The magazine of the Fire Brigades Union Black and Ethnic Minority Membersensp gtenspwwwfbuorguk Summer 2012

AdvisorMeet rep Carl Petch page 3

She did overcomeDoreen Lawrencersquos long fight for justice Page 6

2 Advisor Summer 2012

FOREWORD

ForewordWe face a continuing struggle

The year began with very little of the optimism normally associated with a lsquonewrsquo year The reality is that we face a continuing struggle to maintain our current standards of living in the face of government attacks on the public sector Our service has seen cuts like never before with no pay rise on the horizon and an increase in our hard-earned pension contributions for the next three years

Making internal savings has resulted in us being unable to produce a hard copy of this edition but we decided that it was important to keep our members updated partic-ularly after the cancellation of the BampEMM school in 2011

SchoolWith the BampEMM

school high on our agenda the

FBU had decided that all sectional

schools will be held at the front end of the year

Although the committee felt strongly that the school being held in October was appropriate during Black History Month it was agreed that holding a school earlier in the year would also have its advantages and that with sufficient planning it would be possible to then hold an FBU event in October to celebrate Black History Month Subsequently we were unable to secure an earlier date so our BampEMM school will revert to its usual weekend ndash 12-14 October 2012 Information

and process for the 2012 school will be issued as soon as possible

Equality agendaThe last two years have seen the governmentrsquos downgrading of the equality agenda and although the brigades have been trusted to monitor their own equality and diversity policies there has been a noticeable downturn in equality depart-ments throughout the fire service Your national committee is committed to reiterating the importance of the equality agenda and the impact that changes to policy will have on our workplace and communities

It is not just the fire service that has been affected All public sector organisations have been changed by this downgrading and the fight is on to get this government to recognise the negative impact this has on making the fire service fully representative of all our communities

PensionsThe first phase of the pensions campaign has been concluded The evidence provided by the FBU has been considered and we have managed to negotiate

a reduction in the first year contributions increase and two reviews on the issues of pensions opt-out and retirement age Our negoti-ators felt it was the best that could be achieved at this time and the executive council decided on that basis while we will not be having a ballot for industrial action the campaign continues

RestructuringDespite opposition from BampEMM the executive council have also recom-mended as part of the continuing FBU re-structure that voting rights on its committees be withdrawn from the equality sections and also that the reserved seats on the EC for BampEMM NWC and the LGBT be removed

The FBU special conference in June will make the final decision The BampEMM national committee hope that other structures will join us in opposing this proposal

On the moveSince our last edition we have lost regional represen-tation in Regions 9 and 12 However we have gained regional reps in Region 5 Bros Carl Petch Region 13

Obi Selassie and Region 7 Rod Barrett Welcome to the national committee we have much to do Our long serving Region 7 rep Colin Jarrett retired in February and we wish him a long and healthy retirement We also thank him for his efforts over many years We also saw our dearly loved official Samantha Samuels stepping down ndash Carole Brown has been elected in her place Our national chair Lud Ramsey was honoured with the STUC equality award (see inside) ndash well deserved brother

Stephen LawrenceThere was one piece of heartening news at the beginning of the year ndash the judgement that saw the murderers of Stephen Lawrence were finally nailed and jailed 18 years after they were part of a racist gang that attacked and killed him The other three or four members are still at large and hopefully one day we will also see them incarcerated for their crimes See the article inside this edition

Changes in our workplaces and personal lives affect the amount of time each one of us can give in helping our members and continually representing in their best interests Whatever decisions are taken by our employers or our union rest assured we shall continue to fight for the hard earned right to have our voices heardMichael NicholasExecutive Council member for BampEMM

Your national committee is committed to reiterating the importance of the equality agenda and the impact that changes to policy will have on our workplace and communities

Summer 2012 Advisor 3

I have rcently been appointed as the black and ethnic minority (BampEMM) rep for region 5

I joined the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service in August 2001 aged 18 and even at that age I was confidentcocky and very much into challenging everything like a bull in a china shop Ten years later Irsquom still ldquoassertiverdquo and very much challenging everything but I use a different approach which I feel has produced results I believe that this attitude and other experiences have given me the potential to be a positive regional BampEMM rep I have been the brigade rep for a while now

As the regional rep I have taken on additional responsibilities and activities My primary role is to organise BampEMM activity in the region attend regional and brigade meetings and to inform brigade BampEMM reps

I want to get a rep in each brigade in region 5 In Lancashire we have Naveed in Cheshire we have Erdal In Merseyside we have a possible rep and in Greater Manchester we have another member who has expressed an interest so hopefully in a short time we will have four out of five reps in place

If any BampEMM in Cumbria wants to discuss representing in their brigade then contact me or a brigade official ndash we will be delighted to hear from you

Anyone who takes up a reprsquos position will learn so much and it is great to hear important information about your brigade first-hand and have the ability to pass it on to other members

I would highly recommend the position of brigade BampEMM rep In the words of Malcolm X ldquoIf you donrsquot stand for something then yoursquoll fall for anythingrdquo

Contents

News4 TUC black workersrsquo

conference Firefighterrsquos equality

award Equality in Scotland

Focus5 Haiti

Mark Brown Yorkshire and Humberside region BampEMM rep reports on an eye-opening fundraiser for earthquake victims

Feature6 Overcoming injustice

Michael Nicholas FBU executive council member for black and ethnic minority members explains the long fight for justice for Stephen Lawrence

Back page8 Diary personal contacts

Published by the Fire Brigades Union Bradley House 68 Coombe Road Kingston upon Thames KT2 7AE Tel 020 8541 1765 Fax 020 8546 5187

Design by Edition Periodicals The Brix St Matthewrsquos Church Brixton Hill London SW2 1JF wwweditionperiodicalscouk

Cover picture Rod Leon

Meet a repCarl Petch BampEMM rep region 5

Carl Petch In the words of Malcolm X lsquoIf you donrsquot stand for something then yoursquoll fall for anythingrsquo

Anyone who takes up a reprsquos position will learn so much

4 Advisor Summer 2012

News Summer 2012Advi

sor

Lud wins top awardFBU equality rep Lud Ramsay a fire and education officer for Lothian and Borders FRS has won the Scottish TUC One Workplace Equality Award for making an exceptional impact in challenging racism and promoting equality

He joined Hampshire FRS in 1988 as its first black and ethnic minority firefighter

He led on a successful campaign against BNP membership in the fire and rescue service and developed good-practice measures to attract more under-represented groups to join the service

He was invited to join Lothian and Borders in 2008 to address the lack of BME people in Scotlandrsquos fire service and developed a recruitment outreach volunteer team

This involved open days community events and other methods to help fire and rescue service recruitment become more transparent

Lud has highlighted a number of issues in Scotland that need to be addressed in relation to BME members

His work has resulted in Lothian and Borders FRS having the highest figures for BMEs in their fire service and has encouraged all fire and rescue services across Scotland to take equality issues more seriously

Single Scottish service ndash a suitable case for equalitySami Chaudhry Dumfries amp Galloway brigade chair

While colleagues south of the border are battling against mergers and amalga-mations north of the border we are contem-plating the prospect of a single fire service

It has been talked about in all my 16 yearsrsquo service but with the decreasing financial settlement to the Scottish government from Westminster it has

become a necessity and inevitable

What does this mean for BampEMM and the other equalities sections in Scotland

The Scottish government has retained many of the standards that the Westminster government has binned recently

The way we do business is quite different but that does not mean that everything will be hunky dory Maintaining and

improving our standing in the fire service will always be a struggle as we will always be the minority

I believe what will be different is where there was good practice in one brigade it will be spread across the whole country and where a brigade was failing resources and experience will be used to bring it up Lift as we climb

Perhaps the biggest reason for optimism is that work on devel-opment of the new

service is significantly influenced by the FBU Regional brigade and sectional reps are directly engaged in workstreams that will determine the size shape and principles of the service

We are optimistic that a service that practices respect and dignity for all will be a just reward for all our efforts and represen-tation and encourage all communities in Scotland to see the service as a viable and rewarding career

TUC equality motionThis yearrsquos TUC black workers conference took place in London in April with 220 delegates from 29 unions The FBU sent four delegates and an observer The FBUrsquos motion was on the scrapping of central auditing of equality in the fire and rescue service This has seriously put at risk all the improvements made on equality and diversity in recent years

Delegates were also informed of the proposal

going to FBUrsquos annual conference to remove

equality structures voting rights and reserved seats The FBUrsquos emergency

motion on forced evictions of refused

refugees in Glasgow was strongly supported by a Scottish UNITE delegate The result of the race committee elections saw Michael Nicholas re-elected to the committee with the second-highest vote

The conference voted

that motion 9 on Stephen Lawrencersquos legacy should go to congress in September

