CWU Remembers Stephen Lawrence Day

Equalities April 22 2020

On the 22 April 1993 a young black man with a bright future ahead of him was cruelly robbed of his life, brutally stabbed on multiple occasions by a gang of far-right Nazi thugs. Whilst the Lawrence family has managed to see some justice served, with a number of those responsible for Stephen’s death now serving long life sentences in jail, there are still people who killed Stephen roaming free with their liberty intact.

Stephen’s murder is not an isolated case. As we move into a post-BREXIT era, we have seen racism, islamophobia, anti-Semitism etc explode with frightening velocity. Incidents are captured on a frightening regular basis on social media although the current Coronavirus appears to have calmed things down a little, as the media, who have a huge part to play in this, are actually frequently showing immigrants in a positive light as they are heavily populated in the frontline fighting the virus pandemic.

Today, we should reflect on the cruel life taken away from the Lawrence’s and that of all Stephen’s friends.

Ali Moosa NEC BAME Lead added “Stephen’s life was taken in a vicious racist attack. The primary motive for the attackers was the colour of his skin. Too many BAME people are being attacked purely on the basis of their skin colour or religion. From Stephen Lawrence to Anthony Walker to the late Mohammed Saleem who was 82 when he was stabbed to death leaving the mosque in Small Heath. We have to do more to eradicate this illness from society that makes humans want to harm or kill another human for reasons linked to culture,  race and religion. There is no room in our society for intolerance and hatred.”

Since his murder the family have set up the Stephen Lawrence Trust and we would encourage Branches to give support to this using the following link: https://www.stephenlawrence.org.uk/support-us/donate/

The CWU has been working with anti-racism groups and are committed to pushing a strong agenda promoting anti-racism values in our workplaces.