The
Belfast anti-racist meeting was held on Sept 17th
at the Multi Cultural Resource Centre with several
politicians in attendance, including Steven Alexander
(Alliance Party press officer) and Alex Maskey (Sinn
Fein). A number of leading law firms also attended,
including solicitor Padraigin Drinan and other asylum
Practitioners from her office, and also a representative
from Madden and Finucane Solicitors.
Various
ethnic minority support groups were in attendance,
including that of the Chinese Welfare Association,
the Belfast travellers support group, the Multi Cultural
Resource Centre and the Black Youth Network. People
from support networks such as Extern, as well as other
ethnic minority persons, Globalise Resistance and
other young persons showed up as well - a welcome
addition was the BBC2 Newsnight team.
A
number of firm proposals came out of the meeting,
such as a working group made up of several of the
above to set out a mapping - report process.
The
Chinese Welfare Association said they could facilitate
the next meeting at their rooms to be held on Thursday
9th Oct.
It
was also agreed to draw up a charter for all groups
to sign up to and widely circulate within their organisations,
communities, trade and student unions etc for eventual
publication.
A network is now being established via e-mail and
phone of all those in attendance with others to be
approached in the process of getting support for the
charter. A website is also to be looked into with
links to all the organisations. Other practical, active
and visual proposals are also in the short time ahead
to be worked on.
For
me, I found it very positive and spoke to various
organisations afterwards who felt similar. It was
also brought up at the meeting that this could be
a base for wider initiatives in coming times and much
is to be worked on in the weeks ahead. I will inform
persons at a later date of the meeting and other ongoing
practicalities.
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