsoever to do with coal mining.  So does this change anything?

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=1043332942481206469&postID=5262991119134861655&bpli=1

The answer would seem to be ‘No’.  Clearly the writer of this comment realises that context and intent have to be borne in mind. It’s the same ‘blacked up’ face whether it relates to coal mining in the area or to Pace Egg street plays.  Only the context has changed. As for intention, no-one has suggested that in either context the intention is to denigrate another group. My recollection of watching the Rochdale Pace Egg on seven occasions is that it presented the ‘Moorish’ Prince as a brave and noble character.

So it seems that what we are left with is that the complainers are just busybodies who think that their perception and interpretation is all that matters; that we must accept the meaning they give to actions and events. Anyone who has followed Donald Trump’s long term detachment from reality will be able to see the dangers in this.

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Blacked Up Faces And Browned Up Eggs

by Les May

I think that the linking of a ‘blacked up’ face character amongst the Britannia Coconut dancers with the local mining industry is a neat bit of ‘post facto rationalisation’.  A more likely explanation can be found in the fact that the dance is performed at Easter.   In parts of Lancashire and Yorkshire Pace Egg plays were performed in the streets at Easter and still are in some areas.   The term was also applied to eggs hard boiled along with onion skins which make the shells brown.  This tradition with eggs certainly goes back to the medieval period which is recapitulated in the plays themselves

These involve a set of characters which may include St George, Hector, Bold Slasher, The ‘Moorish’ Prince, The Doctor, The Fool, and Tosspot who collects the money thrown at the end.  The OTT action of the play consists of ritualised combat between the first four characters from which, naturally, St George emerges the victor.  Unlike in real life the Doctor miraculously brings the dead combatants back to life, sometimes with a bit of magic involving a few drops of alkali and a colourless solution of Phenolphthalein.

Blackening the face, which may be just that, daubs of black, crudely applied, are used to identify the character of the ‘Moorish’ Prince. In these more affluent times he may be seen dressed like a present day Arab or someone who looks like an escapee from the Arabian Nights.

On Easter morning do you think the White Leghorn hens ever complain that their eggs had been ‘browned up’ and made to look as if they came from Rhode Island Red hens?

https://folklore-society.com/book/the-lancashire-pace-egg-play/

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Time to prevent our UK police service morphing into a US-style police force

by Ex-Superintendent Victor Olisa

POLICING by consent is the foundation on which a ‘service’ style of policing dominates over an ‘enforcement’ style.   In the United Kingdom, the police are praised around the world for its service style of policing.  Yet evolving changes in the language and style of UK policing are shifting that style towards more ‘enforcement’ than ‘service’ for Black people.

The heart-wrenching images of the killing of George Floyd on 25^th May 2020 in Minneapolis, United States of America, has become a powerful driver for change in the way Black people are treated by the police around the world. In the UK, some people console themselves that such a barbaric act would not happen here because of the checks and balances in place to prevent that level of police misbehaviour, such as inspections by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire & Rescue Services.

However, the words ‘police culture’, often evokes negative mental images of police misbehaviour and indiscipline.  The criminologist Robert Reiner argues that the ‘core’ characteristics of police culture, such as ‘mission’ and ‘action’, engender in officers the belief that policing is not just a job but a way of life.   It is the reason why officers rush towards danger when others run away.

The Canadian criminologist John Lee described a characteristic of police culture that he termed police ‘property’.   He explained that “modern police forces emerged out of the need to protect dominant communities from dangerous classes” and as a consequence police soon learned to distinguish the ‘public’ they were supposed to serve and protect and the ‘public’ they were supposed to control and punish (i.e. blacks, women, Indians, and others)”.   Police ‘property’ are “low status, powerless groups whom the dominant majority see as problematic or distasteful and are prepared to let the police deal with their ‘property’ and turn a blind eye to the way this is done.”

Today, the concept has become a powerful reality in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, because of the callous way it was done by the officer: hands in his pocket as he surveyed all around him in triumphant nonchalance.

As a police officer for 35 years who has worked in forces in the UK and with police organisations across the world in my experience the majority of officers are professional and committed people who uphold the ideals of public service.

So, the question is, how has such a powerful and respected social institution allowed some of its officers to police with unimaginable brutality, and engage in irrational activity?

