BRAMU (Birmingham Racial Attacks Monitoring Unit) threatened with closure.
On the 10th anniversary of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, which resulted in the Sir MacPherson report / recommendations, and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of BRAMU, we are threatened with closure due to the lack of financial commitment from Birmingham local authority. BRAMU was formed in 1989 after Home Office report found that victims were reluctant to report incidents of race hate crimes to statutory organisations. We are a community based independent organisation. BRAMU has since then provided support and advice to, and campaigns on behalf of, those who have been subjected to racist discrimination, harassment or violent attacks. It has been involved in over 3,500 cases and currently has over 120 ongoing cases.
BRAMU will be holding another rally outside the Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB on Tuesday 9th June at 12.00 noon to demand that Birmingham City Council reverse their decision to withdraw the funding to BRAMU, the only community based organization providing essential services to victims of hate crimes, particular race hate crimes. Guest speakers to be confirmed near the time:
BRAMU are also currently circulating a petition asking members of the public to support our campaign. Please contact Maxie Hayles for further details mhayles@btconect.com 07956141554.
Editors Notes:
Over the years, BRAMU have received numerous awards for the work they have done in challenging racism over many years. In 2000 Tony Blair presented the Chair of BRAMU, Maxie Hayles with an award for Building a Fair and Just Community. Also, In December 2008 Maxie Hayles was recently recognised with an international Life Time Achievement award for defending Human Rights and Race Equality presented by the Civil Rights campaigner Revered Jessie Jackson. It’s ironic that BRAMU has been recognised internationally, but not by our own Local Authority who are allowing the organization to close.
The Safer Birmingham Partnership, who now has the responsibility for the cities hate crimes agenda, is a partnership of agencies, bringing together the likes of Birmingham City Council, West Midlands Police and West Midlands Fire Service. BRAMU has been squeezed out of Birmingham’s strategic partnerships of the Safer Birmingham Partnership Hate Crimes Agenda. The question that we would like to ask those individuals responsible for hate crimes in Birmingham is why are local community groups are not seen as partners within the hate crimes agenda? This is despite that fact that research shows that the majority of reported hate crimes are actually race hate crimes. BRAMU was created in the 1980’s by communities which felt and still often feels failed by statuary bodies, which were meant to protect and support victims of racial harassment / race hate crimes. We can only conclude that this action taken against BRAMU is part of a wider political agenda.
A recent article by the internationally renowned Institute for Race Relations (IRR) www.irr.org.uk/2009/april/ha000010.html stated that following the 1981 uprisings in inner-cities and the Scarman Inquiry, the concept of 'multi-agency' policing was developed, 'based on the notion that the problem of crime cannot be resolved by the police alone through law enforcement but requires closer cooperation between agencies. Therefore, efforts were made to recruit a variety of non-police agencies, such as community groups and local churches, into collaborative schemes of multi-agency crime prevention. Organisations like BRAMU were created by communities which felt that they were being failed by the statutory bodies which were meant to protect and support them. Yet the political climate has shifted, to the extent that an organisation like BRAMU, as well as other community-based anti-racist groups and Race Equality Councils, can find themselves increasingly marginalised. Furthermore, as some social commentators have stated, recently the whole discussion on race hate crimes has taken a reactionary leap back twenty years.
The Safer Birmingham Partnership represents a new kind of 'multi-agency' approach, bringing together the police and other local authority bodies with the express task of tackling crimes including racial violence. The difference is that local community groups, such as BRAMU are not seen as partners, but at best as agents implementing a strategy decided in their absence. It is not only the decision not to renew a long-standing partnership between Birmingham City Council and BRAMU that raises concern.
Many anti-racism campaigners, point out the dangers of this new approach and that the anti-racist perspective has been undermined. It’s not just that BRAMU and other local groups lost their funding and that the issue has got depoliticised. It is not just a matter of getting organisations to meet targets. Do we know what kind of service is being given to those who report racial attacks to new corporate-style bodies? We are certain they won't be getting the customised, community-based support that BRAMU has provided over the years, like staying in homes with people when under attack, walking victims children to school, accompanied victims of race hate crimes to difficult meetings with the police or housing departments. Nor will individuals get the sense of empowerment they used to get by working with others who have faced similar circumstances.
Birmingham's 'strategic partnership' approach, and the resultant squeezing out of BRAMU, fails to take into account a number of important issues. Safer Birmingham Partnership's 'Hate Crime Strategy', which was recently launched after months of delays. The hate crime agenda focuses on individual acts, and in doing so directs attention away from collective racism and focuses it instead on the socially-deviant attacker and his/her victim. Therefore, racist attacks are re-branded as 'anti-social behaviour', devoid of any sense that they are symptomatic of a racist society, but rather the actions of a few bad apples. In this way, we are directed away from questioning why those who are subject to racist attacks are not being protected by the police and judiciary. Instead we focus on the deviant attacker, who is now defined as 'anti-social',
In conclusion, the struggle continues and we are prepared to work in partnership with Birmingham City Council in order to protect, support and advise victims of race hate crimes in Birmingham, as we have done for the past 20 years. BRAMU was created by communities which felt and still feel failed by statuary bodies, which were meant to protect and support victims of racial harassment / race hate crimes. We can only conclude that this action taken against BRAMU is part of a wider political agenda. Again, we would like to thank you for your support and we look forward to your continued support. We will continue to keep you updated on our situation.
Yours in the Struggle Maxie Hayles (Chairperson) BRAMU. 07956141554 mhayles@btconect.com please sign the petition on http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/27579.html
