• Speakers Include* NUS President Wes Streeting

Speakers Include*
NUS President Wes Streeting

The President is under pressure for bringing the NUS into disrepute over his handling of the racism within the NUS. We assert that he has failed to show sincerity when attempting to represent the interests and/or legitimate concerns of Afrikan and Afrikan-Caribbean youth and students

For the first time ever, the President of the NUS is being forced to defend his position and be held accountable for/answer to the consequences of his failures in his duty of care towards his Afrikan and Afrikan Caribbean constituents.
His job is on the line.

We are demanding that he takes a cue from the recent infamous remarks made in the infamous Brand and Ross incident, by following the modus operandi expected from disgraced elected officials, like BBC2 controller Lesley Douglas and too many others to mention, by making as dignified an exit as is possible and resign.

Professor Geoff Palmer O.B.E.

He has completed a small book on the consequences of slavery, "The Enlightenment - Citizens of Britishness"
Professor Geoff Palmer was born in Jamaica. He emigrated at 14 years old to join his mother in London in 1955. He was assessed as educationally sub-normal and sent to a Secondary Modern School. Because of his cricketing abilities he was transferred from his Secondary Modern School to a Grammar School in Islington, London. He worked as a junior laboratory technician in London from 1957 to 1961.

With help from his employer he entered Leicester University in 1961 and grained a Hons degree in Botany in 1964. After working in a restaurant for six months he started his PhD at Heriot Watt and Edinburgh Universities in Edinburgh in 1964.

In 1968 he worked as a research scientist at the Brewing Research Foundation in England and became a lecturer at the Heriot Watt University in 1977. He gained his DSc in 1985 and was made Professor in 1990. He has produced a host of brewing and distilling students that now run the industry worldwide. He has travelled extensively to teach in countries that could not afford to send students abroad for education.

Professor Palmer was awarded the OBE for his contribution to grain science, the American Association of Brewing Chemist Research Award which no other European has won and only three awards were given before it was awarded to him.

Geoff has been involved in race relations work since 1969 and serves on many community committees. He is the author of many scientific papers and has produced a definitive book on grain science and has published two books on race relations.

He was awarded the William Darling Good Citizen Award of the Edinburgh City Council and the Black Enterprise Award for his work on race relations.

Peter Herbert

Political activist and chair of the Society of Black Lawyers
Called to the Bar in 1982, Peter Herbert is the current National Chairperson of the Society of Black Lawyers. As Chair, he has championed the cause of racial equality within the criminal justice system and the legal profession as a whole. Appointed to the Judicial Studies Board in 1991, he was involved in the first ever series of race awareness training programmes for judges. He is currently a member of the Bar Council Race Relations Committee.

A recipient of the National Bar Association's Human Rights Award (USA), Mr. Herbert was a panel member of the Ken Dixon Mental Health Inquiry and has been chair of two other mental health inquiries (Michael Donnelly and Anthony Joseph). As a barrister, he has a quality practice in childcare, employment discrimination, human rights and civil actions against the police. In 1996, he was appointed as a part-time Immigration Adjudicator. He also serves as a non-executive director of Ealing Health Authority and is the author of "Racism, Impartiality & Juries" (New Law Journal, 1995).

He has been involved in a number of high profile cases, involving human rights issues in all areas of his practice. He has been at the forefront of the challenges to the Judicial system in the United Kingdom, gaining personal acknowledgements for this work from both the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay: the Deputy Assistant U.S.

Attorney General, the Honourable Eric Holder, (December 1998), and from Lord Justice Glidewell, 1995.
Mr. Herbert has established a reputation for robust advocacy, making submissions, both written and oral to several House of Commons and Judicial Inquiries, namely the Home Affairs Select Committee on Racial Attacks, 1992; the Royal Commission into Criminal Justice 1994; and the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry 1998/9. His work within the Criminal Justice System, both as an advocate and with the Judicial Studies Board as a facilitator and developer of policy is well recognised. He continues to provide a wide range of pro-bono legal advice on a range of professional issues from Immigration to Education, whilst at the same time, assisting many students with advice and mentoring.

