{"id":2975,"date":"2015-02-05T15:59:15","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T15:59:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2975"},"modified":"2015-02-05T15:59:15","modified_gmt":"2015-02-05T15:59:15","slug":"take-back-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2975","title":{"rendered":"Take back our power"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

In part 4 of our series on the importance of voting, UNITElive spoke to former bus driver Mohammad Taj, the first Asian and first Muslim president of the TUC.<\/p>\n

 
\nMohammad Taj has been a bus driver in Bradford for more than four decades. The son of a migrant from Kashmir, Taj began his career in buses at the young age of 20, back at a point in time in the country when racism was rife.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe racism that I and other black and ethnic minorities faced was much more overt than it is now,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bRacism was everywhere \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it came from employers, in government, in education, in all manner of institutions, even in trade unions.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNow, of course, things are much better,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bTrade unions especially have made enormous advances in embracing the BAEM community and supporting the struggles we all face as working people, regardless of race.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut we still have to be on guard,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bRacism hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t so much disappeared as it has emerged in different forms. Racism now is much more clever; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s smarter. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s embedded in our institutions so deeply and obliquely that we think it no longer exists.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nIndeed, institutional racism in important public services still continues unabated, in, for example, the NHS<\/a> and the police force<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 
\nTaj believes this invisible racism manifests itself in new voter registration rules, which have come into effect right before this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s election. Not only does Individual Voter Registration (IER)<\/a> disproportionately affect young people; it also disenfranchises BAEMs and working-class people.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn my constituency in Bradford, 4500 people were on the electoral register in the last election. Now, with IER, there are 752. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a drop-off of more than 3,000 people in an area that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s predominantly BAEM and working-class.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a conspiracy by the elite ruling classes who want to take away the most powerful tool we who are disempowered have to bring about change that reflects our interests,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Taj argued, saying the implementation of IER is similar to tactics used in America to disenfranchise ethnic minorities. <\/a><\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI recently checked the electoral register,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy wife and my children thought they were registered but they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. No one on my street is, except for two people and myself. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing short of a scandal \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t being as heavily publicised as it should be.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nTaj, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been heavily involved in the trade union movement since he was young, ultimately becoming the first Asian and first Muslim TUC president in 2013, argues that those who may soon be robbed of their power to vote have to take that power back \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the stakes in this election are now more important than ever before.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe health service as we know it is at risk of being dismantled before our very eyes, just as is the welfare state and so many other institutions we hold dear,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI can sympathise with working people and ethnic minorities who don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel that voting will make any difference, but the fact of the matter is that it does make a difference,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 
\nTaj recalls a local election from many years ago when the election results were effectively tied, and the councillor who won was decided by a coin toss.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf only two or three more people had voted \u00e2\u20ac\u201c people who thought it wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make a difference \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the end result would not have been so arbitrary. A true democracy would have been carried out.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis democracy is dependent on us \u00e2\u20ac\u201c on doing our duty to get out and vote.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite, in conjunction with the Daily Mirror and other campaigning groups such as Hope Not Hate, Operation Black Vote and Bite the Ballot, aims to reverse the mass disenfranchisement through IER that Taj highlighted, with our campaign #NoVoteNoVoice.<\/p>\n

 
\nFind out more here<\/a>, and be sure to register to vote by the deadline on April 20. You can register online with a simple click of the button<\/a>; all you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need is your National Insurance Number.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In part 4 of our series on the importance of voting, UNITElive spoke to former bus driver Mohammad Taj, the first Asian and first Muslim president of the TUC.   Mohammad Taj has been a bus driver in Bradford for more than four decades. The son of a migrant from Kashmir, Taj began his career […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[171,224],"wps_subtitle":"Voting does make a difference","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2975"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2977,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2975\/revisions\/2977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}