It’s also a reminder that the Con-Dem Government defeat on Thursday is not the end of the matter. Immediately, US intentions are of concern, hence the No Attack On Syria demonstration this Saturday August 31, 12noon at Temple Place near Temple (For more information contact: John Rees 07951 535 798 Chris Nineham 07930 536 519). Also, a picket of the London US embassy is planned for Tuesday September 3 at 5.30pm. For more details: http://www.stopwar.org.uk.
Oh gosh – my
first vblog (well, of sorts)! Wednesday August 2013!, London, England…
I knew I was going to be
bombarded with Martin Luther King ‘I Have A Dream’ 50th anniversary stuff all
day! Started the morning listening to Henry Bonsu and Juju on Colourful Radio.
I was so glad the interviewed Paul Stephenson OBE. Because I’m on a mission to
let people know that we’ve had, and continue to have, African British led civil
rights activism in Britain!
And if we’re
going to talk about MLK’s ‘I Have A Dream’ and the March On Washington For Jobs And Freedom, at least let’s make
one important link to England – the day the Americans marched, and MLK made
that famous speech – August 28 1963, was the same day the Bristol Bus Boycott
officially ended!
What boycott? I
hear some ask – well, check out 2013 history focus Paul Stephenson & The
Bristol Bus Boycott (the other is John Archer – London’s First African Mayor): http://npsbbb50.blogspot.co.uk.
I’m also
conducting video interviews for the Look How Far We’ve Come… project, which
aims to map our African British histories from the lens of racism. Henry Bonsu
has already been interviewed. Earlier in the afternoon, I interviewed trade
unionist and maverick politician Kingsley Abrams in Brixton. From that
interview, I dashed to Downing Street, only to find the organizers were setting
up.
So I took a
leisurely walk across the Thames into the Southbank Centre to catch some of the
Apples And Snakes/Architects Of Our Republic’s organized MLK ‘I Have A Dream’
inspired poetry and performance. I was asked by the young Mellow 9 production
crew filming the event my views on MLK’s speech.
I made them
know that it was meaningless just spouting out whichever bits we remember, if
it makes no difference to lives. If we are having problems getting jobs,
accommodation, or feel there’s no equality, then it doesn’t mean much.
Of course, I
couldn’t help pointing out that was a British civil rights moment worth
celebrating too – not surprisingly, the Bristol Bus Boycott did not register
immediately, though the got the point of exposing that link to the American
seminal moment.
Went back to
Whitehall, where things were about to kick off with Stop the War Coalition
chair Jeremy Corbyn MP about to introduce his comrade in the House Diane
Abbott, who wore her left badge with pride. Her short, but on-point speech was
followed by Tariq Ali, and a succession of activists of various shades and
union bods.
Keep off Syria,
and the call for parliamentarians, particularly Labour’s leadership, not to
back PM David Cameron’s desire for military action against Syria, was the
common thread. But no sooner had civil disobedience been urged by Sinn Féin
representative Sean Oliver than those who wanted more than just talk, took over
one side of the street, and the seeming no-action by the police emboldened
other to take over the other side. The end result was traffic being directed to
do a U-turn in either side of the demonstrators.
We were
reminded to get on to our MPs make sure they did not vote for war on Thursday
(this I did, except my MP apparently was investigating the situation, so could
not declare an unequivocal position as of Thursday morning!)
I decided I
would go on the No Attack On Syria demonstration convened by CND and Stop The
War Coalition for this Saturday August 31, 12noon at Temple Place near Temple
tube station. We’ll be passing Parliament and Downing Street on the war to
central London. Join, if you can! 020 7561 4830, http://www.stopwar.org.uk/events/national-demonstration-no-attack-on-syra.
Rounded off the
evening by returning to the Southbank, where there were more poetry
performances, and a mini march from Jubilee Gardens to the front of the Royal
Festival, where the poetry performances went up notch as the evening got
darker, and was superbly wrapped up by veteran socio-political spoken word dons
The Last Poets!
On the way
home, tired as I was I scanned the day’s Evening Standard. Sure enough, nothing
on the Bristol Bus Boycott, but there was three MLK articles, including a
leader piece.
I managed to
catch ‘Martin Luther King And The March On Washington on BBC 2, followed by
MLK: The Assassination Tapes on BBC 4. The Beeb at least had a decent Bristol
Bus Boycott piece on the previous day’s Newsnight, and the best online article
on the boycott I’ve read thus far: Jon Kelly’s BBC News Magazine ‘What Was
Behind The Bristol Bus Boycott?’: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23795655
Done. Finito!
Kwaku
TAOBQ (The
African Or Black Question)
Postscript.
Paul Stephenson is one of the subjects of the NARM (Naming And Role Model)
project, which I produced for pan-London voluntary organisation BTWSC. A trailer
can be found at http://vimeo.com/19954320. Last year, the Harrow BHM group brought him down
to London as a guest speaker. A had the pleasure of leading the Q&A
session, where I probed a bit more in order to get a better grasp of the
boycott. Some of the videos will be posted soon at http://npsbbb50.blogspot.co.uk.
Earlier this
year, we were back in Bristol to interview Mr Stephenson for my on-going
project. The full title’s self-explanatory – ‘Look How Far We've Come: Racism,
The Bristol Bus Boycott, Black History Month, The Black
Sections, And Where Are We In Today's Union Jack?’. Look out for Look How
Far We’ve Come… Exploring African British Histories late October: http://lookhowfar.eventbrite.com, and Harrow African History Month’s
‘African British Civil Rights Since The 1960s’ launch on September 30 @ Harrow
Civic Centre: https://harrowbhm.eventbrite.com.