The conference was chaired by Unison lay official Eleanor Smith who highlighted black activistsrsquo role in defending black communities in the light of the governmentsrsquo public service cuts

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber spoke about the Stephen Lawrence case and of his admiration for the Lawrence family He paid tribute to their campaign for justice and launched a new TUC campaign in honour of their struggle ndash Stephen

Lawrence 1818 Stephenrsquos mother Doreen Lawrence spoke to the conference about the work of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust and of her continuing struggle for an inquiry into the allegedly corrupt police investigations

She encouraged delegates to discuss the work of the trust in our communities and to support it financially as it relies entirely on public funding

Labour shadow cabinet minister and Brixton MP Chuka Umunna addressed the conference as did Lee Jasper from the Black Activists Rising Against Cuts campaign

FBU delegates (l to r) Mark Brown (R4) Michael Nicholas (EC member) Garrett Brooks (R10) and Carl Petch (R5)

HAITI

Summer 2012 Advisor 5

The FBU was a joint sponsor of a solidarity event for Haiti at TUC Congress House in London in January this year that commemorated the second anniversary of the disastrous earthquake that hit the country in January 2010

The event began with factual information about what the population of the poorest country in the western hemisphere has been going through

A short film ndash ldquoWhere Did the Money Gordquo ndash showed how the money that has been donated to many charities has done little to help the poverty stricken population

Concerns have been raised about charitiesrsquo expenses and how charity workers behave in the country living in luxury hotels while the people they are there to help are across the street in tents struggling to survive The film was very informative

Later we took part in a discussion with Mario

Joseph a civil rights lawyer from Haiti Mr Joseph has worked on behalf of the Haitian poor for many years and informed us how the UN peacekeeping forces from Nepal introduced cholera into Haiti He has been gathering evidence with a view to taking legal action against the UN

EpidemicHe claims that the cholera that UN peacekeepers introduced to Haiti in October 2010 has led to Haitiansrsquo rights to health and life being violated with over 26000 sick and 200 dead in just one month and over 7000 dead and 500000 sickened since the epidemic started The UN declines to provide the medical treatment and clean water necessary to control the epidemic and refuses to allow the victims their day in court

A UN report confirmed that ldquooverwhelming evidencerdquo points to peacekeepers of the UN Stabilization Mission to

Haiti (MINUSTAH) as the source of the cholera

The report cites the missionrsquos failure to test peacekeepers deployed from cholera epidemic zones abroad and waste disposal practices that allowed raw sewage to flow into Haitirsquos largest river system

The UN refuses to accept responsibility for the epidemic claiming that other factors including Haitirsquos poor water and healthcare systems were responsible But those factors were well known at the time the UN made the decisions about testing troops deployed from cholera zones and maintaining its waste disposal system and were a basis for the UN exercising greater care not an excuse for negligence

We then saw a documentary ndash ldquoBaseball In A Time Of Cholerardquo ndash about a young boyrsquos life and how cholera has affected him and his family

The second part of the event was a concert of world music We heard Eri Okan a

Brazilian group playing lively carnival music Alexander D Great and Debra Romain are a calypso duo ndash Debra plays the steel pan and Alexander the guitar

Carmen Rodney sang gospel acapella and we then had another short address from Mario Joseph who also requested two minutes silence to commemorate the time the earthquake struck Haiti

LivelyAfter that we heard from Akala Ashebar and the African Revolution an African drum-based group that got the crowd going with

some upbeat lively music We finished with Zena the soul singer and David the human beatbox

Overall the event was well attended and I hope the fundraising was positive The information presented certainly raised my awareness of the situation in Haiti since the disaster

To show your support got to wwwhaitijusticeorg and sign the petition

Mark Brown Yorkshire and Humberside region BampEMM rep reports on an eye-opening fundraiser for earthquake victims

Where did Haiti charity money go

lsquoOverwhelm-ing evidencersquo points to UN peacekeepers as the source of cholera in Haiti camps (bottom)

PICTURES JESS HURDREPORTDIGITALCOUK

STEPHEN LAWRENCE

6 Advisor Summer 2012

Michael Nicholas FBU executive council member for black and ethnic minority members explains the long fight for justice for Stephen Lawrence

It is to be hoped that the 3 January 2012 will be noted as the date when a black family finally saw light within the sometimes murky depths of the British criminal justice system It was though a ldquostrange kind of justicerdquo The date saw a guilty verdict and subsequent life imprisonment of two of the perpetrators of the savage assault that led to the death of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence

Murdered Let us be reminded that in 1993 Stephen Lawrence was a bright young black man with aspirations of becoming an architect before he was murdered by that racist gang in Eltham London

His parents Doreen and Neville and other family members have suffered severe collateral damage that sadly culminated in the break-up of his parentrsquos marriage

The Lawrences have fought and continue to fight an 18-year battle in their journey to attain justice for Stephen While the 3 January verdict was their first positive outcome thanks to new legis-lation and forensic science it has still come eighteen years too late And let us not forget that at least three other murderous thugs are still free

Let us not ever under-estimate the role of the Metropolitan Police service in the debacle that has occurred since that fateful night in 1993 Allegations of collusion with known criminals corruption racism and incompetence led to the ground-breaking Macpherson inquiry that confirmed what many in our black communities had been

saying for decades that our police service discriminates on the grounds of race and that black and ethnic minority people received a poorer service from the police than their white neighbours

Tenacious Rest assured that there would have been no inquiry without the tenacity of the campaign from the Lawrences and their associates Principal police officers and politicians opposed such an inquiry for years until there was a change of government and political emphasis

The Macpherson report and recommendations led to the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 which forced all public services to provide a fairer service to all in our communities

Trade unions also played their part and rightly so as the biggest representatives of black workers in our commu-nities The TUC established the Stephen Lawrence Task Force with the objective of elimi-nating institutional racism in the workplace (still a work in progress)

The fire service launched a thematic review that also found practices in the fire service suffering from the same institutional malaise

The reality of campaigning is that we have to fight for every change that is necessary within the criminal justice system It is a sad fact that the Lawrence family and so many others ndash people campaigning against deaths in custody for instance ndash have to dedicate whole lives or the best part of them to seeking justice over the loss of

loved ones The racist discrimination

that according to Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate and former principle MPS officer Brian Paddick is ldquoendemicrdquo in the Metropolitan Police is still a factor in many other public institutions ndash so that fight continues

Doreen Lawrence spoke at this yearrsquos TUC Black Workers conference in April What she

said was heartbreaking and yet heart-warming too

We can only commend Doreen Neville Lawrence family members and associates for their strength fortitude and determination in ensuring that Stephenrsquos short life and horrific death had a lasting impact on British society

The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust was set up in Stephenrsquos memory so that

RO

D LEO

N

Summer 2012 Advisor 7

PAGE LABEL

More informationwwwsoundcloudcomzita-holbournestrange-kind-of-justice-in

wwwtucorguksltg

wwwstephenlawrenceorguk

You can donate pound2 by texting DLAW02 pound2 to 70070

young people from deprived backgrounds can receive bursaries to pursue careers in architecture

See the website address on the right for how you can donate to help the Trustrsquos good work to continue

StruggleThe struggle for all of us who believe in justice and equality continues and we need to

ensure that we all play a part in supporting and assisting those who fight against the greatest odds to achieve that objective Doreen continues to demand answers of the Metropolitan Police over its flawed inves-tigations and allegations of corruption ndash a campaign we need to support

Doreen and Neville Lawrence you are an inspiration and we salute you We shall overcome

At the 2012 TUC Black Workers Conference (l-r) Wilf Sullivan (TUC Race Equality Officer) Doreen Lawrence Micky Nicholas and Gloria Mills (TUC General Council member Chair of TUC Race Relations Committee and former TUC President)

2 Advisor Summer 2012

FOREWORD

ForewordWe face a continuing struggle

The year began with very little of the optimism normally associated with a lsquonewrsquo year The reality is that we face a continuing struggle to maintain our current standards of living in the face of government attacks on the public sector Our service has seen cuts like never before with no pay rise on the horizon and an increase in our hard-earned pension contributions for the next three years

Making internal savings has resulted in us being unable to produce a hard copy of this edition but we decided that it was important to keep our members updated partic-ularly after the cancellation of the BampEMM school in 2011

SchoolWith the BampEMM

school high on our agenda the

FBU had decided that all sectional

schools will be held at the front end of the year

Although the committee felt strongly that the school being held in October was appropriate during Black History Month it was agreed that holding a school earlier in the year would also have its advantages and that with sufficient planning it would be possible to then hold an FBU event in October to celebrate Black History Month Subsequently we were unable to secure an earlier date so our BampEMM school will revert to its usual weekend ndash 12-14 October 2012 Information

and process for the 2012 school will be issued as soon as possible

Equality agendaThe last two years have seen the governmentrsquos downgrading of the equality agenda and although the brigades have been trusted to monitor their own equality and diversity policies there has been a noticeable downturn in equality depart-ments throughout the fire service Your national committee is committed to reiterating the importance of the equality agenda and the impact that changes to policy will have on our workplace and communities