In the sense of irrational activity, the misuse of ‘stop and search’ exemplifies the notion of police ‘property’

The negative impact of stop and search has been well documented, for example, the conclusion of a 2013 Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary inspection on stop and search states:

“…with a few exceptions, forces were not able to demonstrate an approach to using stop and search powers that was based upon a foundation of evidence of what works best to fight crime…”

Today there is a growing practice (as often posted on social media and according to anecdotal information I hear from accounts of police training) of officers handcuffing young Black boys who have not been arrested and are not resisting or showing any signs of aggression, before they start searching them. This happens whilst white friends that are with them are searched without being handcuffed.

This is a worrying development of a practice that seem to reinforce the stereotype that conflates Blackness with dangerousness:  Black boys are considered ‘dangerous’ and so have to be treated differently (restrained), and in a way that is humiliating and degrading, without a rational justification.  Black boys are treated as police ‘property’ whilst their white friends that are with them are treated very differently, with courtesy and respect.

An often-articulated statement by police officers is that people from BAME background do not want to join the police.  True, not all BAME people want to join the police but enough do. My plea to senior officers is work to reduce the rate of attrition for those that do join:  For example, Home Office data (March 2019) suggests that 23% of recruits to MPS were people from BAME backgrounds, so joining at a higher rate BUT the same document shows that voluntary resignation is 26% BAME and 17% white officers.  Additionally, 2.6% of BAME officers are dismissed compared to 1.2% white officers.

The journey for many Black officers (in my experience the BAME category fair better collectively) is comparable to them running a 400 metres stable chase alongside their white colleagues who are running a 4x1 400 metres sprint relay.  Consequently, Black officers never realise their potential, because the hurdles they must overcome grinds them down and saps away their energy.

When Government take an active role to understand the reasons why Black people face structural racism by public bodies, they would receive confidence in their commitment by not appointing a lead for a commission who is on record doubting the existence of institutional racism.

Whatever our colour, race or social standing, society needs the police. If we are genuinely going to address racism and its destructive effects, every one of us need to look at ourselves and ask:

What do I need to do to take Black people off the list of police ‘property’?

• The answer is to stop stereotyping Black people as low status, unintelligent, aggressive, dangerous, self-destructive, and sub-human, and recognise the privilege and comfort that comes from remaining ‘silent’.

Every senior police leader advocating for change must make a commitment to empty the police ‘property’ list so that Black people and others subject by the majority to negative stereotyping as ‘low status’ are not treated contemptuous and with excessive force and they don’t end up as a death in custody. 

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Should We Ban Cinderella?

by Les May

IN the mid-nineteen seventies a lady I know well set up home with a man who was divorced.  The couple were happy and their relationship prospered.  A few years later one of the man’s daughters, by now a defensive seventeen years old, arrived on their doorstep.   The lady suddenly found herself with a bit of on the job training in how to be a stepmother.  After a couple of blips a mutual respect and then affection developed between the the two.

Time moved on, the daughter married and soon stepmother became ‘grandma’. The young couple decided that their prospects were better abroad and left for the antipodes.  Back in the UK the lady’s on the job training in how to be a stepmother continued as his other two children also appeared, soon to be followed by four more small voices saying ‘grandma’.

She obviously did rather well in her new role.  After nearly forty years Birthdays and Mothers’ Day bring cards and gifts; there’s a sympathetic ear when it’s needed; hour long phone chats are not unusual.

But it shouldn’t be like that!  Everyone knows that stepmothers are wicked.  It must be true.  Every Christmas don’t we spend time and money and effort brainwashing small children into believing it with pantomime versions of the Grimm’s fairy tale Cinderella?

I’ve never thought to ask the lady if she’s disturbed by the universal portrayal of stepmothers as wicked.  I rather doubt it as she seem to lack the narcissism and self absorption necessary for someone to voice such a clam.  But of course I don’t really know.  Should I discover my ‘wokeness’ and write to the actors’ union Equity asking them to advise their members not to take part in pantomimes which portray stepmothers as wicked?

The downside to that of course is that the lady might tell me not to make such a fool of myself; that my interference because she might feel uncomfortable is paternalistic and treats her like a child, not an adult, and would I please mind my own business.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a good idea to try to get Cinderella banned after all; people might think I’m a Nutter!

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Our Celebration of the Britannia Coconut Dancers!

