follow us on Twitter and Facebook
Movement for Justice & Reconciliation
  • Legacy
  • About
  • Projects
  • Stories
  • News
  • Resources
  • Who's Who
  • Contact

Legacy issues in Brexit

27/6/2016

 
The recent referendum result has generated a lot of heat, anger and confusion. By voting Leave, the white working classes have taken the opportunity to hit back at a political system that they feel has betrayed them. As Ed Cox of IPPR said: “The people have spoken but in the North they have shouted”. These are people who have long felt ignored and used - most recently to bear the brunt of cuts to services and jobs to get the country out of a recession while those who caused it escaped punishment. One of the many articles written in response to Brexit says: "Westminster may have underestimated how very much it is hated by those to whom mainstream politics have not spoken in generations."  In "huge areas of post-industrial decline and neglect" people are "more furious than Cameron and his ilk could possibly understand." The legacy of industrial oppression is alive and well and continuing to ignore it is to continue an injustice.
The article is a bit heat-of-the-moment and, while some of it is questionable, it is still a provocative read.  At one point it says: "I want to wake up tomorrow in a country ... where we have dealt like adults with the embarrassing fact that we once conquered half the world, instead of yearning for a time when our glory was stolen from enslaved people a convenient ocean away and large parts of the map were the gentle pink of blood in the water."
The reference to Empire and enslaved people is intentional and interesting. Part of the legacy that MJR is seeking to address is the huge generation of wealth for some on the backs (literally) of the many who comprised the two human engines of the Industrial Revolution: the slaves, and the mill, mine and factory workers. That wealth and the inequality and cruelty behind how it was created became major building blocks of our modern economy and class-conscious society. It will take a lot of work for it to be recognised, let alone addressed, but maybe a window of opportunity has opened.
Paul Keeble

"Slavery didn't end, it just evolved."

22/6/2016

 
US lawyer and campaigner Bryan Stevenson contends that slavery in America did not end in 1865 but evolved into lynching, to segregation and to mass incarceration. The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other nation in the world. Black men are more than six times more likely to be incarcerated than white men. Stevenson's Equal Justice Initiative works on behalf of 3000 children as young as 13 who have been given life sentences without the possibility of parole, and thousands of adults given death sentences.
​Are we in the UK much different? Here, despite being 2.8% of the population, 10% of prisoners are black.

    MJR News

    The latest information, views and news from MJR.

    Please read our Third Party Disclaimer.

    Categories

    All
    After The Flood
    Anniversary
    Article
    #BlackLivesMatter
    Blog
    Campaigners
    Class
    Comment
    Coronavirus
    Education
    Empire
    Event
    Exhibition
    Film
    History
    Inequality
    Information
    Injustice
    Legacy
    News
    Privilege
    Production
    Publication
    Racism
    Reparation
    Report
    Research
    Resources
    Response
    Review
    Slavery
    Windrush

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014

    RSS Feed

| Home | About | Legacy | Stories | Work | Projects |After the Flood | Resources | Exhibition | Who's Who | Contact | News | Support |
MOVEMENT FOR JUSTICE AND RECONCILIATION. REGISTERED CHARITY NO. 1161441
© COPYRIGHT MJR 2021. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.