It is not just the fire service that has been affected All public sector organisations have been changed by this downgrading and the fight is on to get this government to recognise the negative impact this has on making the fire service fully representative of all our communities

PensionsThe first phase of the pensions campaign has been concluded The evidence provided by the FBU has been considered and we have managed to negotiate

a reduction in the first year contributions increase and two reviews on the issues of pensions opt-out and retirement age Our negoti-ators felt it was the best that could be achieved at this time and the executive council decided on that basis while we will not be having a ballot for industrial action the campaign continues

RestructuringDespite opposition from BampEMM the executive council have also recom-mended as part of the continuing FBU re-structure that voting rights on its committees be withdrawn from the equality sections and also that the reserved seats on the EC for BampEMM NWC and the LGBT be removed

The FBU special conference in June will make the final decision The BampEMM national committee hope that other structures will join us in opposing this proposal

On the moveSince our last edition we have lost regional represen-tation in Regions 9 and 12 However we have gained regional reps in Region 5 Bros Carl Petch Region 13

Obi Selassie and Region 7 Rod Barrett Welcome to the national committee we have much to do Our long serving Region 7 rep Colin Jarrett retired in February and we wish him a long and healthy retirement We also thank him for his efforts over many years We also saw our dearly loved official Samantha Samuels stepping down ndash Carole Brown has been elected in her place Our national chair Lud Ramsey was honoured with the STUC equality award (see inside) ndash well deserved brother

Stephen LawrenceThere was one piece of heartening news at the beginning of the year ndash the judgement that saw the murderers of Stephen Lawrence were finally nailed and jailed 18 years after they were part of a racist gang that attacked and killed him The other three or four members are still at large and hopefully one day we will also see them incarcerated for their crimes See the article inside this edition

Changes in our workplaces and personal lives affect the amount of time each one of us can give in helping our members and continually representing in their best interests Whatever decisions are taken by our employers or our union rest assured we shall continue to fight for the hard earned right to have our voices heardMichael NicholasExecutive Council member for BampEMM

Your national committee is committed to reiterating the importance of the equality agenda and the impact that changes to policy will have on our workplace and communities

Summer 2012 Advisor 3

I have rcently been appointed as the black and ethnic minority (BampEMM) rep for region 5

I joined the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service in August 2001 aged 18 and even at that age I was confidentcocky and very much into challenging everything like a bull in a china shop Ten years later Irsquom still ldquoassertiverdquo and very much challenging everything but I use a different approach which I feel has produced results I believe that this attitude and other experiences have given me the potential to be a positive regional BampEMM rep I have been the brigade rep for a while now

As the regional rep I have taken on additional responsibilities and activities My primary role is to organise BampEMM activity in the region attend regional and brigade meetings and to inform brigade BampEMM reps

I want to get a rep in each brigade in region 5 In Lancashire we have Naveed in Cheshire we have Erdal In Merseyside we have a possible rep and in Greater Manchester we have another member who has expressed an interest so hopefully in a short time we will have four out of five reps in place

If any BampEMM in Cumbria wants to discuss representing in their brigade then contact me or a brigade official ndash we will be delighted to hear from you

Anyone who takes up a reprsquos position will learn so much and it is great to hear important information about your brigade first-hand and have the ability to pass it on to other members

I would highly recommend the position of brigade BampEMM rep In the words of Malcolm X ldquoIf you donrsquot stand for something then yoursquoll fall for anythingrdquo

Contents

News4 TUC black workersrsquo

conference Firefighterrsquos equality

award Equality in Scotland

Focus5 Haiti

Mark Brown Yorkshire and Humberside region BampEMM rep reports on an eye-opening fundraiser for earthquake victims

Feature6 Overcoming injustice

Michael Nicholas FBU executive council member for black and ethnic minority members explains the long fight for justice for Stephen Lawrence

Back page8 Diary personal contacts

Published by the Fire Brigades Union Bradley House 68 Coombe Road Kingston upon Thames KT2 7AE Tel 020 8541 1765 Fax 020 8546 5187

Design by Edition Periodicals The Brix St Matthewrsquos Church Brixton Hill London SW2 1JF wwweditionperiodicalscouk

Cover picture Rod Leon

Meet a repCarl Petch BampEMM rep region 5

Carl Petch In the words of Malcolm X lsquoIf you donrsquot stand for something then yoursquoll fall for anythingrsquo

Anyone who takes up a reprsquos position will learn so much

4 Advisor Summer 2012

News Summer 2012Advi

sor

Lud wins top awardFBU equality rep Lud Ramsay a fire and education officer for Lothian and Borders FRS has won the Scottish TUC One Workplace Equality Award for making an exceptional impact in challenging racism and promoting equality

He joined Hampshire FRS in 1988 as its first black and ethnic minority firefighter

He led on a successful campaign against BNP membership in the fire and rescue service and developed good-practice measures to attract more under-represented groups to join the service

He was invited to join Lothian and Borders in 2008 to address the lack of BME people in Scotlandrsquos fire service and developed a recruitment outreach volunteer team

This involved open days community events and other methods to help fire and rescue service recruitment become more transparent

Lud has highlighted a number of issues in Scotland that need to be addressed in relation to BME members

His work has resulted in Lothian and Borders FRS having the highest figures for BMEs in their fire service and has encouraged all fire and rescue services across Scotland to take equality issues more seriously

Single Scottish service ndash a suitable case for equalitySami Chaudhry Dumfries amp Galloway brigade chair

While colleagues south of the border are battling against mergers and amalga-mations north of the border we are contem-plating the prospect of a single fire service

It has been talked about in all my 16 yearsrsquo service but with the decreasing financial settlement to the Scottish government from Westminster it has

become a necessity and inevitable

What does this mean for BampEMM and the other equalities sections in Scotland

The Scottish government has retained many of the standards that the Westminster government has binned recently

The way we do business is quite different but that does not mean that everything will be hunky dory Maintaining and

improving our standing in the fire service will always be a struggle as we will always be the minority

I believe what will be different is where there was good practice in one brigade it will be spread across the whole country and where a brigade was failing resources and experience will be used to bring it up Lift as we climb

Perhaps the biggest reason for optimism is that work on devel-opment of the new

service is significantly influenced by the FBU Regional brigade and sectional reps are directly engaged in workstreams that will determine the size shape and principles of the service

We are optimistic that a service that practices respect and dignity for all will be a just reward for all our efforts and represen-tation and encourage all communities in Scotland to see the service as a viable and rewarding career

TUC equality motionThis yearrsquos TUC black workers conference took place in London in April with 220 delegates from 29 unions The FBU sent four delegates and an observer The FBUrsquos motion was on the scrapping of central auditing of equality in the fire and rescue service This has seriously put at risk all the improvements made on equality and diversity in recent years

Delegates were also informed of the proposal

going to FBUrsquos annual conference to remove

equality structures voting rights and reserved seats The FBUrsquos emergency

motion on forced evictions of refused

refugees in Glasgow was strongly supported by a Scottish UNITE delegate The result of the race committee elections saw Michael Nicholas re-elected to the committee with the second-highest vote

The conference voted

that motion 9 on Stephen Lawrencersquos legacy should go to congress in September

The conference was chaired by Unison lay official Eleanor Smith who highlighted black activistsrsquo role in defending black communities in the light of the governmentsrsquo public service cuts

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber spoke about the Stephen Lawrence case and of his admiration for the Lawrence family He paid tribute to their campaign for justice and launched a new TUC campaign in honour of their struggle ndash Stephen

Lawrence 1818 Stephenrsquos mother Doreen Lawrence spoke to the conference about the work of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust and of her continuing struggle for an inquiry into the allegedly corrupt police investigations

She encouraged delegates to discuss the work of the trust in our communities and to support it financially as it relies entirely on public funding

Labour shadow cabinet minister and Brixton MP Chuka Umunna addressed the conference as did Lee Jasper from the Black Activists Rising Against Cuts campaign

FBU delegates (l to r) Mark Brown (R4) Michael Nicholas (EC member) Garrett Brooks (R10) and Carl Petch (R5)

HAITI

Summer 2012 Advisor 5

The FBU was a joint sponsor of a solidarity event for Haiti at TUC Congress House in London in January this year that commemorated the second anniversary of the disastrous earthquake that hit the country in January 2010

The event began with factual information about what the population of the poorest country in the western hemisphere has been going through

