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themselves against the austerity measures that British Prime Minister David Cameron announced recently.
An emergency meeting called by the London-based National Afrikan (Black) People’s Parliament was held yesterday evening at the West Indian Ex-Servicemen Association in London. Men and women across the UK, including community leaders, organisers, activists, professionals, pastors, politicians and celebrities were expected to attend the emergency meeting. The meeting is aimed at helping them organise and determine the way forward in a bid to bring to an end the brutalisation, oppression and degradation that black people in the UK have endured for a long time.
According to information from the organisers, this was a response to “the unlawful killing of Mark Duggan” which led to five days of rioting in England, and the oppressive and racist reactions of the British establishment.
The statement added, “The recent unlawful killing of yet another young black man, father of four Mark Duggan (29) and the brutal public beating of a 16 year black girl in Tottenham, North London, sparked ‘uprisings’ throughout the UK.” However, ballistic tests, commissioned by the Independent Police Complaints Commission proved that Duggan had not shot at the police as reported. The organisers argue that on the contrary, the media had done “a complete whiteout on this vicious slaying of yet another innocent black man at the hands of the British police – the fourth since March 2011.”
“Instead, the British media backed by politicians, has launched a propaganda offensive evidently designed to not only demonise, criminalise and pathologise the black community and its culture (especially our youths), but to whip up racial hatred from both the white and Asian communities – besides being a deliberate distraction from the real issues,” says the statement.
“Moreover, the racialised characterisation of the uprisings as prompted by opportunistic criminal intent, motivated by ‘sheer greed and anarchy’, seem systematically contrived to amplify and justify a clarion call for tougher laws, more brutal policing and military intervention to neutralise this presumed Black menace to the good British society,” the statement added.
The organisers accuse the British Prime Minister of labelling certain pockets of society as “sick” and calling on the rest of the nation to unite against them. They claim that as a result, fascist groups responded to Cameron’s call by taking to the streets in protest to expressly “Take back our country.”
“Indeed, it is now open season on black youths thousands of whom have been arrested and jailed and thousands more harassed and brutalised on the streets by the police,” they argue. Some of the issues that the emergency meeting hoped to address are the monitoring of the well-being of black youths incarcerated after the riots, including the legal support they were they receiving. NAPP bemoans, “When our children and young people are under attack that constitutes an acute national crisis”. According to information obtained on their website, “the National Afrikan (Black) People’s
Parliament (NAPP) is a nationwide independent representative body whose goal is to promote, preserve and protect the best interests of African people resident in the UK.
By “Afrikan” they mean people known as “Africans” or “black people” of African origin.
Efforts to get comments from the organisers were fruitless as their mobile phones went unanswered.
However, New African Editor Baffour Ankomah said NAPP was one of many thousand plus organisations in the UK representing interests of black people.
He was not sure how many people would respond to their call. Remarking on the meeting’s impact, Baffour said that initially, it might have some effect, but a few months down the line, it would be back to square one.
He added that people in Africa and other parts of the world should lend their moral to such a cause.
Online Reporter