Bacup Nutters

NORTHERN VOICES support for the Bacup Nutters stretches back to a 4-page article in the print edition of NV number 9 (Summer 2008) celebrating the incredible story of dancer Stanley Wainwright.  The tale concluded with a short verse;

Let's 'ave a Nutters statue in town centre

With fountain gushin' under his feet

Dancing on top of the watter

An' lit up every neet

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Black Lives Matter Movement: A New Inquisition?

 a Spaniard questions new craze
by  Carlos Figueroa [Madrid]

Diego Mateo López Zapata in his cell 
before his trial by the Inquisition Court of Cuenca

IT IS VERY interesting to hear in the post below about this dance in Lancashire, related to Moors in UK!!!  Of course [in Spain] we have many traditions related to this 7 centuries, Santiago Matamoros, the parties in the East Coast called Moros y Cristianos...  My opinion is that this fight is related to the Black Lives Matter Movement, anti-slavery demonstrations and this sort of thing.  I know they threw Colton statue in Bristol... I don't like these new forms of "Inquisicion".

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Will Po-faced Politics Trump Local Custom?

Britannia Coconut Dancers

by Brian Bamford

BELOW is a news report this month by Stuart Pike , the 
Rossendale Free Press Deputy Editor, which claims
that the public up Bacup and beyond, are backing
the rights of the Britannia Coconut Dancers* to
continue to black-up to do their traditional clog dancing. 
Meanwhile Northern Voices has spoken to Gavin McNulty
for the Britannia coconutters and he says that the motion for
them to wash their faces has come from 'down South' 

*  The Britannia Coco-nut Dancers or Nutters are a troupe of Lancastrian clog dancers who perform every Easter in Bacup, dancing 7 miles (11 km) across the town.^[1] There are eight dancers and a whipper-in, who controls the proceedings.^[2]

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In an e-mail Derek Pattison asks:

'After toppling statues, the woke / trendy left, have now got the Rossendale coconut dancers in their cross hairs. Should the Nutters remove their black face paint which they say has no racial connotations but is connected with the mining industry and is a Lancashire tradition.  Northern Voices writers, Brian Bamford and Chris Draper, have fond memories of the anarchist Julian Pilling who was a celebrated and legendary Lancashire Nutter.  What do they think?'

Chris Draper replies:

'Definitely not! The whole "Nutter" tradition is demonstrably laced with irreverent humour and irony - it is not an unwarranted celebration of dominance, celebrity, exploitation and savagery as exemplified by the memorialisation of Colston, Hawkins, Churchill, Gladstone et al.  It is an eccentric historical anachronism that reminds all true Northerners of those glory days when off-duty, unwashed miners laboured in the vast Rossendale Coconut Plantations.'

Row over use of face paint for Britannia Coconut Dancers routines

The [Irwell] Valley public are firmly behind the Britannia Coconut Dancers in a row over the use of face paint, the group has said.

The popular dance troupe say they are among folk dancing groups affected by a potential ban on the use of full-face skin tone makeup - in the light of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The Coconutters, which date back to the mid-19th century, say their full-face black makeup has no racial connotations and reflects the origins of the dance in the mining community.

Three Morris [Dancer] organisations issued a joint statement this week calling on the use of full-face black or skin tone makeup to be eliminated by member groups.

A motion will be put forward to the AGM in September moving that the Morris Federation should not renew membership for teams that do not comply.
Group secretary Gavin McNulty told LancsLive they are working with their Morris governing organisation, but said if they were unable to agree “a compromise” the Nutters would be forced to go “on our own”.
He said: “There’s been a lot of strong support for the team to carry on as it is. It’s infuriating that people think they don’t like something or don’t agree with it and they want to change it.
“It’s a tradition that’s been going and will be kept going. We move forward how we think is best. Teams like ourselves have been there for hundreds of years. Our tradition is going to remain.”


He said they would know more once they have been able to convene a meeting - probably next month.

The Coconutters website states: “The dances the team perform are ‘folk dances’ and the custom of blackened faces are thought to reflect a pagan tradition as a disguise from the evil spirits / and part of the mining connections.”

The Morris Dancer's Federation statement said:  “While no morris dancer wants to cause offence, we must recognise that full-face black or other skin tone makeup is a practice that has the potential to cause deep hurt.
“Morris is a living tradition and it is right that it has always adapted and evolved to reflect society.
"We want people from all races and backgrounds to share in this pride and not be made to feel unwelcome or uncomfortable by any element of a performance.”

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Another Outing For Mr Nobody

by Les May

LISTENING to the news reports of the response by the different agencies one might have expected to have taken action earlier to shut down the Leicester ‘sweat shops’ I had a strong sense of deja vu; I’ve heard it all before.  I saw it in my own town a few years ago when a ‘marked register’, a precaution against voter fraud, went missing, possibly stolen, from a polling station.  There should have been a police investigation; there wasn’t.  A candidate who should have been informed that this had happened and wasn’t, tried to pursue the matter and found nobody would take responsibility.  He described it as the ‘sloping shoulders syndrome’. I saw it again when a Rochdale Labour councillor, Faisal Rana, who had voted twice in the election failed to declare his interests within the specified time.   Council officers wriggled and squirmed to avoid taking any action.   Once again nobody would take responsibility. It reached scandal proportions with regard to the Grenfell Tower fire.   It was Mr Nobody who was responsible yet again.

