Category Archives: events and celebration

Branch elections and AGM

Branch elections for all steward and branch officer posts are scheduled each year. The timetable for standing and details of the available posts will be included in an email to members from Camden Unison next week (and there will be emails specifically about the elections too) but please to think about how you can be involved, or if you’re interested in standing for any of the roles and want to find out more about them. Any union branch is only strong and able to make a difference because of members being involved, so we’re always keen to increase our numbers of stewards and officers – it really does make a difference.

We also have an annual general meeting each year, and again there will be lots more information about it in future email, but it’s the afternoon of Weds 3 March 2021. We will be asking for time off to attend as usual, and are making provisions for it to be either online, in real life or a combination of the two, depending on circumstances. Please put the date in your diary now though so that you can come along.

Camden Black Workers Group AGM 3-5pm, Thurs 26 Nov Teams

Camden Black Workers Group Annual General Meeting is scheduled to take place on Thursday 26 November 2020 from 3.00 – 5.00 pm. Time off has been agreed by management. Managers have been notified to release members but please give your manager enough notice so that you can be released to attend this very important meeting.

Guest speakers include Jenny Rowlands (Chief Executive), Hanad Mohammed (Director of Equalities and Disproportionality) and Diane Abbott MP (Former Shadow Home Secretary). No registration is required and the meeting is open to members of the group and other Black and minority ethnic staff.

Come along to contribute to the discussion and share your view on the items on the agenda and more. You can also find out more about the group at the meeting.

There’s still a climate emergency!

The coronavirus pandemic has meant that the climate emergency has not dominated the news in the same way as it did last year, but the threat to our planet has not gone away. We wrote last year about the planned events in Glasgow for the COP26 talks (when world leaders meet to discuss climate change and what actions need to be taken) but COP26 is now pushed back to Nov/Dec 2021. However, the COP26 Coalition who have been organising an alternative conference and activities have gone online, and over the next few days there are loads of meetings and debates that you can register for and take part in. Details and a full timetable are in the link below and there are some really interesting ones so do take a look and go along if you can.

https://cop26coalition.org/

Black British Rebels 1pm, Tues 8 Dec Teams

As a trade union, we want to know all about our rebellious history! Quite often this is a hidden history, and that’s even more so for Black rebels, so Camden UNISON is holding a lunchtime online meeting on Black British Rebels 1pm on Tuesday 8 Dec. The speaker, Hassan Mahamdallie, has written a book on the subject so make a note of the details and come along with your questions and points of view.

Unison along with CBWG have long campaigned to oppose racism in all of its forms. We have been working together to improve real equality in our workplace, challenge discrimination, work to combat institutional and individual racism and to provide solidarity and support for all Black workers and communities in Camden. One way of doing this is the annual celebration of Black History Month (which is becoming Black History Season this year in Camden)

We welcome the decision of Camden Council to have a Black History Season and to pay greater attention to issues of racial inequality. This has been possible because of the work of generations of campaigners in raising awareness of racial injustice – most recently the upsurge of protests that followed the killing of George Floyd in the US. Camden Unison and CBWG have been pressing for the Council to act on equalities issues and to support BHM and it is good that they are committing to do so. Over the years, the Black Workers Group have worked jointly with Camden Unison and Camden Council on a range of initiatives during the Black History month. We welcome the measures being proposed to make the organisation more inclusive and less discriminatory. Despite the disappointments of the past, we have to keep campaigning until we get real change – we owe that to previous anti-racist campaigners and we owe it to future generations.

People from minority ethnic communities are disproportionately impacted by many issues in society including; unemployment, dangerous conditions of front-line work, pay disparities, becoming unemployed during this Covid pandemic, issues of poor housing, problems in the education system, certain health conditions (including Covid-19), negative media portrayals, poor treatment by the police, immigration services, and the criminal justice system but many Black Heroes have contributed so much to society in the past and are still doing so – and they all need to be acknowledged and celebrated for their contributions during the Black History season.

Carter G. Woodson, the individual who created what was originally known as Negro History Week in Washington, D.C., in February 1926. was the second Black American to receive a PhD in history from Harvard—followed by W.E.B. Du Bois a few years later. His vision for Black history as a means of transformation and change is still quite relevant and quite useful. The chains of slavery are gone—but we are all not yet free. The great diversity within the Black community needs the glue of the past to remind us of not just how far we have travelled but, how far there is to go.

Knowing the past opens the door to the future, the continuing importance of Black History Month ensures that we are taking the appropriate steps to safeguard the preservation of Black History.

Woodson believed that his role was to use Black history and culture as a weapon in the struggle for racial uplift. Black history is still a vehicle for change and racial uplift today. Black and White are engaged in Black culture through music and television. It is therefore important to ensure that all communities be exposed to Black history because experiencing Black History Month every year reminds us that history is not dead or distant from our lives.

We should embrace all that makes us stronger and rebuke all that seeks to divide us. Martin Luther King Junior said in the context of many Americans not standing up against discrimination of Black people and their civil rights. “In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends”

Let us all join in the cultural consciousness raising and mobilisation rolled together that is Black History Month.

The Black Lives Matter protests that have followed the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police have thrown racism and how we can challenge it into the spotlight. From police brutality, to institutional racism and decolonising society, millions are now fighting for change. In June, Camden UNISON organised an online event, sponsored by a number of other UNISON branches and bodies, on Soul and the Civil Rights Movement. Speakers included UNISON Assistant General Secretary Roger McKenzie and Michael Brown, a Black Lives Matter activist from California, and we discussed the Civil Rights Movement, the music that was part of it, and the similarities and differences with today. If you missed the meeting and would like to to watch it, look for it on YouTube as a Camden Event

Liz Wheatley
Branch Secretary
Camden UNISON
London Borough of Camden

Telephone:　　　020 7974 1633
Web:　　　　　　　　　　　　　www.camdenunison.org.uk

UNISON Office
3rd floor Crowndale Centre
218 Eversholt Street
London NW1 1BD