Minorities Demand a
Future which Guarantees the Rights of All
Tony Blair on July 6 gave a keynote speech to the
African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance at their "Faith in the
Future" Conference.
What faith in the future could the Prime Minister offer the
African and Caribbean national minorities in Britain? For even Tony Blair had
to point out that in the present, "you don't have to believe in positive
discrimination to know that negative discrimination goes on in Britain; that
sometimes two kids with the same qualifications, one black, one white, don't
get the same chances in life."
Tony Blair’s answer begins from his assertion that the
problems in society are caused by technological, economic and social change
that present challenges which have to be met by building "strong
communities based on opportunity to all; and responsibility from all". He
went on to say that what he called "the black community" and the
state should work together as "Government and civil society in
partnership", and claimed that what he wants to achieve as Prime Minister
"is to deliver opportunity for all the people of this country,
irrespective of their background."
The Black Majority Churches, and generally the African and
Caribbean communities, may be forgiven for thinking that the government is
putting rather too much of the onus on them to deliver faith in the future
– to deliver a solution to the attacks on the vulnerable, the
state-organised racist attacks and the negation of the rights of minorities,
including the national minority communities. If "government and civil
society" are supposed to be acting in partnership, then perhaps the
government should accept its share of the responsibility for solving the
problems in society. After all, it is the government which controls the state
Treasury, which enacts the laws, which directs the police force and the army,
which is responsible for education and the health service, not to mention that
it is forever promoting the "values" that society should adopt. If
the Prime Minister is so desirous to "deliver opportunity for all the
people of this country, irrespective of their background, to tear down the
barriers to merit and hard work, to make this a country where success in
education leads to a good job, where hard work gets its just reward, where what
matters is who you are, not where you're from," he has to give a serious
explanation as to why this is not being achieved.
It has to be said that the reason the government cannot make
any headway on these matters is that its whole conception of society is
anachronistic. It explicitly stems from a conception of "civil
society" and "opportunity for all" in which the rights of
minorities were not recognised, but only those of males who held private
property. A modern democracy, in contrast, has as its distinguishing mark that
minority rights are guaranteed.
Thus Tony Blair can only give ludicrous examples about what
progress in bringing about "opportunity for all" would entail. He
says, "I say to young black people: it is bad that Colin Powell felt he
could say, if he'd joined the Army here, he'd have ended up a sergeant, but in
the US he became the country's top soldier; think of joining the Army and know
there is nothing to stop you going to the top, just as nothing has stopped
David Case becoming our first black Air Commodore. I say to young black people:
I want to see black Ambassadors, black permanent secretaries, but it will only
happen if more of you try to join and work with us to take down the barriers
that hold you back."
The issue is that what all people of national minority
origin demand is that they should be able to participate in the affairs of the
polity as equals who stand second to none. It is an insult to them to suggest
that they are in any way responsible for the "barriers that hold them
back", just as it is an insult to suggest that they would be satisfied
with today’s society but with the difference that the Ambassadors, the top
soldiers – even the Prime Minister, to follow Tony Blair’s argument
– are black.
Tony Blair would do well to reflect on the centuries of
racism and colonial exploitation – and indeed the inhumanity of slavery
– which is so deeply embedded in the values of the English bourgeoisie, in
the prevailing bourgeois ideology, that even the citizenship of the country is
defined in relation to nationality and national origin. These values, and the
attacks on the cultures of the national minority communities, are causing the
devastation which is affecting these communities, giving rise to a grave crisis
of the identity of these nationalities, in which it is the youth who are
particularly confused and oppressed.
The "multiracial meritocracy" Tony Blair has in
mind is nothing more than a platitude in the light of these deep-rooted causes
of disadvantage, discrimination and inequality. Such pious talk will do nothing
to end the marginalisation and ghettoisation of those of African and Caribbean
origin, nor other minorities in Britain. Nor does he even mention the
responsibility of a modern society to people of different backgrounds, in terms
of assisting their national languages and cultures and protecting all those who
are most vulnerable.
According to the Prime Minister’s speech "the key
to the door of opportunity is education", yet the government refuses to
invest in education in general and has taken such measures as introducing
tuition fees in higher education that are making it increasingly a privilege
for the wealthy few. It is in this context that Blair is calling on what he
refers to as "faith communities" to "pioneer their own
schools", as if this was a solution to all the problems that have been
created in the education system. Similar anti-social measures are being taken
in the health service and elsewhere, so that such social provision, which
should exist as a right and be developed to the highest possible level, is
increasingly geared to the needs of the monopolies not those of the people.
What is vital to turn things around is not that "young
black people" should "gain from going into politics". It is that
the minority communities affirm their rights, inscribe on their banner the
defence of the rights of all, and join with all those fighting for a new
society that recognises and guarantees the rights of all.