In Leicester it not even true to say the existence of the sweat shops and what was happening in the decrepit buildings that housed them was ‘an open secret’; it wasn’t even a secret!  A journalist had written an article for the Financial Times drawing attention to them.  In January 2020 Tory MP Andrew Bridgen had raised serious concerns over the conditions in garment factories.  Nobody took notice.

The agencies which might have been involved, HMRC to check no one was fiddling the furlough scheme, the Health and Safety Executive that social distancing by workers was being enforces, the Fire Service that the decrepit buildings were not a fire risk, the Police to check that no one was being forced to work in unsafe conditions against their will, do to some extent have the excuse that that they were no asked to intervene by the body that has ultimate responsibility for what goes on in Leicester, the local council. It seems Mr Nobody was responsible once again.

What is perhaps most disturbing about this is that responsibility for keeping the rate of transmission of the SarsCov2 virus which causes Covid19 disease is being placed in the hands of local councils.  Will Mr Nobody be responsible if they don’t do the job properly?  Figures released on Friday show that Rochdale where I live has 149 cases which is an infection rate of 68 per 100,000 of the population. (These figures are based on data for the fortnight up to 12 July)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-53448533

If you actually look at the advice being given by RMBC to bring down the rate of infection, limit visitors in your home to two, wear a face mask in public and keep two metres apart from at all times they are not really much different from the vague advice coming from Boris Johnson et al.  Where is the guidance about work?  About travel?   About eating out?  But should I really expect better from a council which feels it is acceptable that a councillor who admitted voting twice in the same election should be appointed to a committee which deals with planning applications?

http://democracy.rochdale.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=6271

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Selfishness or Racism?

by Les May

I’M just back from a stroll with my wife in Rochdale’s Springfield Park.  As well as a golf course and running track there’s a length of a synthetic material which forms an all weather wicket for impromptu games of cricket.  At one end of this we noticed a man and a woman using it as an outdoor gym complete with equipment for weight training.

Whilst we were strolling a group of two dozen young men who I don’t think would object to being called Asian, though I prefer to think of them as fellow Rochdalians gradually arrived.  Carrying bats and balls they were clearly intent on a game of cricket.

Now one might reasonably have expected that the duo would have moved off the surface intended as a cricket wicket and so let the game proceed.  But no, selfishly they stayed put and the young men had to content themselves with a bit of bowling practice with a wicket at the other end.

I’ve called this selfishness, others who observed it might choose to call it racism. Selfishness privileges one’s self over others irrespective of their skin colour; racism privileges one’s self over others because they have a different skin colour. Which of these motivated this pair to behave as they did I don’t know and nor does anyone else. To me these motivations seem awfully alike and equally reprehensible. Or maybe that is just my ‘white privilege’ talking.

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The dark factories in Britain’s garment trade

Leicester's Shameful Industries & Covid-19

ON the 17th,May 2018 Sarah O'Connor in the Financial Times [FT] asked: 'How is it possible to make cheap clothes in a country where the minimum wage for over-25s is £7.83 an hour?' 

She suggested:   'Online retailers’ nimbleness and lower overheads allow them to pay more for products while still giving consumers a good price. In addition, there are manufacturers that use technology to make clothes more efficiently' and she added 'factory owners in Leicester say some take a different route, one more reminiscent of the 19th century than the 21st.  They call these places “dark factories”.'  

At that time it seemed part of May 17 2018’s garment industry in Leicester had become detached from UK employment law, 'a country within a country', where '£5 an hour is considered the top wage', even though that is illegal.  And one man said he had worked in places with blocked fire escapes, old machines and no holiday or sick pay.

Now a week ago Sarah O'Connor in the same FT wrote:
'Covid-19 has found its way into the neglected cracks in our economies. In the US, Europe and Asia, poor working conditions in care homes, meat plants and factories have helped to spread the virus.  This week [3rd, July 2020], a campaign group blamed clothing sweatshops in the English city of Leicester for contributing to a local surge in cases.  The story of Leicester’s garment district is worth knowing, because it reveals something important about how the British economy evolved in the decade between the financial crisis and this pandemic.  It also demonstrates what it will take for the country to “build back better”, as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to do this week.'