Dr Robert Beckford

Robert Beckford is the most widely recognised theologian in Britain today. His many controversial TV documentaries have attracted large audiences. His views on reparations for the slave trade are uncompromising. His opinions of contemporary black Christianity are challenging.

Described by The Sunday Times as "an unorthodox theologian with dreadlocks", Robert Beckford grew up in Britain during the 1970s and 1980s. He became increasingly concerned at the reluctance of black churches to acknowledge the importance of the themes, language and attitudes of black popular culture. Now a leading academic in the field of British black theology, he believes the black church is still oppressed by the structures and conventions of white Christianity.

An accomplished documentary filmmaker and radio presenter, his often controversial and always outspoken documentaries for Channel 4 include God Is Black, The Real Patron Saints, Who Wrote The Bible? and God Gave Rock and Roll to You; as a result he was nominated for a Royal Television Society award. He has written several books, mainly in his chief research areas, black theology, Rastafari, African American film, reggae, dub and hip-hop audio cultures. His work is a vibrant academic resource for students of black theology, Christology, sociology and cultural studies.
Dr Beckford will screen his 60 minute documentary 'Ebony Towers' -The Rise of Black Intelligencia as broadcast on BBC4 in 2003, and is a comparative examination of the emergence of powerful Afrikan-American intellectuals in contemporary USA, and the failure to emulate similar achievements in the UK. The film will also present some solutions based upon some of Dr. Beckford’s ideas, who will also be available for discussion, questions and answers.

The future success of multicultural Britain will be grounded in a willingness to learn from the past. The lessons to be learned are commonplace. Anyone with a basic knowledge of colonial imagery in the Caribbean can see a correspondence between the demonisation of black men in colonial Jamaica and the negative images of Jamaicans as criminals or dangerous undesirables in the media today. Even my discipline is not exempt. Church leaders who call for reconciliation would do well to note that more books are written by theologians on being nice to animals than exploring colonialism or race and faith. Revisiting colonial history is one of the few leaps into the past that leads to real progress in the present. — Dr Robert Beckford

Lee Jasper

Some may say controversial former Racial Advisor to former Mayor of London (Ken Livingston). Lee Jasper is best known for his political activity.

His dedication to working with the black students movement is an achievement clearly unrivalled. His ability to appeal and communicate well to students is also a strength of this seasoned political activist. He is a member of the Labour party and has been directly and indirectly involved with several Black 'pressure' groups and campaigning organisations for well over two decades.

Rt. Hon Tony Benn

Anthony "Tony" Neil Wedgwood Benn (born 3 April 1925), formerly 2nd Viscount Stansgate, is a British socialist politician and the current President of the Stop The War Coalition.

Lester Holloway

Lester Holloway is editor of New Nation, Britain's number one African and Caribbean weekly newspaper. He was previously editor of the political website Blink and news editor at three publications including The Voice.

Benjamin Zephaniah

Zephaniah was raised in Jamaica and the Handsworth district of Birmingham, which he called the "Jamaican capital of Europe."
He writes that he had left full-time education by the time he was thirteen, and that his poetry emerged from the rhythms of Jamaica and "street politics." His first performance was in church when he was ten, and by the age of fifteen, his poetry was already known among Handworth's Afro-Caribbean and Asian communities.

Tired of preaching only to black people about their own lives, he decided to expand his audience, and headed to London at the age of twenty-two.

In November 2003, Zephaniah wrote in The Guardian that he had turned down an OBE from the Queen because it reminded him of "how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised.

Zephaniah currently lives in East London, and is a self-described passionate vegan.

He is also a fan of Aston Villa Football Club.He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the University of North London (in 1998), the University of Central England (in 1999), Staffordshire University (in 2002), London South Bank University (in 2003), the University of Exeter and the University of Westminster (in 2006). On July 17, 2008 Zephaniah received an honorary doctorate from the University of Birmingham and has previously been listed at 48 in The Times' list of 50 greatest post-war writers.