UK Labour 'denying minorities a say in NI'
Ethnic minorities in Northern Ireland are being denied a say on British Labour Party policies which could affect them, it was claimed today.
Belfast-based trade unionist Andy McGivern said Labour members in the North would miss out on the setting up of ethnic minority forums to feed into party policy because the leadership would not allow constituency associations to be established there.
Mr McGivern this week instructed his lawyers to proceed with a race discrimination case against the party after the national executive failed to consider an application to set up a constituency party in the North.
But as he prepared to leave Belfast for Labour’s conference in Brighton, the GMB member also argued the party was failing to give ethnic communities in Northern Ireland a voice at a time when they had been subjected to racial violence and intimidation.
“Labour delegates will vote this week on rule changes which will see ethnic minority forums being set up, giving everyone a voice from a constituency level right up to the policy making structures of the party,” he said.
“Welsh, Scottish and European branches of the party will be able to set up forums but we will not because Northern Ireland is not allowed to have constituency parties.
“People from different ethnic backgrounds in the province are being denied a chance to participate fully in the party and contribute to policies that effect them.
“This is at a time when the levels of racial intimidation and violence are rising in Northern Ireland. We need to make the voices of those communities heard in the party, so we can deal with racism on the ground in Northern Ireland.”
Pakistani, Ugandan, Filipino, Chinese and other communities have been the target of racial attacks and harassment in Belfast and other towns this year, with some families petrol bombed and intimidated from their homes.
The attacks have condemned by the British government, church and community leaders, unionist and nationalist politicians and even the Progressive Unionist Party which has links to the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force.
Mr McGivern, however, expressed concern about the British National Party’s attempts to recruit members in the North and claimed it was trying to portray itself as a “cross-community socialist party”.
The GMB member said: “Labour needs to be on the ground challenging racism in Northern Ireland in all its forms.
“We need to be out there saying the British National Party is a far right party, not a cross-community socialist party.
“The only way to do that is by organising constituency parties in Northern Ireland and involving people of all racial backgrounds in shaping the policies which affect them and I don’t just mean anti-racism policies but also health, education etc.”
Mr McGivern was due to lobby several Labour NEC members at the annual conference and was also hoping to raise the ban on constituency parties on the conference floor.
Last year he succeeded in getting the party to overturn its 79-year ban on people in Northern Ireland joining Labour after he initiated race discrimination proceedings against the party.
It is estimated around 100 people have joined in the North but they have been disappointed by the national executive’s refusal to allow them to organise in Northern Ireland’s 18 Westminster constituencies.
They have also accused the leadership of giving people in Northern Ireland second class membership and denying them the same rights as their colleagues in England, Scotland and Wales.
Mr McGivern was also due to meet the deputy leader of the Republic’s Labour Party Liz McManus in Brighton and will ask her to lobby her British counterparts to revoke the ban.
They will also explore the possibility of dual membership of the British and Irish Labour parties being offered to people in the province.
The trade unionist’s campaign is also being supported by the GMB nationally and by a number of MP s including Andrew Mackinlay and Northern Ireland-born Kate Hoey.
