Like so many in our beloved country we have been appalled to see the recent outburst of far-right racist and political violence in towns and cities all over England. The attacks on mosques and hotels accommodating asylum seekers have been especially shocking. For a good summary of how the political violence developed in the aftermath of the devastating murder of three little girls (Beebee King, Alice Dasilva Aguiar and Elsie Dot Stancombe) in Southport please click here. In response, local Green Party branches released Unity Statements to express our disgust at the violence and misinformation and to express solidarity with the communities affected. You can read our branch’s Unity Statement below.
We were also disturbed at Elon Musk’s contribution to the misinformation and his provocative tweets which could arguably have contributed to the unrest playing out on the streets of the UK. Because of this alarming behaviour we will soon be deleting our X account and have taken the executive decision to move to Meta’s Threads platform. We have released the following post on our current social media channels:
You can support us by following us on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@chi_and_arungreenparty
If the events of the last few weeks have one redeeming feature it is the surge in numbers of people who have come out to counter protest against the far-right and to protect their communities from racist violence. Stand up to Racism and other grass roots anti-racism and community groups have done an outstanding job in mobilising and coordinating thousands of people to oppose the far-right and send a message of love and inclusion to groups who have been targeted and put at risk. Greens have, of course, been involved and taken part in the pro-immigration and pro-refugee counter demonstrations all over the country. You can read more about how Chichester and Arun Green Party have supported Stand up to Racism and Chichester Welcomes Refugees here. You can see some of the footage of the pro-refugee counter-demonstrations from across the south on our glorious.greens TikTok channel: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGecq3B6u/ and why not give us a like and a follow while your there? If you are a Green Party member you can access our policy statement on Racism on the member’s site here. For non-members you can read our stances on racism below:
- Racism is unacceptable and should be opposed in all of its forms and in all areas of society. Any society based on racism is abhorrent, and unacceptable even if presented as ecologically sustainable.
- Racism can only be tackled effectively through local scale community-based and community-led initiatives to tackle racism’s social and economic causes and to increase awareness of the value of diverse cultures.
- The UK Government must take a lead in tackling racism by implementing non-discriminatory immigration, nationality and criminal justice policies and ensuring that anti-discrimination measures in employment and the provision of services are effective.
- The Green Party will not mount joint campaigns or policy initiatives on any issues with groups who endorse racial, ethnic or national hatred.
- Speakers and Officers of The Green Party will only share platforms with groups who endorse racial, ethnic or national hatred at a public or private meeting where that offers an opportunity to confront and oppose racism.
- Investigation, prosecution and sentencing practices by public bodies in relation to incidents of racial harassment must be effective and be seen by the victims of racially motivated crimes to be effective. Where racial motivation in committing a crime is shown, particular care should be taken to ensure that the sentence given to the offender involves sufficient protection from further racially motivated crimes to the victims and to the community.