BME Londoners manifesto: A manifesto for hope and recovery

BME groups and individuals have put together a dynamic Black London manifesto. At its core, it calls upon the Mayor to help restore confidence between BME communities and the police, to creatively tackle BME unemployment and depravation by unlocking business potential in urban areas, and recognising the social, business and education hubs’ Black led churches and other faith groups can be.

However, these are our ideas. What do you think, are there others?

Policing and Community Safety

• Restoring confidence of BME Communities – the Mayor should fully support a Parliamentary scrutiny by the Home affair's Select Committee. In addition, the Mayor should support the call for a public judicial inquiry into all suspicious deaths in police custody as called for by the United Friends and Families Campaign.
• The Mayor should establish Stephen Lawrence Steering Groups to monitor the implementation of the McPherson report recommendations with clear targets to reduce race disproportionality.
• The new Mayor should commit to creating and funding an independent London wide policing monitoring group that can monitor and independently report on policing on the capital with a focus building trust, sharing good practice and highlighting bad policing practice.
• The new Mayor should adopt a Public Health community lead approach focusing on prevention and diversion in relation to tackling youth violence, with the creation and support of a Public Health anti-violence task force.
• The Mayor should demand that all confiscated assets from the proceeds of crime in London are kept by London and not handed over to the Treasury. This money to be used to support the work of the Public Health anti violence taskforce.

London’s economy and unemployment

• The new Mayor should launch a campaign work with the private sector and find ways to invest their corporate social responsibility budget in deprived areas.
• The new Mayor should commit to a policy of supply side diversity in all GLA contracts that encourages, sets targets and develops black businesses to access city contracts.
• We call on the Mayor to call upon Local Authorities to open their trading markets one day a week free to young people, who want to make start in business. Business classes should be developed and can be used as part of the criteria for accessing this business starts up programme. The Mayor should appoint a business woman such as Mary Portas as Small Business Czar to lead this.
• The Mayor should ensure that Black Churches and other faith groups in London are invited to become partners in the development of local regeneration projects. The Mayor should seek the introduction of Race & Faith Planning Guidance for London and publish research on discrimination in planning application process.
• Over 50% of Black youths are unemployed in the UK. The new Mayor should use the Equality Act, allowed by the law to positively discriminate in GLA recruitment, where there is under representation in favour of BME communities.
• The new Mayor should campaign to persuade the Government to introduce new legislation that requires the banks to monitor and publish details of their investment and lending activities in terms of ethnicity and introduce legislation similar to the US Community Reinvestment Act.
• The new Mayor to run a campaign demanding that London’s private sector and the GLA sign up to a new set of London Diversity standards, which would require them to publish their ethnic profiles of employees and contractors.
• We call on the GLA, create a London wide new youth employment apprenticeship company

Education

• Promote a University bursary scheme for poor students in London wanting to take a degree course.
• Restore the Education Maintence Allowance and support young people from low-income families to continue with further education.
• Open the GLA group to citywide apprenticeships and mentoring schemes
• Set out a new strategy for private sector investors to support supplementary schools at faith and youth centres.
• Invite Moorehouse and Spellman, historically American Black Colleges, to establish international campuses in London in partnership with the private sector and supported by public donations.

Equalities

• To publish a London Equality Strategy in partnership with London’s diverse communities that goes is both ambitious and dynamic.
• Ensure that race equality is mainstreamed into the GLA budget setting process requiring GLAA functional bodies and Mayoral proposed budgets and policy comply with the Race Relations and Equality Act.
• Establish a London Race Equalities Commission with the power to research, highlight and tackle racism in the capital within the public and private sector and the power to check general compliance with the Equality Act .
• Sets out a strategy and targets of BME representation at all levels that represent London’s diversity on all boards where the Mayor has nomination rights/influence. This will ensure that these boards look like London.
• We call on the Mayor to value London’s public services and the people that work within them and ask the Mayor promote the positive benefits of multiculturalism speak out against the rise of the far right in London.

Culture

• Develop a cultural strategy that focuses on the celebration of London’s diversity and to produce a plan that seeks to create employment and business opportunities using London’s cultural assets.

Housing

• We call on the Mayor to support the National Federation of Housing London Manifesto with a focus on supporting self build housing and community resource programmes in black and ethnic minority areas.