MOVEMENT FOR JUSTICE

By Any Means Necessary

Call to all the ambitious, talented, creative

and determined youth of London...
Organise in your schools and communities
against racism and for equality
Movement for Justice is proudly building a movement that is fighting for a future where we are all
treated equally and where we can express our cultures and identities fully. We want to tell you
about our experience and ask you to step forward as young civil rights leaders in your own
schools, colleges and communities.
Each of you has the capacity to be a leader, step forward, learn a method to win and learn through
your own struggles what you need in order to lead society. It isn’t enough to think and feel you are
against racism and discrimination; you must act. With a collective struggle and a method, you can
shape your environment and education.
This is a call for you to act in your school to win the opportunity for students to express who you
are, through student-led events like Black History Month (BHM), Asian his- tory events, multi-
cultural days, anti-racist days…
Students fight to win Black History Month & cultural day in their schools
Students at two South London schools acted with determination, pride and unbending will to win,
when they decided to fight for their schools to have full Black History Month events and cultural
days. Last year at Sacred Heart School in Southwark, Joseph Semana, student member of MFJ,
led a successful campaign. The school had stopped celebrating BHM several years ago. The
head’s explanation to Joseph (then head boy) and the other student leaders, was that white stu-
dents’ grades were failing and BHM would damage their self esteem and confidence. This is an
argument often made when black and Asian people win programmes or opportunities that address
historic discrimination – that doing some-
thing positive for black and Asian people is
somehow damaging to white people. THIS
IS A RACIST LIE!
Black history is EVERYONE’S history, yet it
is invisible in the curriculum for most of the
year; Black History Month is the one time
when it is allowed to shine through.
So how did we fight this?
We wrote a petition and petitioned at the
school, Joseph describes the first day he
petitioned outside the school when students
were crowding around him, signing the peti-
MFJ ‘we are ALL Britain’ march for equality tion, taking whole sheets to get others to
sign, including someone who took it and got
the entire year 9 football team to sign on.
Students were happy and excited to have what they felt put into words and action. Petitioning
gave a voice to students who thought they had no voice in the school, and you could feel how
powerful that was. Students were confronting teachers in their
classes “Sir, isn’t it just racist not to do BHM?” The new head
boy marched to the head‘s office with a group of students to
express how they felt; students were threatened with exclu-
sion, while being secretly congratulated by other teachers
who felt the fight was right. Students wouldn’t be kept quite.
This organising continued despite resistance from school au-
thorities. In the fourth week the deputy head banned Joseph
from attending a school trip. We know that the actions of
those we challenge become increasingly desperate when we
are strong and winning. Joseph responded by writing an
open letter to the head, given out to everyone, expressing
wholeheartedly why he was making this fight and why BHM
is important. He went on local radio; local and national press
were calling the school to ask what was happening. Within
days the head completely backed down – STUDENTS WON
BLACK HISTORY MONTH AT SACRED HEART! Joseph Semana MFJ Student Leader