A short film ndash ldquoWhere Did the Money Gordquo ndash showed how the money that has been donated to many charities has done little to help the poverty stricken population

Concerns have been raised about charitiesrsquo expenses and how charity workers behave in the country living in luxury hotels while the people they are there to help are across the street in tents struggling to survive The film was very informative

Later we took part in a discussion with Mario

Joseph a civil rights lawyer from Haiti Mr Joseph has worked on behalf of the Haitian poor for many years and informed us how the UN peacekeeping forces from Nepal introduced cholera into Haiti He has been gathering evidence with a view to taking legal action against the UN

EpidemicHe claims that the cholera that UN peacekeepers introduced to Haiti in October 2010 has led to Haitiansrsquo rights to health and life being violated with over 26000 sick and 200 dead in just one month and over 7000 dead and 500000 sickened since the epidemic started The UN declines to provide the medical treatment and clean water necessary to control the epidemic and refuses to allow the victims their day in court

A UN report confirmed that ldquooverwhelming evidencerdquo points to peacekeepers of the UN Stabilization Mission to

Haiti (MINUSTAH) as the source of the cholera

The report cites the missionrsquos failure to test peacekeepers deployed from cholera epidemic zones abroad and waste disposal practices that allowed raw sewage to flow into Haitirsquos largest river system

The UN refuses to accept responsibility for the epidemic claiming that other factors including Haitirsquos poor water and healthcare systems were responsible But those factors were well known at the time the UN made the decisions about testing troops deployed from cholera zones and maintaining its waste disposal system and were a basis for the UN exercising greater care not an excuse for negligence

We then saw a documentary ndash ldquoBaseball In A Time Of Cholerardquo ndash about a young boyrsquos life and how cholera has affected him and his family

The second part of the event was a concert of world music We heard Eri Okan a

Brazilian group playing lively carnival music Alexander D Great and Debra Romain are a calypso duo ndash Debra plays the steel pan and Alexander the guitar

Carmen Rodney sang gospel acapella and we then had another short address from Mario Joseph who also requested two minutes silence to commemorate the time the earthquake struck Haiti

LivelyAfter that we heard from Akala Ashebar and the African Revolution an African drum-based group that got the crowd going with

some upbeat lively music We finished with Zena the soul singer and David the human beatbox

Overall the event was well attended and I hope the fundraising was positive The information presented certainly raised my awareness of the situation in Haiti since the disaster

To show your support got to wwwhaitijusticeorg and sign the petition

Mark Brown Yorkshire and Humberside region BampEMM rep reports on an eye-opening fundraiser for earthquake victims

Where did Haiti charity money go

lsquoOverwhelm-ing evidencersquo points to UN peacekeepers as the source of cholera in Haiti camps (bottom)

PICTURES JESS HURDREPORTDIGITALCOUK

STEPHEN LAWRENCE

6 Advisor Summer 2012

Michael Nicholas FBU executive council member for black and ethnic minority members explains the long fight for justice for Stephen Lawrence

It is to be hoped that the 3 January 2012 will be noted as the date when a black family finally saw light within the sometimes murky depths of the British criminal justice system It was though a ldquostrange kind of justicerdquo The date saw a guilty verdict and subsequent life imprisonment of two of the perpetrators of the savage assault that led to the death of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence

Murdered Let us be reminded that in 1993 Stephen Lawrence was a bright young black man with aspirations of becoming an architect before he was murdered by that racist gang in Eltham London

His parents Doreen and Neville and other family members have suffered severe collateral damage that sadly culminated in the break-up of his parentrsquos marriage

The Lawrences have fought and continue to fight an 18-year battle in their journey to attain justice for Stephen While the 3 January verdict was their first positive outcome thanks to new legis-lation and forensic science it has still come eighteen years too late And let us not forget that at least three other murderous thugs are still free

Let us not ever under-estimate the role of the Metropolitan Police service in the debacle that has occurred since that fateful night in 1993 Allegations of collusion with known criminals corruption racism and incompetence led to the ground-breaking Macpherson inquiry that confirmed what many in our black communities had been

saying for decades that our police service discriminates on the grounds of race and that black and ethnic minority people received a poorer service from the police than their white neighbours

Tenacious Rest assured that there would have been no inquiry without the tenacity of the campaign from the Lawrences and their associates Principal police officers and politicians opposed such an inquiry for years until there was a change of government and political emphasis

The Macpherson report and recommendations led to the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 which forced all public services to provide a fairer service to all in our communities

Trade unions also played their part and rightly so as the biggest representatives of black workers in our commu-nities The TUC established the Stephen Lawrence Task Force with the objective of elimi-nating institutional racism in the workplace (still a work in progress)

The fire service launched a thematic review that also found practices in the fire service suffering from the same institutional malaise

The reality of campaigning is that we have to fight for every change that is necessary within the criminal justice system It is a sad fact that the Lawrence family and so many others ndash people campaigning against deaths in custody for instance ndash have to dedicate whole lives or the best part of them to seeking justice over the loss of

loved ones The racist discrimination

that according to Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate and former principle MPS officer Brian Paddick is ldquoendemicrdquo in the Metropolitan Police is still a factor in many other public institutions ndash so that fight continues

Doreen Lawrence spoke at this yearrsquos TUC Black Workers conference in April What she

said was heartbreaking and yet heart-warming too

We can only commend Doreen Neville Lawrence family members and associates for their strength fortitude and determination in ensuring that Stephenrsquos short life and horrific death had a lasting impact on British society

The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust was set up in Stephenrsquos memory so that

RO

D LEO

N

Summer 2012 Advisor 7

PAGE LABEL

More informationwwwsoundcloudcomzita-holbournestrange-kind-of-justice-in

wwwtucorguksltg

wwwstephenlawrenceorguk

You can donate pound2 by texting DLAW02 pound2 to 70070

young people from deprived backgrounds can receive bursaries to pursue careers in architecture

See the website address on the right for how you can donate to help the Trustrsquos good work to continue

StruggleThe struggle for all of us who believe in justice and equality continues and we need to

ensure that we all play a part in supporting and assisting those who fight against the greatest odds to achieve that objective Doreen continues to demand answers of the Metropolitan Police over its flawed inves-tigations and allegations of corruption ndash a campaign we need to support

Doreen and Neville Lawrence you are an inspiration and we salute you We shall overcome

At the 2012 TUC Black Workers Conference (l-r) Wilf Sullivan (TUC Race Equality Officer) Doreen Lawrence Micky Nicholas and Gloria Mills (TUC General Council member Chair of TUC Race Relations Committee and former TUC President)

Summer 2012 Advisor 3

I have rcently been appointed as the black and ethnic minority (BampEMM) rep for region 5

I joined the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service in August 2001 aged 18 and even at that age I was confidentcocky and very much into challenging everything like a bull in a china shop Ten years later Irsquom still ldquoassertiverdquo and very much challenging everything but I use a different approach which I feel has produced results I believe that this attitude and other experiences have given me the potential to be a positive regional BampEMM rep I have been the brigade rep for a while now

As the regional rep I have taken on additional responsibilities and activities My primary role is to organise BampEMM activity in the region attend regional and brigade meetings and to inform brigade BampEMM reps

I want to get a rep in each brigade in region 5 In Lancashire we have Naveed in Cheshire we have Erdal In Merseyside we have a possible rep and in Greater Manchester we have another member who has expressed an interest so hopefully in a short time we will have four out of five reps in place

If any BampEMM in Cumbria wants to discuss representing in their brigade then contact me or a brigade official ndash we will be delighted to hear from you

Anyone who takes up a reprsquos position will learn so much and it is great to hear important information about your brigade first-hand and have the ability to pass it on to other members

I would highly recommend the position of brigade BampEMM rep In the words of Malcolm X ldquoIf you donrsquot stand for something then yoursquoll fall for anythingrdquo

Contents

News4 TUC black workersrsquo

conference Firefighterrsquos equality

award Equality in Scotland

Focus5 Haiti

Mark Brown Yorkshire and Humberside region BampEMM rep reports on an eye-opening fundraiser for earthquake victims

Feature6 Overcoming injustice

Michael Nicholas FBU executive council member for black and ethnic minority members explains the long fight for justice for Stephen Lawrence

Back page8 Diary personal contacts

Published by the Fire Brigades Union Bradley House 68 Coombe Road Kingston upon Thames KT2 7AE Tel 020 8541 1765 Fax 020 8546 5187

Design by Edition Periodicals The Brix St Matthewrsquos Church Brixton Hill London SW2 1JF wwweditionperiodicalscouk

Cover picture Rod Leon

Meet a repCarl Petch BampEMM rep region 5

Carl Petch In the words of Malcolm X lsquoIf you donrsquot stand for something then yoursquoll fall for anythingrsquo

