Shw Mae from Paul Beswick, your new Greens of Colour Regional Officer for Wales.
As the ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests made the headlines last year, not least with the toppling of the Edward Colston Statue across the Severn Bridge, and the movement to acknowledge the real legacy of Britain’s colonial past gathering momentum, the Green Party, too, has been at the forefront of this resurgence in race equality activism.
Lambeth Council’s adoption of Green Party Councillor Scott Ainslie’s motion to demand government reparations for slavery in July was the first time such a policy had been successfully navigated through local government. The overwhelming support for policy to the same effect at Autumn Conference made the Green Party the first national political party to officially seek to both acknowledge and pressure the Government to repair the damages caused by the transatlantic slave trade. Greens of Colour, the Green Party liberation group for whom I’m now proud to be the new Regional Officer for Wales, have been front and centre of both these overdue developments.
The aims of Greens of Colour, as set out in its constitution, are:
To support the Party in communicating and engaging with communities of colour;
To promote ‘People of Colour’ friendly policies and approaches of the party, and;
To further good relations between GPEW and ‘People of Colour’ groups, campaigns, and organisations.
As your new Greens of Colour Regional Officer, I’m determined to help achieve these aims, especially within my local party (Cardiff and Vale). Elsewhere in Wales, realistically, I will only be able to work with you all to support the efforts your local parties are also making towards more participation in politics.
So, please get in touch with me (especially to let me know about your successes, but also if you think Greens of Colour might be able to help) via email (greensofcolour@greenparty.org.uk) using Wales Regional Officer as the subject.
Diolch yn fawr!