As Joseph said in his victory letter to the students…

“We put our effort and heart into the fight for what we
know is right and we turned the individual feelings of 485 students
into a collective action which won us the celebration of BHM at our
school…”
“It is time we can all laugh together and rejoice about what strength
in numbers we have, because what makes society is the people
within and what makes a school is not just the teachers but the stu-
dents; because students themselves are teachers. Teachers and
leaders of today’s and the next generation.”
A determined, active, vibrant and creative fight, bringing students together and raising our
voices loud and proud can win struggles in our schools to express our identities and shape
our education.
This year MFJ members at Catford High School (CHS) in Lewisham felt inspired by this example
and led a campaign to win back Cultural Day at their school, and make it part of Black History
Month. Three years ago the old head at CHS cancelled cultural evening on the day when it was
due to happen. Students felt furious & betrayed by this. It was part of the racism that is all around
but often doesn’t get dealt with. This year there is a new head at the school, the MFJ group wrote
an open letter and a petition to start getting out to all students. Here is some of what they wrote:
“When cultural evening was taken away we all felt be-
trayed and felt like the school didn’t care about our cul-
tural backgrounds. …Cultural evening was the one great
thing we organised by ourselves and everyone got in-
volved; we were leading it. …we don’t want to fit into one
image or be treated as robots, we are proud of who we
are and proud of our multicultural school. In our code of
conduct it says that everyone should respect other peo-
ple’s cultures; that needs to be acted on.“
After just 2 days petitioning students and getting the letter
out the new head agreed to bring back Cultural Day. The
MFJ group at CHS had this to say:
“We feel so proud of what we achieved and we feel
powerful as students doing something to change our edu-
cation. We’re not stopping there. We are working together
CHS MFJ student leaders
to make sure we get the kind of Cultural Day we want and
to make it a great success.
 “When you stand up for what you believe, for what you know is fair and right, you are
powerful. Bring people together, stand up for people who don’t feel able to speak out yet,
take the first step and show people how they can step forward, that’s how you can win.
“Campaigning & petitioning is exciting and fun, because you are standing up for yourself, for
who you are and you can see how that is inspiring other people. It feels so great and we
want you to feel that too.
“If you feel there is racism in your school or college and nothing is being done about it, or if
the school or college is being racist in anyway, don’t wait for someone else to say something.
Don’t settle for doing nothing and feeling bad about it. Speak out, discuss it with other stu-
dents, organise a campaign – Be a leader.
“Remember, racism takes many forms. It can be in-your-face or it can be so-called ‘subtle’
racism. It can be as simple as when someone asks where you are from and if you say
‘London’ they say, ‘No! Where are you really from?’ It can be discrimination by a teacher or
name-calling by a racist student. It can be being overlooked when you put up your hand. It
can be your school refusing to celebrate Black History Month or not letting you express who
you are. It’s all racist, and if you are at the receiving end you know it’s racist. We need to be
ready to do what it takes to fight it.
“We can be polite but we have to be firm. Remember, you can’t compromise with racism.”
Our side is winning
We stand for the aspirations of the majority – for freedom and justice. When we expose injustice
and challenge it we find many people on our side. Schools and institutions have policies on equal-
ity and diversity across-the-board; the way is wide open for us to make them real.
Young people are often seen as problems and exam machines; on top of that black, Asian and
ethnic minority youth too often have to deal with the extra pressure of being racially stereotyped,
seen as a problem or a threat, are more likely to be expelled, and face a constant pattern of police
harassment. When we try to speak up to change these things we are either invisible, or seen as a
troublemakers. This pattern of racism can be challenged and broken down when someone stands
up, speaks out and inspires the people around them to join them and act. This is clearly proven in
the campaigns of students at Sacred Heart and Catford High school. Racial discrimination and
racial slights that black and Asian young people receive can only divide our communities, distort
development and harm our education; we cannot accept this.
What you can do now
This is an invitation and a call for you to join us and spread the fight for equality and respect. Con-
tact us. Come to the weekly Movement for Justice meetings (every Saturday). Bring other people
from your school or college. Set up an MFJ group in your school or college. Discuss what is hap-
pening where you are and what you can do about it. Start by downloading the MFJ petition for
equality at ...
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2291156/OUR-BRITAIN-Equality-Petition
Use this to start petitioning in your school and community, gathering support and building a move-
ment. Together we can build a movement to fight for an education system where equality and re-
spect is real for everyone, and we can be ourselves – for schools, colleges and universities where
we can flourish and develop our creative powers to the full, and not be undermined by racist
stereotyping, discrimination and harassment.

Weekly MFJ students meeting: Saturdays 12noon-2pm, Dragon

Hall, Stuckley St WC2B (Holborn station) call, text or email if you
want to be collected from your area to go to the meeting.
Contact Movement for Justice: 7930 302 263 or 07986 953 435 or
Email: mail@movementforjustice.org.uk
www.myspace.com/movementforjustice and www.bebo.com/MFJBAMN
MFJ, PO Box 27497, London, SW9 7HU