Anyone who takes up a reprsquos position will learn so much

4 Advisor Summer 2012

News Summer 2012Advi

sor

Lud wins top awardFBU equality rep Lud Ramsay a fire and education officer for Lothian and Borders FRS has won the Scottish TUC One Workplace Equality Award for making an exceptional impact in challenging racism and promoting equality

He joined Hampshire FRS in 1988 as its first black and ethnic minority firefighter

He led on a successful campaign against BNP membership in the fire and rescue service and developed good-practice measures to attract more under-represented groups to join the service

He was invited to join Lothian and Borders in 2008 to address the lack of BME people in Scotlandrsquos fire service and developed a recruitment outreach volunteer team

This involved open days community events and other methods to help fire and rescue service recruitment become more transparent

Lud has highlighted a number of issues in Scotland that need to be addressed in relation to BME members

His work has resulted in Lothian and Borders FRS having the highest figures for BMEs in their fire service and has encouraged all fire and rescue services across Scotland to take equality issues more seriously

Single Scottish service ndash a suitable case for equalitySami Chaudhry Dumfries amp Galloway brigade chair

While colleagues south of the border are battling against mergers and amalga-mations north of the border we are contem-plating the prospect of a single fire service

It has been talked about in all my 16 yearsrsquo service but with the decreasing financial settlement to the Scottish government from Westminster it has

become a necessity and inevitable

What does this mean for BampEMM and the other equalities sections in Scotland

The Scottish government has retained many of the standards that the Westminster government has binned recently

The way we do business is quite different but that does not mean that everything will be hunky dory Maintaining and

improving our standing in the fire service will always be a struggle as we will always be the minority

I believe what will be different is where there was good practice in one brigade it will be spread across the whole country and where a brigade was failing resources and experience will be used to bring it up Lift as we climb

Perhaps the biggest reason for optimism is that work on devel-opment of the new

service is significantly influenced by the FBU Regional brigade and sectional reps are directly engaged in workstreams that will determine the size shape and principles of the service

We are optimistic that a service that practices respect and dignity for all will be a just reward for all our efforts and represen-tation and encourage all communities in Scotland to see the service as a viable and rewarding career

TUC equality motionThis yearrsquos TUC black workers conference took place in London in April with 220 delegates from 29 unions The FBU sent four delegates and an observer The FBUrsquos motion was on the scrapping of central auditing of equality in the fire and rescue service This has seriously put at risk all the improvements made on equality and diversity in recent years

Delegates were also informed of the proposal

going to FBUrsquos annual conference to remove

equality structures voting rights and reserved seats The FBUrsquos emergency

motion on forced evictions of refused

refugees in Glasgow was strongly supported by a Scottish UNITE delegate The result of the race committee elections saw Michael Nicholas re-elected to the committee with the second-highest vote

The conference voted

that motion 9 on Stephen Lawrencersquos legacy should go to congress in September

The conference was chaired by Unison lay official Eleanor Smith who highlighted black activistsrsquo role in defending black communities in the light of the governmentsrsquo public service cuts

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber spoke about the Stephen Lawrence case and of his admiration for the Lawrence family He paid tribute to their campaign for justice and launched a new TUC campaign in honour of their struggle ndash Stephen

Lawrence 1818 Stephenrsquos mother Doreen Lawrence spoke to the conference about the work of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust and of her continuing struggle for an inquiry into the allegedly corrupt police investigations

She encouraged delegates to discuss the work of the trust in our communities and to support it financially as it relies entirely on public funding

Labour shadow cabinet minister and Brixton MP Chuka Umunna addressed the conference as did Lee Jasper from the Black Activists Rising Against Cuts campaign

FBU delegates (l to r) Mark Brown (R4) Michael Nicholas (EC member) Garrett Brooks (R10) and Carl Petch (R5)

HAITI

Summer 2012 Advisor 5

The FBU was a joint sponsor of a solidarity event for Haiti at TUC Congress House in London in January this year that commemorated the second anniversary of the disastrous earthquake that hit the country in January 2010

The event began with factual information about what the population of the poorest country in the western hemisphere has been going through

A short film ndash ldquoWhere Did the Money Gordquo ndash showed how the money that has been donated to many charities has done little to help the poverty stricken population

Concerns have been raised about charitiesrsquo expenses and how charity workers behave in the country living in luxury hotels while the people they are there to help are across the street in tents struggling to survive The film was very informative

Later we took part in a discussion with Mario

Joseph a civil rights lawyer from Haiti Mr Joseph has worked on behalf of the Haitian poor for many years and informed us how the UN peacekeeping forces from Nepal introduced cholera into Haiti He has been gathering evidence with a view to taking legal action against the UN

EpidemicHe claims that the cholera that UN peacekeepers introduced to Haiti in October 2010 has led to Haitiansrsquo rights to health and life being violated with over 26000 sick and 200 dead in just one month and over 7000 dead and 500000 sickened since the epidemic started The UN declines to provide the medical treatment and clean water necessary to control the epidemic and refuses to allow the victims their day in court

A UN report confirmed that ldquooverwhelming evidencerdquo points to peacekeepers of the UN Stabilization Mission to

Haiti (MINUSTAH) as the source of the cholera

The report cites the missionrsquos failure to test peacekeepers deployed from cholera epidemic zones abroad and waste disposal practices that allowed raw sewage to flow into Haitirsquos largest river system

The UN refuses to accept responsibility for the epidemic claiming that other factors including Haitirsquos poor water and healthcare systems were responsible But those factors were well known at the time the UN made the decisions about testing troops deployed from cholera zones and maintaining its waste disposal system and were a basis for the UN exercising greater care not an excuse for negligence

We then saw a documentary ndash ldquoBaseball In A Time Of Cholerardquo ndash about a young boyrsquos life and how cholera has affected him and his family

The second part of the event was a concert of world music We heard Eri Okan a

Brazilian group playing lively carnival music Alexander D Great and Debra Romain are a calypso duo ndash Debra plays the steel pan and Alexander the guitar

Carmen Rodney sang gospel acapella and we then had another short address from Mario Joseph who also requested two minutes silence to commemorate the time the earthquake struck Haiti

LivelyAfter that we heard from Akala Ashebar and the African Revolution an African drum-based group that got the crowd going with

some upbeat lively music We finished with Zena the soul singer and David the human beatbox

Overall the event was well attended and I hope the fundraising was positive The information presented certainly raised my awareness of the situation in Haiti since the disaster

To show your support got to wwwhaitijusticeorg and sign the petition

Mark Brown Yorkshire and Humberside region BampEMM rep reports on an eye-opening fundraiser for earthquake victims

Where did Haiti charity money go

lsquoOverwhelm-ing evidencersquo points to UN peacekeepers as the source of cholera in Haiti camps (bottom)

PICTURES JESS HURDREPORTDIGITALCOUK

STEPHEN LAWRENCE

6 Advisor Summer 2012

Michael Nicholas FBU executive council member for black and ethnic minority members explains the long fight for justice for Stephen Lawrence

It is to be hoped that the 3 January 2012 will be noted as the date when a black family finally saw light within the sometimes murky depths of the British criminal justice system It was though a ldquostrange kind of justicerdquo The date saw a guilty verdict and subsequent life imprisonment of two of the perpetrators of the savage assault that led to the death of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence

Murdered Let us be reminded that in 1993 Stephen Lawrence was a bright young black man with aspirations of becoming an architect before he was murdered by that racist gang in Eltham London

His parents Doreen and Neville and other family members have suffered severe collateral damage that sadly culminated in the break-up of his parentrsquos marriage

The Lawrences have fought and continue to fight an 18-year battle in their journey to attain justice for Stephen While the 3 January verdict was their first positive outcome thanks to new legis-lation and forensic science it has still come eighteen years too late And let us not forget that at least three other murderous thugs are still free

Let us not ever under-estimate the role of the Metropolitan Police service in the debacle that has occurred since that fateful night in 1993 Allegations of collusion with known criminals corruption racism and incompetence led to the ground-breaking Macpherson inquiry that confirmed what many in our black communities had been

saying for decades that our police service discriminates on the grounds of race and that black and ethnic minority people received a poorer service from the police than their white neighbours

Tenacious Rest assured that there would have been no inquiry without the tenacity of the campaign from the Lawrences and their associates Principal police officers and politicians opposed such an inquiry for years until there was a change of government and political emphasis

The Macpherson report and recommendations led to the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 which forced all public services to provide a fairer service to all in our communities

Trade unions also played their part and rightly so as the biggest representatives of black workers in our commu-nities The TUC established the Stephen Lawrence Task Force with the objective of elimi-nating institutional racism in the workplace (still a work in progress)

The fire service launched a thematic review that also found practices in the fire service suffering from the same institutional malaise