Sarah O'Connor describes how in 2018, she investigated Leicester’s clothing industry which she concludes was 'a bizarre microeconomy where £4 to £4.50 an hour was the going rate for sewing machinists in many factories (£3 for packers).'  Based on tiny sweatshops that were crammed into crumbling old buildings and legally compliant factories using expensive machines were being outcompeted by illegally underpaid humans.

When she exposed this industry two years ago she likened it to be more like the  19th Century than the 21st Century.

It seems that large scale buyers of Leicester’s clothes are based online as 'fast fashion' retailers, which have done well in the pandemic owing to the proximity and speed of their UK suppliers.   And Boohoo, which sources about 40 per cent of its clothing in the UK, much of it in Leicester, prospered in lockdown by switching nimbly to producing leisurewear for the homebound, while rivals were left with shipping containers from Asia full of summer party dresses.

It seems that the big boy on the block Boohoo’s co-founder Mahmud Kamani has become a billionaire and is set for a £50m bonus if Boohoo’s share price continues to rise.  And the campaign group Labour Behind the Label has alleged that the some of company’s suppliers contributed to the spread of coronavirus; meanwhile Boohoo says it adhered to all government guidance and that its supply chain adheres to all labour laws, though it does not publish a list of its suppliers.

Sarah O'Connor reports that:
'Leicester’s sweatshops, which comprise part but not all of the city’s garment sector, were an open secret even before my investigation began. In fact, a senior Whitehall official first told me about them.  A local official in Leicester warned me in 2018 that, if I published my story, I would cause mass unemployment for people with no other options. In fact, nothing changed.  After publication, I was invited to testify at a parliamentary select committee hearing into the costs of online fast fashion.  The government rejected every one of the committee’s recommendations.'


Ms. O'Connor writes:  'As unemployment rises in the months ahead, it will be vital to focus on jobs.  But to prioritise quantity while turning a blind eye to quality would be to repeat past mistakes.' 

Tellingly she points to the crucial coming dilemma:  'As well as the feared harm to public health, Leicester’s economy will suffer from a prolonged lockdown and fall further behind more prosperous parts of the UK.  So much for “levelling up”.  In truth, there was always an economic cost to allowing labour exploitation to flourish.  The garment factories are a microcosm of Britain’s productivity problem.  Job creation boomed after the financial crisis and ministers did not worry initially about their quality.  They pushed up the minimum wage but left it badly under-enforced, while cutting back health and safety inspections to free up “entrepreneurialism”.'

This is all too reminiscent of other industries which have suffered like the British building trade and outsourcing.

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WORST 20 VIRUS OUTBREAKS IN ENGLAND

A digital billboard in Bradford city centre warns the public about keeping safe.

The government has drawn up a list of 20 councils facing the worst coronavirus outbreaks in England, with Bradford, Sheffield and Kirklees identified as areas needing “enhanced support”, according to a classified document leaked to the Observer and the Guardian.

As evidence mounts that the relaxation of lockdown rules is leading to a resurgence of Covid-19 in some of England’s most deprived and ethnically mixed areas, officials have ordered the army to deploy extra mobile testing units, which will be sent into a series of hotspots around the country from this weekend.

Public Health England (PHE), the country’s lead infection control agency, 

briefed local government health chiefs last week that ministers were considering publishing a ranking of the 10 councils most affected by new outbreaks, which could be released within days. Councils fear the data will be used to enforce more local lockdowns of the kind imposed in Leicester, where all but essential shops must stay shut, schoolchildren have been sent home, and pubs and restaurants remain closed.

The top 10 ranking is likely to be based on a document circulated to local health chiefs on Thursday, headed “official sensitive”. The chart, compiled by PHE and reproduced here, ranks the 20 councils with the highest proportion of positive cases. Leicester remains at its head, with 5.7% of individuals who underwent a test found to have the virus. Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, was not far behind, with a 5% rate. Bradford, and Blackburn with Darwen in Lancashire, were the next highest.

Titled “local authority areas of interest”, the table is based on testing between 21 June and 4 July. It identifies six areas of “concern”. More serious cases are labelled as needing “enhanced support”, with three councils in this category. One – Leicester – is listed as requiring “intervention”.

The document states “these areas are currently under investigation by the local public health protection teams”. “Testing access is being increased in areas including Bradford”, it says, and the areas listed are “associated with workplace outbreaks which have contributed to the increase in infection rates”.

Last month, 164 workers at a meat factory in Kirklees tested positive, and at the beginning of July, a bed factory in Batley, which is administered by Kirklees Council, was closed after eight workers were found to have the virus.The communities most affected have several factors in common: poverty, poor health and a high proportion of non-white residents.

