{"id":19849,"date":"2020-01-23T13:13:05","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T13:13:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=19849"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:54:33","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:54:33","slug":"unity-over-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=19849","title":{"rendered":"Unity over Division"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">In recent years<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> the far right has remerged in Britain and across the Europe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">Far right political parties and groups are trying to gain a foothold in communities<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> across the country<\/span><span class=\"s2\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">They are using people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unhappiness at the loss of services and affordable housing to try to divide our communities and set neighbour against neighbour.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">It is not coincide that this has coincided with a disturbing increase in hate crime.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">In the 12 months to <\/span><span class=\"s2\">October 2019, the number of hate crimes in England and Wales more than doubled<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> since<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> 2013<\/span><span class=\"s2\">,\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s2\">government figures show.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">The majority of offences were racially motivated<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> increasing<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> by<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> 11 per cent <\/span><span class=\"s2\">to 78,991, with police forces also recorded a significant rise in crimes committed against people because of their sexuality. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">In response to <\/span><span class=\"s2\">the rise in the far right,<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> Unite<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> launched its <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/unitetheunion.org\/campaigns\/unity-over-division\/\"><span class=\"s3\">Unity over Division<\/span><\/a><span class=\"s2\"> campaign<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> last year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><span class=\"s2\">Challenge the far right\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s narrative <\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">The campaign<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> is aimed at <\/span><span class=\"s2\">equipping officers and activists with the counter arguments to challenge the far right\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s narrative<\/span><span class=\"s2\">, <\/span><span class=\"s2\">includ<\/span><span class=\"s2\">ing\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s2\">myths around immigration and migration in Britain, the welfare state, NHS, education and women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rights.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said<\/span><span class=\"s2\">,<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn Britain today we are governed by a Tory leader who thinks nothing of using offensive and derogatory language to describe people or situations. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe face a possible no deal Brexit which is likely to throw the economy into chaos, all this on the back of almost ten years of relentless austerity which has made ordinary people tighten their belts and suffer cuts in services, whilst the top 10 per cent in terms of wealth, have seen that wealth massively increase.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">Turner explained that rising inequality and divisive rhetoric from politicians who should know better has provided those intent on spreading <\/span><a href=\"x-apple-ql-id:\/\/\/word\/unitelive.org\/tag\/far-right\"><span class=\"s4\">far-right<\/span><\/a><span class=\"s2\"> narratives an opportunity to do so \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a situation reflected in the increase in hate crimes. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have seen a huge rise in homophobic, racial and religious attacks on our streets and many migrant workers suffer verbal abuse at work every day. The <\/span><a href=\"x-apple-ql-id:\/\/\/word\/unitelive.org\/tag\/nhs\"><span class=\"s4\">NHS<\/span><\/a><span class=\"s2\"> in exit interviews of migrant staff leaving the service stated that a key factor was abuse from patients and constant taunts of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098go back home\u00e2\u20ac\u2122,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner said. \u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is unacceptable in 2019 in the fifth richest nation in the world. We need to bring unity where there is division and this campaign focuses on how to tackle the messages of hate when they surface in our workplaces and communities.<\/span><span class=\"s2\">\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">As a union, <\/span><span class=\"s2\">Unite is uniquely placed to communicate with <\/span><span class=\"s2\">its<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> 1.3<\/span><span class=\"s2\">m<\/span><span class=\"s2\">members and reach thousands of leaders who are able to influence the political debates that are going on in workplaces across the nations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">The campaign\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s aim is<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> reach 12,000 Unite activists a year with <\/span><span class=\"s5\">Unit<\/span><span class=\"s5\">y\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"s5\">over Division<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> training and education materials<\/span><span class=\"s2\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">A number of conferences<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> and committee briefings<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> were held across the country last year, with more events planned this year. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">Turner added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015b<\/span><span class=\"s2\">Fascism doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t start with concentration camps, but that is where it end<\/span><span class=\"s2\">s<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> up. We need to talk to our fellow workers, our <\/span><span class=\"s2\">friends and family, to explain that it is not migrant workers who are attacking their wages, terms and conditions, but exploitative bosses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have a duty as trade unionists to stand for equality and challenge those who would attack our values of fairness, decency and dignity in and out of the workplace.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"s2\">Interested in holding a <\/span><span class=\"s5\">Unity over Division<\/span><span class=\"s2\"> education programme in your region, sector, branch or local community? Email the campaign here for more information: Unity@unitetheunion.org<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unite campaigns to challenge the rise of the far-right<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"Unite campaigns to challenge the rise of the far-right","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19849"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24757,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19849\/revisions\/24757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}