The reality of campaigning is that we have to fight for every change that is necessary within the criminal justice system It is a sad fact that the Lawrence family and so many others ndash people campaigning against deaths in custody for instance ndash have to dedicate whole lives or the best part of them to seeking justice over the loss of

loved ones The racist discrimination

that according to Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate and former principle MPS officer Brian Paddick is ldquoendemicrdquo in the Metropolitan Police is still a factor in many other public institutions ndash so that fight continues

Doreen Lawrence spoke at this yearrsquos TUC Black Workers conference in April What she

said was heartbreaking and yet heart-warming too

We can only commend Doreen Neville Lawrence family members and associates for their strength fortitude and determination in ensuring that Stephenrsquos short life and horrific death had a lasting impact on British society

The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust was set up in Stephenrsquos memory so that

RO

D LEO

N

Summer 2012 Advisor 7

PAGE LABEL

More informationwwwsoundcloudcomzita-holbournestrange-kind-of-justice-in

wwwtucorguksltg

wwwstephenlawrenceorguk

You can donate pound2 by texting DLAW02 pound2 to 70070

young people from deprived backgrounds can receive bursaries to pursue careers in architecture

See the website address on the right for how you can donate to help the Trustrsquos good work to continue

StruggleThe struggle for all of us who believe in justice and equality continues and we need to

ensure that we all play a part in supporting and assisting those who fight against the greatest odds to achieve that objective Doreen continues to demand answers of the Metropolitan Police over its flawed inves-tigations and allegations of corruption ndash a campaign we need to support

Doreen and Neville Lawrence you are an inspiration and we salute you We shall overcome

At the 2012 TUC Black Workers Conference (l-r) Wilf Sullivan (TUC Race Equality Officer) Doreen Lawrence Micky Nicholas and Gloria Mills (TUC General Council member Chair of TUC Race Relations Committee and former TUC President)

4 Advisor Summer 2012

News Summer 2012Advi

sor

Lud wins top awardFBU equality rep Lud Ramsay a fire and education officer for Lothian and Borders FRS has won the Scottish TUC One Workplace Equality Award for making an exceptional impact in challenging racism and promoting equality

He joined Hampshire FRS in 1988 as its first black and ethnic minority firefighter

He led on a successful campaign against BNP membership in the fire and rescue service and developed good-practice measures to attract more under-represented groups to join the service

He was invited to join Lothian and Borders in 2008 to address the lack of BME people in Scotlandrsquos fire service and developed a recruitment outreach volunteer team

This involved open days community events and other methods to help fire and rescue service recruitment become more transparent

Lud has highlighted a number of issues in Scotland that need to be addressed in relation to BME members

His work has resulted in Lothian and Borders FRS having the highest figures for BMEs in their fire service and has encouraged all fire and rescue services across Scotland to take equality issues more seriously

Single Scottish service ndash a suitable case for equalitySami Chaudhry Dumfries amp Galloway brigade chair

While colleagues south of the border are battling against mergers and amalga-mations north of the border we are contem-plating the prospect of a single fire service

It has been talked about in all my 16 yearsrsquo service but with the decreasing financial settlement to the Scottish government from Westminster it has

become a necessity and inevitable

What does this mean for BampEMM and the other equalities sections in Scotland

The Scottish government has retained many of the standards that the Westminster government has binned recently

The way we do business is quite different but that does not mean that everything will be hunky dory Maintaining and

improving our standing in the fire service will always be a struggle as we will always be the minority

I believe what will be different is where there was good practice in one brigade it will be spread across the whole country and where a brigade was failing resources and experience will be used to bring it up Lift as we climb

Perhaps the biggest reason for optimism is that work on devel-opment of the new

service is significantly influenced by the FBU Regional brigade and sectional reps are directly engaged in workstreams that will determine the size shape and principles of the service

We are optimistic that a service that practices respect and dignity for all will be a just reward for all our efforts and represen-tation and encourage all communities in Scotland to see the service as a viable and rewarding career

TUC equality motionThis yearrsquos TUC black workers conference took place in London in April with 220 delegates from 29 unions The FBU sent four delegates and an observer The FBUrsquos motion was on the scrapping of central auditing of equality in the fire and rescue service This has seriously put at risk all the improvements made on equality and diversity in recent years

Delegates were also informed of the proposal

going to FBUrsquos annual conference to remove

equality structures voting rights and reserved seats The FBUrsquos emergency

motion on forced evictions of refused

refugees in Glasgow was strongly supported by a Scottish UNITE delegate The result of the race committee elections saw Michael Nicholas re-elected to the committee with the second-highest vote

The conference voted

that motion 9 on Stephen Lawrencersquos legacy should go to congress in September

The conference was chaired by Unison lay official Eleanor Smith who highlighted black activistsrsquo role in defending black communities in the light of the governmentsrsquo public service cuts

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber spoke about the Stephen Lawrence case and of his admiration for the Lawrence family He paid tribute to their campaign for justice and launched a new TUC campaign in honour of their struggle ndash Stephen

Lawrence 1818 Stephenrsquos mother Doreen Lawrence spoke to the conference about the work of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust and of her continuing struggle for an inquiry into the allegedly corrupt police investigations

She encouraged delegates to discuss the work of the trust in our communities and to support it financially as it relies entirely on public funding

Labour shadow cabinet minister and Brixton MP Chuka Umunna addressed the conference as did Lee Jasper from the Black Activists Rising Against Cuts campaign

FBU delegates (l to r) Mark Brown (R4) Michael Nicholas (EC member) Garrett Brooks (R10) and Carl Petch (R5)

HAITI

Summer 2012 Advisor 5

The FBU was a joint sponsor of a solidarity event for Haiti at TUC Congress House in London in January this year that commemorated the second anniversary of the disastrous earthquake that hit the country in January 2010

The event began with factual information about what the population of the poorest country in the western hemisphere has been going through

A short film ndash ldquoWhere Did the Money Gordquo ndash showed how the money that has been donated to many charities has done little to help the poverty stricken population

Concerns have been raised about charitiesrsquo expenses and how charity workers behave in the country living in luxury hotels while the people they are there to help are across the street in tents struggling to survive The film was very informative

Later we took part in a discussion with Mario

Joseph a civil rights lawyer from Haiti Mr Joseph has worked on behalf of the Haitian poor for many years and informed us how the UN peacekeeping forces from Nepal introduced cholera into Haiti He has been gathering evidence with a view to taking legal action against the UN

EpidemicHe claims that the cholera that UN peacekeepers introduced to Haiti in October 2010 has led to Haitiansrsquo rights to health and life being violated with over 26000 sick and 200 dead in just one month and over 7000 dead and 500000 sickened since the epidemic started The UN declines to provide the medical treatment and clean water necessary to control the epidemic and refuses to allow the victims their day in court

A UN report confirmed that ldquooverwhelming evidencerdquo points to peacekeepers of the UN Stabilization Mission to

Haiti (MINUSTAH) as the source of the cholera

The report cites the missionrsquos failure to test peacekeepers deployed from cholera epidemic zones abroad and waste disposal practices that allowed raw sewage to flow into Haitirsquos largest river system

The UN refuses to accept responsibility for the epidemic claiming that other factors including Haitirsquos poor water and healthcare systems were responsible But those factors were well known at the time the UN made the decisions about testing troops deployed from cholera zones and maintaining its waste disposal system and were a basis for the UN exercising greater care not an excuse for negligence

We then saw a documentary ndash ldquoBaseball In A Time Of Cholerardquo ndash about a young boyrsquos life and how cholera has affected him and his family

The second part of the event was a concert of world music We heard Eri Okan a

Brazilian group playing lively carnival music Alexander D Great and Debra Romain are a calypso duo ndash Debra plays the steel pan and Alexander the guitar

Carmen Rodney sang gospel acapella and we then had another short address from Mario Joseph who also requested two minutes silence to commemorate the time the earthquake struck Haiti

LivelyAfter that we heard from Akala Ashebar and the African Revolution an African drum-based group that got the crowd going with

some upbeat lively music We finished with Zena the soul singer and David the human beatbox

Overall the event was well attended and I hope the fundraising was positive The information presented certainly raised my awareness of the situation in Haiti since the disaster

To show your support got to wwwhaitijusticeorg and sign the petition

Mark Brown Yorkshire and Humberside region BampEMM rep reports on an eye-opening fundraiser for earthquake victims

Where did Haiti charity money go

lsquoOverwhelm-ing evidencersquo points to UN peacekeepers as the source of cholera in Haiti camps (bottom)

PICTURES JESS HURDREPORTDIGITALCOUK

STEPHEN LAWRENCE

6 Advisor Summer 2012

Michael Nicholas FBU executive council member for black and ethnic minority members explains the long fight for justice for Stephen Lawrence