The top 10 is likely to change daily, although some areas will remain severely affected for weeks, health directors believe.

 

 

“Those on the list are going to be characterised by higher deprivation, higher black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities and denser housing,” said a public health director briefed on the plans.

“Some are going to be in the list for the whole period of the pandemic. The drivers are structural and demographic, so the pattern of spread will reflect the inequalities that already existed. Some of the most strapped-for-cash councils are going to be dealing with some of the worst outbreaks.”

Areas with large south Asian populations, particularly where several generations may share a home and live in crowded conditions, are among those emerging as particularly at risk.

Hand sanitiser at Kober meat processing plant in Cleckheaton, confirmed as the location of a localised coronavirus outbreak.

Bradford has the highest proportion of people of Pakistani origin in England.

The council has today deployed testing units, staffed by the armed forces, to its Bowling and Keighley districts. Residents will be able to be tested without an appointment. Similar units will be deployed in Blackburn and Sheffield.

“Bradford has a higher infection rate than most but it’s coming down due to action we’ve taken,” said council leader Susan Hinchcliffe.  “We welcome the dialogue with government.  We’re already doing more testing than any other authority in the region, but want to do more.”

Bradford has asked for its own mobile testing units, more environmental health officers, support to pay full wages to low-paid workers having to self-isolate, and funding to develop its own local test-and-trace system.

Officials have not yet outlined what metrics will be used to impose further lockdowns, but it is understood a system based on the German model is under discussion.  This would involve a threshold of 50 weekly positive tests per 100,000 of the population in any given council.  Once that is breached, special measures could be triggered.

Data made public on Thursday shows Leicester is currently on 116 new cases per 100,000 of population per week, down from 140 two weeks ago.

Rochdale is in second place, with nearly 33 cases, down from over 50 three weeks ago.  Kirklees is also suffering high rates, as are Bradford, Blackburn with Darwen, Rotherham and Bedford.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, announced the UK’s first local lockdown on 29 June as Leicester reported 944 new cases in a fortnight.  Non-essential shops and schools were shut, and pubs and restaurants were unable to reopen. 

Legislation to enforce the restrictions was pushed through parliament.

Desperate to avoid Leicester’s fate, councils are lobbying for a “graded response”, the local public health director said, with a rolling back of some elements of lockdown, such as larger gatherings, rather than closure of whole sectors. “What we want to avoid is the secretary of state making clumsy, unhelpful interventions, so we are getting ahead of the curve, understanding what our problem is and acting to address it.  But we are hampered by slow reporting of data and absence of data,” they added.

Councils have only just begun to receive a breakdown of new cases by postcode, and this is arriving weekly.  Health chiefs say they need the information daily if they are to spot outbreaks in time to stop them spreading.

The plans to publish a top 10 were discussed on a regional call with Public Health England, two public health directors confirmed.  “They seem to be intent on putting it into the public domain,” said one of those on the call.  “We have expressed some concerns over how they do it, as the data does need to be interpreted. Nonetheless, I welcome transparency.”

The classified list of 20 at-risk councils uses six metrics including number of cases per 100,000 of population per week and per day, percentage of individuals testing positive as a proportion of all tests, and “exceedances”.  This is where councils are issued with a red light because they consistently have more positive cases than forecast by a government algorithm. A slightly lower number of exceedances leads to an amber light.

The chart also shows the number of community outbreaks per council over the last week. Outbreaks are classed as two or more positive tests in a single setting, such as a workplace, school or prison.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it did not have a set trigger, but would use a range of data to decide where and how to act, stating:  “We have been transparent about our response to coronavirus and are always looking to improve the data we publish, including the way we update testing statistics.

“The list of the 10 local authorities with the highest weekly incidence of coronavirus is already publicly available in PHE’s weekly surveillance report.

“All councils in England now have the ability to access testing data, right down to an individual and postcode level.  If councils feel they require more assistance with data, of course, PHE is able to help them.”

Kirklees and Sheffield councils were approached for comment.