It is to be hoped that the 3 January 2012 will be noted as the date when a black family finally saw light within the sometimes murky depths of the British criminal justice system It was though a ldquostrange kind of justicerdquo The date saw a guilty verdict and subsequent life imprisonment of two of the perpetrators of the savage assault that led to the death of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence

Murdered Let us be reminded that in 1993 Stephen Lawrence was a bright young black man with aspirations of becoming an architect before he was murdered by that racist gang in Eltham London

His parents Doreen and Neville and other family members have suffered severe collateral damage that sadly culminated in the break-up of his parentrsquos marriage

The Lawrences have fought and continue to fight an 18-year battle in their journey to attain justice for Stephen While the 3 January verdict was their first positive outcome thanks to new legis-lation and forensic science it has still come eighteen years too late And let us not forget that at least three other murderous thugs are still free

Let us not ever under-estimate the role of the Metropolitan Police service in the debacle that has occurred since that fateful night in 1993 Allegations of collusion with known criminals corruption racism and incompetence led to the ground-breaking Macpherson inquiry that confirmed what many in our black communities had been

saying for decades that our police service discriminates on the grounds of race and that black and ethnic minority people received a poorer service from the police than their white neighbours

Tenacious Rest assured that there would have been no inquiry without the tenacity of the campaign from the Lawrences and their associates Principal police officers and politicians opposed such an inquiry for years until there was a change of government and political emphasis

The Macpherson report and recommendations led to the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 which forced all public services to provide a fairer service to all in our communities

Trade unions also played their part and rightly so as the biggest representatives of black workers in our commu-nities The TUC established the Stephen Lawrence Task Force with the objective of elimi-nating institutional racism in the workplace (still a work in progress)

The fire service launched a thematic review that also found practices in the fire service suffering from the same institutional malaise

The reality of campaigning is that we have to fight for every change that is necessary within the criminal justice system It is a sad fact that the Lawrence family and so many others ndash people campaigning against deaths in custody for instance ndash have to dedicate whole lives or the best part of them to seeking justice over the loss of

loved ones The racist discrimination

that according to Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate and former principle MPS officer Brian Paddick is ldquoendemicrdquo in the Metropolitan Police is still a factor in many other public institutions ndash so that fight continues

Doreen Lawrence spoke at this yearrsquos TUC Black Workers conference in April What she

said was heartbreaking and yet heart-warming too

We can only commend Doreen Neville Lawrence family members and associates for their strength fortitude and determination in ensuring that Stephenrsquos short life and horrific death had a lasting impact on British society

The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust was set up in Stephenrsquos memory so that

RO

D LEO

N

Summer 2012 Advisor 7

PAGE LABEL

More informationwwwsoundcloudcomzita-holbournestrange-kind-of-justice-in

wwwtucorguksltg

wwwstephenlawrenceorguk

You can donate pound2 by texting DLAW02 pound2 to 70070

young people from deprived backgrounds can receive bursaries to pursue careers in architecture

See the website address on the right for how you can donate to help the Trustrsquos good work to continue

StruggleThe struggle for all of us who believe in justice and equality continues and we need to

ensure that we all play a part in supporting and assisting those who fight against the greatest odds to achieve that objective Doreen continues to demand answers of the Metropolitan Police over its flawed inves-tigations and allegations of corruption ndash a campaign we need to support

Doreen and Neville Lawrence you are an inspiration and we salute you We shall overcome

At the 2012 TUC Black Workers Conference (l-r) Wilf Sullivan (TUC Race Equality Officer) Doreen Lawrence Micky Nicholas and Gloria Mills (TUC General Council member Chair of TUC Race Relations Committee and former TUC President)

HAITI

Summer 2012 Advisor 5

The FBU was a joint sponsor of a solidarity event for Haiti at TUC Congress House in London in January this year that commemorated the second anniversary of the disastrous earthquake that hit the country in January 2010

The event began with factual information about what the population of the poorest country in the western hemisphere has been going through

A short film ndash ldquoWhere Did the Money Gordquo ndash showed how the money that has been donated to many charities has done little to help the poverty stricken population

Concerns have been raised about charitiesrsquo expenses and how charity workers behave in the country living in luxury hotels while the people they are there to help are across the street in tents struggling to survive The film was very informative

Later we took part in a discussion with Mario

Joseph a civil rights lawyer from Haiti Mr Joseph has worked on behalf of the Haitian poor for many years and informed us how the UN peacekeeping forces from Nepal introduced cholera into Haiti He has been gathering evidence with a view to taking legal action against the UN

EpidemicHe claims that the cholera that UN peacekeepers introduced to Haiti in October 2010 has led to Haitiansrsquo rights to health and life being violated with over 26000 sick and 200 dead in just one month and over 7000 dead and 500000 sickened since the epidemic started The UN declines to provide the medical treatment and clean water necessary to control the epidemic and refuses to allow the victims their day in court

A UN report confirmed that ldquooverwhelming evidencerdquo points to peacekeepers of the UN Stabilization Mission to

Haiti (MINUSTAH) as the source of the cholera

The report cites the missionrsquos failure to test peacekeepers deployed from cholera epidemic zones abroad and waste disposal practices that allowed raw sewage to flow into Haitirsquos largest river system

The UN refuses to accept responsibility for the epidemic claiming that other factors including Haitirsquos poor water and healthcare systems were responsible But those factors were well known at the time the UN made the decisions about testing troops deployed from cholera zones and maintaining its waste disposal system and were a basis for the UN exercising greater care not an excuse for negligence

We then saw a documentary ndash ldquoBaseball In A Time Of Cholerardquo ndash about a young boyrsquos life and how cholera has affected him and his family

The second part of the event was a concert of world music We heard Eri Okan a

Brazilian group playing lively carnival music Alexander D Great and Debra Romain are a calypso duo ndash Debra plays the steel pan and Alexander the guitar

Carmen Rodney sang gospel acapella and we then had another short address from Mario Joseph who also requested two minutes silence to commemorate the time the earthquake struck Haiti

LivelyAfter that we heard from Akala Ashebar and the African Revolution an African drum-based group that got the crowd going with

some upbeat lively music We finished with Zena the soul singer and David the human beatbox

Overall the event was well attended and I hope the fundraising was positive The information presented certainly raised my awareness of the situation in Haiti since the disaster

To show your support got to wwwhaitijusticeorg and sign the petition

Mark Brown Yorkshire and Humberside region BampEMM rep reports on an eye-opening fundraiser for earthquake victims

Where did Haiti charity money go

lsquoOverwhelm-ing evidencersquo points to UN peacekeepers as the source of cholera in Haiti camps (bottom)

PICTURES JESS HURDREPORTDIGITALCOUK

STEPHEN LAWRENCE

6 Advisor Summer 2012

Michael Nicholas FBU executive council member for black and ethnic minority members explains the long fight for justice for Stephen Lawrence

It is to be hoped that the 3 January 2012 will be noted as the date when a black family finally saw light within the sometimes murky depths of the British criminal justice system It was though a ldquostrange kind of justicerdquo The date saw a guilty verdict and subsequent life imprisonment of two of the perpetrators of the savage assault that led to the death of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence

Murdered Let us be reminded that in 1993 Stephen Lawrence was a bright young black man with aspirations of becoming an architect before he was murdered by that racist gang in Eltham London

His parents Doreen and Neville and other family members have suffered severe collateral damage that sadly culminated in the break-up of his parentrsquos marriage

The Lawrences have fought and continue to fight an 18-year battle in their journey to attain justice for Stephen While the 3 January verdict was their first positive outcome thanks to new legis-lation and forensic science it has still come eighteen years too late And let us not forget that at least three other murderous thugs are still free

Let us not ever under-estimate the role of the Metropolitan Police service in the debacle that has occurred since that fateful night in 1993 Allegations of collusion with known criminals corruption racism and incompetence led to the ground-breaking Macpherson inquiry that confirmed what many in our black communities had been

saying for decades that our police service discriminates on the grounds of race and that black and ethnic minority people received a poorer service from the police than their white neighbours

Tenacious Rest assured that there would have been no inquiry without the tenacity of the campaign from the Lawrences and their associates Principal police officers and politicians opposed such an inquiry for years until there was a change of government and political emphasis

The Macpherson report and recommendations led to the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 which forced all public services to provide a fairer service to all in our communities

Trade unions also played their part and rightly so as the biggest representatives of black workers in our commu-nities The TUC established the Stephen Lawrence Task Force with the objective of elimi-nating institutional racism in the workplace (still a work in progress)

The fire service launched a thematic review that also found practices in the fire service suffering from the same institutional malaise