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Dave Douglass: Why I'm No Longer a 'Wobbly'! *

 Farewell British Isles Industrial Workers of the World
by Dave Douglass

Follonsby Miners Lodge Banner

FOR almost fifty years I have been a member of the IWW since it reformed in Britain in the late 70’s.  At that time it did what it said on the tin, it was a revolutionary union based on the principles on which it was founded in 1905 in Chicago, the principle of One Industry One Union, with all workers in one industry in the same union regardless of craft or skill or grade. United through their industries to One Big Union of all workers.  It sought not just a fair days wage but abolition of wage slavery, it fought for the next slice of bread and demanded the bakery.  Unions like the NUM and NUR at that time were based upon the principle after the early Industrial Unionists and Syndicalists in 1908/ 1909 and programmes like The Miners Next Step, and Industrial Union Britain had a profound influence on the trade union and labour movement.  We (The IWW through the 70’s 80’s and 90’s) continued to work within the mass unions as cells and duel members, we of course worked within communities on community issues too.  During the decades I was associated with the IWW I worked a lifetime in the mines and during that time South Yorkshire and North East IWW branches.  We organised large conferences and rallies within the heart of working-class communities and in mass mobilisations of the class and militant sections of it.  North Eastern IWW hosted a conference on Clean Coal technology and Climate change and commissioned a pamphlet in support of the coal communities and industry in defence of the miners union on the basis of clean coal technology.

The IWW internationally had had a significant impact on the pre-WW1 war and post WW1 war period, particularly within the Irish Socialist Republican Movement and coalfields Miners Federation of GB.

George Harvey first national organiser of the IWW in Britain, creator of the Follonsby (Red)Banner. Lodge Secretary Follonsby Wardley Lodge.

It is the inspiration of the miners ‘red banners’ and northern IWW members were influential in recreating the red miners Follonsby banner and forming the Follonsby Miners Lodge Association.  It carries the portrait of Harvey first British organiser of the IWW Connolly first national organiser of the IWW and founder member, Arthur Cook syndicalist president of the Miners Federation during the 26 lock out and General Strike, and V I Lenin whose slogan All Power to the Soviets sounded like the same aims of the IWW and the international Industrial Unions.

It has toured the country and been used as a central plank for lectures on our revolutionary history and culture, as well as publications on the banner and founder members of Industrial Unionism in Britain.  We had been regular guests at the James Connell commemoration in Kills County Meath, a Wobbly and author of The Red Flag, our banners and his influence inspired a radical red RMT union banner.  In major commemorations of 1912, 1926, and annually the Durham Miners Gala where we always had a marquee and bookstall and organised major rallies and discussions about revolutionary class politics.  From time to time we organised workers into the union and represented them at work and tribunals.  I had the honour last year of having the Follonsby Banner as the backdrop to a lecture on the struggles of the IWW and the Wobblies in Irish revolutionary history and the British mines, at the Socialist Republican commemoration of the Hunger Strikers.

To cut a decades long story short, over the last ten years and more I have been more and more distanced and disillusioned with the team calling itself the British IWW , to start with it has become hugely more centralised than it has ever been in its creation.  The decentralised democratic function of the branches is now controlled and centralised into a national leadership.  Sad to say the ‘union’ has become dominated by the south of England and within that a largely middle class London based membership who have carried their liberal left agenda’s straight from that milieu into the policy of the union.  You could be listening to the young liberal leftist Corbynista’s, Climate Extinction or now the IWW.  The social outlook of this milieu has grated for some time.  I was amazed for example as a person who fought for my class for ten years from 83 to 93 against pit closures and the slaughter of the coal industry and miners union and community, to hear anti coal anti mining agenda’s rolled out in the name of the union.  It was simply assumed this being the attitude among the southern middle class it was generally agreed, it wasn’t, not by any of us in the rust belts.  But the final straw for me is the wholesale adoption of Identity Politics, the sectarian politics of sex and gender with enforced PC positions again just assumed to be common sense and currency.  The agenda of class struggle and the sovereignty of the working class as a whole the bedrock upon which all other forms of oppression stem and around which we unite as a common class is the absolute bedrock of the IWW or has been up to now.

IWW picket line Gateshead 2014

Today I get sent this:-

Gemma (East Scotland area organiser) and Maddi (Clydeside Branch co-communications officer) are inviting you to the IWW's first online welcome session for women & non-binary members: Wednesday 15th July, at 7pm on Zoom (details below).

Please note: This message is being sent to all IWW members so that everyone can help spread the word. The welcome session on the 15th is specifically for women (trans-inclusive) and non-binary members. If you are a cis-gender man (you were assigned male at birth, and are still male now) then please stay tuned for news of future welcome sessions, or reply to this email if you'd like to speak to someone from your local branch or in your industry.

And today I resign, it’s a long way from Fellow Worker to cis-gender man and designating me not on my class and class orientation but whether I have a problem with the gender I was born with and actually assuming that that is some common feature of humanity.