The reality of campaigning is that we have to fight for every change that is necessary within the criminal justice system It is a sad fact that the Lawrence family and so many others ndash people campaigning against deaths in custody for instance ndash have to dedicate whole lives or the best part of them to seeking justice over the loss of

loved ones The racist discrimination

that according to Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate and former principle MPS officer Brian Paddick is ldquoendemicrdquo in the Metropolitan Police is still a factor in many other public institutions ndash so that fight continues

Doreen Lawrence spoke at this yearrsquos TUC Black Workers conference in April What she

said was heartbreaking and yet heart-warming too

We can only commend Doreen Neville Lawrence family members and associates for their strength fortitude and determination in ensuring that Stephenrsquos short life and horrific death had a lasting impact on British society

The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust was set up in Stephenrsquos memory so that

RO

D LEO

N

Summer 2012 Advisor 7

PAGE LABEL

More informationwwwsoundcloudcomzita-holbournestrange-kind-of-justice-in

wwwtucorguksltg

wwwstephenlawrenceorguk

You can donate pound2 by texting DLAW02 pound2 to 70070

young people from deprived backgrounds can receive bursaries to pursue careers in architecture

See the website address on the right for how you can donate to help the Trustrsquos good work to continue

StruggleThe struggle for all of us who believe in justice and equality continues and we need to

ensure that we all play a part in supporting and assisting those who fight against the greatest odds to achieve that objective Doreen continues to demand answers of the Metropolitan Police over its flawed inves-tigations and allegations of corruption ndash a campaign we need to support

Doreen and Neville Lawrence you are an inspiration and we salute you We shall overcome

At the 2012 TUC Black Workers Conference (l-r) Wilf Sullivan (TUC Race Equality Officer) Doreen Lawrence Micky Nicholas and Gloria Mills (TUC General Council member Chair of TUC Race Relations Committee and former TUC President)

STEPHEN LAWRENCE

6 Advisor Summer 2012

Michael Nicholas FBU executive council member for black and ethnic minority members explains the long fight for justice for Stephen Lawrence

It is to be hoped that the 3 January 2012 will be noted as the date when a black family finally saw light within the sometimes murky depths of the British criminal justice system It was though a ldquostrange kind of justicerdquo The date saw a guilty verdict and subsequent life imprisonment of two of the perpetrators of the savage assault that led to the death of 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence

Murdered Let us be reminded that in 1993 Stephen Lawrence was a bright young black man with aspirations of becoming an architect before he was murdered by that racist gang in Eltham London

His parents Doreen and Neville and other family members have suffered severe collateral damage that sadly culminated in the break-up of his parentrsquos marriage

The Lawrences have fought and continue to fight an 18-year battle in their journey to attain justice for Stephen While the 3 January verdict was their first positive outcome thanks to new legis-lation and forensic science it has still come eighteen years too late And let us not forget that at least three other murderous thugs are still free

Let us not ever under-estimate the role of the Metropolitan Police service in the debacle that has occurred since that fateful night in 1993 Allegations of collusion with known criminals corruption racism and incompetence led to the ground-breaking Macpherson inquiry that confirmed what many in our black communities had been

saying for decades that our police service discriminates on the grounds of race and that black and ethnic minority people received a poorer service from the police than their white neighbours

Tenacious Rest assured that there would have been no inquiry without the tenacity of the campaign from the Lawrences and their associates Principal police officers and politicians opposed such an inquiry for years until there was a change of government and political emphasis

The Macpherson report and recommendations led to the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 which forced all public services to provide a fairer service to all in our communities

Trade unions also played their part and rightly so as the biggest representatives of black workers in our commu-nities The TUC established the Stephen Lawrence Task Force with the objective of elimi-nating institutional racism in the workplace (still a work in progress)

The fire service launched a thematic review that also found practices in the fire service suffering from the same institutional malaise

The reality of campaigning is that we have to fight for every change that is necessary within the criminal justice system It is a sad fact that the Lawrence family and so many others ndash people campaigning against deaths in custody for instance ndash have to dedicate whole lives or the best part of them to seeking justice over the loss of

loved ones The racist discrimination

that according to Liberal Democrat London mayoral candidate and former principle MPS officer Brian Paddick is ldquoendemicrdquo in the Metropolitan Police is still a factor in many other public institutions ndash so that fight continues

Doreen Lawrence spoke at this yearrsquos TUC Black Workers conference in April What she

said was heartbreaking and yet heart-warming too

We can only commend Doreen Neville Lawrence family members and associates for their strength fortitude and determination in ensuring that Stephenrsquos short life and horrific death had a lasting impact on British society

The Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust was set up in Stephenrsquos memory so that

RO

D LEO

N

Summer 2012 Advisor 7

PAGE LABEL

More informationwwwsoundcloudcomzita-holbournestrange-kind-of-justice-in

wwwtucorguksltg

wwwstephenlawrenceorguk

You can donate pound2 by texting DLAW02 pound2 to 70070

young people from deprived backgrounds can receive bursaries to pursue careers in architecture

See the website address on the right for how you can donate to help the Trustrsquos good work to continue

StruggleThe struggle for all of us who believe in justice and equality continues and we need to

ensure that we all play a part in supporting and assisting those who fight against the greatest odds to achieve that objective Doreen continues to demand answers of the Metropolitan Police over its flawed inves-tigations and allegations of corruption ndash a campaign we need to support

Doreen and Neville Lawrence you are an inspiration and we salute you We shall overcome

At the 2012 TUC Black Workers Conference (l-r) Wilf Sullivan (TUC Race Equality Officer) Doreen Lawrence Micky Nicholas and Gloria Mills (TUC General Council member Chair of TUC Race Relations Committee and former TUC President)

Summer 2012 Advisor 7

PAGE LABEL

More informationwwwsoundcloudcomzita-holbournestrange-kind-of-justice-in

wwwtucorguksltg

wwwstephenlawrenceorguk

You can donate pound2 by texting DLAW02 pound2 to 70070

young people from deprived backgrounds can receive bursaries to pursue careers in architecture

See the website address on the right for how you can donate to help the Trustrsquos good work to continue

StruggleThe struggle for all of us who believe in justice and equality continues and we need to

ensure that we all play a part in supporting and assisting those who fight against the greatest odds to achieve that objective Doreen continues to demand answers of the Metropolitan Police over its flawed inves-tigations and allegations of corruption ndash a campaign we need to support

Doreen and Neville Lawrence you are an inspiration and we salute you We shall overcome

At the 2012 TUC Black Workers Conference (l-r) Wilf Sullivan (TUC Race Equality Officer) Doreen Lawrence Micky Nicholas and Gloria Mills (TUC General Council member Chair of TUC Race Relations Committee and former TUC President)

ANNUAL BampEMM SCHOOL

BampEMM Lifting as we climb

Friday 12ndashSunday 14 October 2012 Wortley Hall Nr SheffieldA full weekend of FBU education on the BampEMM section and our fire service issues Fully qualified TUC tutor and guest speakers including general secretary Matt WrackApplication forms will be sent to all BampEMM on our FBU mailing database so please ensure that we have your current address details Forms will be sent out in JulyFirst time applicants have priority as this school is always over-subscribed

2012 Fire Brigades Union

LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE

EXCLUSIVELY FOR FBU BampEMM

Diary 19ndash21 June FBU Special Conference Imperial Hotel Blackpool Conference agenda to be distributed to branches in due course

26ndash27 June BampEMM National Committee meeting Brighton

27 July Start of the Olympic and ParaOlympic Games

10 Sept TUC Congress

25ndash26 Sept BampEMM National Committee meeting Glasgow

12ndash14 October National BampEMM School Wortley Hall near Sheffield

PersonalCongratulations

Bros Garrett Brooks amp John Hughes (LFB Bravery Awards)Sis Denise Christie amp Jacqui (Civil Partnership)Sis Carole Brown (completing the London Marathon)Our dear friend Ms Dawne Stephenson (on becoming a JP)

Condolences

Bro Paul Greaves on the recent loss of his mother

BampEMM rep contactsRegion 01 Lud Ramsey (07890 630 920)

Region 02 FBU Regional OfficeMichael Nicholas (07764 927 729)

Region 03 Lee Brown (07827 300 079)

Region 04 Mark Brown (07980 644 789)

Region 05 Carl Petch (07834 656 098)

Region 06 Dalton Powell (07923 079 723)

Region 07 Rod Barrett (07976 628 644)

Region 08 Brian Amos (07773 289 694)

Region 09 FBU Region OfficeMichael Nicholas (as above)

Region 10 Garrett Brooks (07854998 524)Michael Nicholas (as above)

Region 11 FBU Regional OfficeCarole Brown (07872 053 986)

Region 12 FBU Regional OfficeLud Ramsey (as above)

Region 13 Obi Selassie (07974 496 787)