The IWW for a long time, even when we were doing great things was always a very poor tribute band to the original, today it is no longer a class struggle organisation and is completely shot through with Middle class PC Identity liberal leftist politics.  A Sad and sorry end to a once great organisation, but they can't take away its fine past and heroic contribution. 

*  Origin of Wobbly Theory #1 - "Eye Wobble Wobble"

Also known as the "Chinese Restaurant Owner Theory", this is the most often cited and embellished theory.  There exists plenty of anecdotal evidence to support this theory as having a grain of truth to it.  Although it is equally likely to be little more than a cleverly crafted tall tale or yarn. We quote from Three Original Sources:
(1) The earliest known reference to the term:

In Vancouver, in 1911, we had a number of Chinese members, and one restaurant keeper would trust any member for means. He could not pronounce the letter "w" (due to the "l" sounds in the pronunciation of the letter), but called it "wobble" and would ask, "you Eye Wobble Wobble?" and when the [red] card was shown credit was unlimited. Thereafter the laughing term amongst us was "I Wobbly Wobbly".

--Mortimer Downing, IWW Member. Quoted in Jack Scott, "How the Wobblies Got their Name," in his Plunderbund and Proletariat (Vancouver, BC.: North Star Books, 1975), p. 153. Also quoted in Jerry Lembcke and William M. Tattam, One Union in Wood, A Political History of the International Woodworkers of America (New York, NY.: International Publishers and Madeira Park, BC.: Harbour Publishing, © 1984), pp. 188-89 n31.
(2) The following account is from the Official IWW History:

It was at this time (1912 during a "thousand mile picket line" railway strike in British Columbia) that the term "Wobbly" as nick-name for IWW came into use. Previously they had been called many things from International Wonder Workers to I Won't Works. The origin of the expression "Wobbly" is uncertain. Legend assigns it to the lingual difficulties of a Chinese restaurant keeper with whom arrangements had been made during this strike to feed members passing through his town. When he tried to ask "Are you I.W.W.?" it is said to have come out: "All loo eye wobble wobble?" The same situation, but in Vancouver is given as the 1911 origin of the term by Mortimer Downing in a letter quoted in Nation, Sept. 5, 1923..."

--From The IWW: Its First 100 Years by Fred W. Thompson and Jon Bekken, 2006, IWW: Cincinnati, page 60..
3) This account is further elaborated in the following quote:

The word "Wobbly", a nickname for IWW members, humorously illustrates the union's efforts to combat racism. A Chinese restaurant keeper in Vancouver in 1911 supported the union and would extend credit to members. Unable to pronounce the letter "w", he would ask if a man was in the "I Wobble Wobble". Local members jokingly referred to themselves as part of the "I Wobbly Wobbly," and by the time of the Wheatland strike of 1913, "Wobbly" had become a permanent moniker for workers who carried the red card. Mortimer Downing, a Wobbly who first explained the etymology, noted that the nickname "hints of a fine, practical internationalism, a human brotherhood based on a community of interests and of understanding."

--Mark Leier, Where the Fraser River Flows, The Industrial Workers of the World in British Columbia (Vancouver, BC.: New Star Books, 1990), page 35.

Weighing the Evidence

Conceivably, Downing's account could be the honest truth. According to Dan Cornford (in Workers and Dissent in the Redwood Empire, ©1987, Temple University Press), The IWW was the first labor union in North America to refuse to discriminate against Chinese and Chinese Americans. (Many earlier left-wing organizations, including the Greenback Labor Party and the Knights of Labor discriminated vehemently against Chinese and Japanese Americans. Former members of these organizations (such as George Speed) later joined the IWW and jettisoned their racism). Such interracial solidarity most certainly did not go unnoticed in the Chinese American community, and they would likely have responded favorably to the IWW.
However, all the evidence of the "Chinese Restaurateur Theory" apparently stems from Downing's letter. There is no known independent source that verifies Downing's story. His account may just as easily be a romanticized embellishment of the truth, or it could be pure fiction, and there is no credible proof that it isn't. Downing's narrative also suggests deeply ingrained stereotypical views of Chinese and Chinese-American speech patterns, even by 1911 standards.
Quoting Mark Leier again:

In a letter to the author, dated 31 January 1989, Craig M. Carver, managing editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English states that the Chinese restaurateur version is not given "much credence ... because the story is simply unverifiable." Those with a scientific bent must conclude that the etymology is unknown; romantics may choose to stick with Downing.

--Mark Leier, Where the Fraser River Flows, The Industrial Workers of the World in British Columbia (Vancouver, BC.: New Star Books, 1990), p 35.

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